Google Family Group: Share Photos and Plans
A Google Family Group lets you share Google One storage, YouTube Premium, and photo albums with up to 5 family members. Here is how to set it up.
5 min read · 9 steps · Checked July 2026
Step 1. Sign in to the account that will be the "family manager"
The family manager is the person whose subscription is shared with everyone else. That is usually the person paying for Google One or YouTube Premium. Open a browser. Go to families.google.com. Click "Get started" or "Create your family group." Sign in with the Google account paying for the subscription.
Warning
Changing the family manager requires dissolving the group first. Choose carefully — usually it should be whoever pays the bill.
Step 2. Add up to 5 family members by email
Click "Invite family members." Enter each person's Gmail address. They must have a Google account (any Gmail counts, or a Google account tied to another email). Click Send. Each invited person gets an email from Google. They click Accept in the email, sign in, and join the group. That is it. If someone in your family does not have a Gmail, they can create one at accounts.google.com/signup in 5 minutes and then accept the invitation.
Step 3. Share a Google One storage plan with the family
If the family manager pays for Google One (100 GB, 200 GB, 2 TB, or larger), the plan can be shared. Go to one.google.com. Sign in. Click Settings (gear icon top-right). Click "Manage family sharing" > toggle "Share your storage with family" ON. Now every family member sees the shared storage in their own Google One account. They can use it for Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos backup.
Quick Tip
Quick Tip: Each family member has their own private storage bucket within the plan. Your daughter cannot see your photos even though you share the same 2 TB. Privacy is preserved.
Step 4. Share YouTube Premium with the family
YouTube Premium Family covers up to 6 people and costs about $23-$25/month. If you already have Premium as an individual, you can upgrade to Family for less than $10 more and give ad-free YouTube to 5 others. Go to youtube.com/premium > Manage > Change plan > Family. Confirm. Every family group member now sees "You are on YouTube Premium Family" in their YouTube app on their own account.
Step 5. Create a shared photo album with your family group
Open Google Photos on your phone or at photos.google.com. Tap "Library" at the bottom (Utilities on desktop). Tap Utilities > "Partner sharing" or Utilities > "Shared albums" > Create shared album. Give it a name like "Family 2026." Add existing photos or leave empty. Tap Share. Select the family members from your Google Family Group. Anyone in the album can now add photos, and everyone else sees the new photos automatically.
Step 6. Auto-add specific people to a shared album
Google Photos can auto-add every new photo of a specific person to a shared album. Open the album > tap the three-dot menu > Options > "Add photos automatically." Choose one or more faces from your Google Photos face groups. Set a start date. From now on, whenever you take a photo that Google Photos recognizes as that person, it is automatically added to the album — no manual sharing needed.
Warning
Face grouping requires "Face groups" to be enabled in Google Photos Settings > Face groups. This uses on-device processing — Google states this data is not shared outside your account.
Step 7. Share a family calendar
Open Google Calendar. Click the three-dot menu next to "Family" (Google auto-creates this calendar when you make a Family Group). Click Settings and sharing. Anyone in the family group can view and add events by default. To adjust: change permissions per person. The family calendar is separate from your personal calendar — events do not mix by accident.
Step 8. Add a family payment method
The family manager can set up a shared payment method — a credit card the family uses for apps, movies, or in-app purchases on Google Play. Every family member can charge to that card, subject to a "requires parental approval" toggle for purchases over a certain amount. Set it up at play.google.com/family. Optional but helpful if you buy digital gifts for grandkids.
Step 9. Leaving or removing someone from the family group
A member can leave anytime: families.google.com > "Leave family." The family manager can remove someone: click their name > "Remove from family group." Note: once a family member is removed, they lose access to shared subscriptions right away but keep any files they saved to their personal Drive. A person can only be in one family group at a time — if your daughter is in her husband's family group, she cannot also be in yours.
A Google Family Group is a free feature that lets up to 6 people — you plus 5 others — share one subscription. That can be Google One cloud storage, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, or the paid Google Nest features. It also unlocks two things you cannot get any other way: shared photo albums that update automatically whenever a family member adds a photo, and shared reminders and calendars.
For seniors, the biggest wins are: (1) your adult child can share their 2 TB Google One plan with you at no extra cost so you have plenty of storage for photos and email, (2) you can share a "Grandkids" photo album that grows without anyone having to send you photos manually, and (3) you can share a family calendar so everyone sees the same doctor appointments and holidays.
This guide walks through creating the group, inviting family members, sharing a subscription, and setting up an auto-updating photo album.
(Sources: Google Family — families.google.com; Google Photos Help — support.google.com/photos)
Official sources
- Google Help Center — support.google.com
- Android Help — support.google.com
- Google Account help — support.google.com
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