DriveBalance — see what's eating your Google storage
DriveBalance reads the size and metadata of your Google Drive files and shows you the heaviest files, biggest file types, exact duplicates and oldest clutter — so you can free up gigabytes in minutes. It runs entirely inside your browser tab.
No account. No install. No payment. Your exact storage number, in seconds.
What DriveBalance does
Google gives you 15 GB shared across Drive, Gmail and Photos. When it fills up, you can't upload files or receive mail — but Drive's own interface makes it slow to find what's actually using the space. DriveBalance builds that breakdown instantly:
- Overview — your exact Drive usage, and how much you can reclaim right now, straight from Google's own storage figures.
- Trash — trashed files still count against your quota. See the number and empty it in one tap.
- Big files — every file over a size you choose, biggest first, each linking straight to the file in Drive.
- Duplicates — exact copies matched by content checksum, so you can keep one and delete the rest.
- File types & years — where the weight lives: videos, images, archives; and which years of files are the expensive ones.
- Cleanup packs — one-tap targets (big old files, videos over 100 MB, orphaned files…) with a live size estimate.
Every row links straight into Google Drive, where you review and delete. DriveBalance never deletes, moves or modifies anything in your Drive.
How it works
- You sign in with Google and grant one read-only scope,
drive.metadata.readonly. Nothing happens before you do. - Your browser asks Drive for file sizes and metadata and adds them up locally. Because Drive returns sizes in the file listing itself, your whole Drive is indexed in seconds — no file is ever downloaded.
- You clean up in Drive by following the links DriveBalance shows you. Re-open it any time — the index is cached on your device, so a re-check is instant.
What data it accesses
DriveBalance requests exactly one Google OAuth scope, and no other, ever:
| Scope | What it grants | Why it's needed |
|---|---|---|
drive.metadata.readonly |
Read-only access to file metadata — names, sizes, types, dates, owners and folders. It does not grant access to file contents and cannot download anything. | File size is the entire product. Ranking your heaviest files, types and duplicates is impossible without reading each file's size and metadata. |
This is the least permissive scope that can do the job — the broader
drive.readonly would also work, but it would grant the ability to read and
download the full contents of every file, which DriveBalance neither needs nor wants. From
each file it reads only the id, name, size, type, dates, owner, folder, starred flag and a
content checksum (used to find exact duplicates).
Nowhere. Requests go from your browser straight to Google's servers and the answers come
straight back. The resulting index is written to your browser's own IndexedDB storage; your
access token lives in sessionStorage and disappears when you close the tab. You
can erase everything with "Sign out", or revoke access entirely from
your
Google Account permissions page.
DriveBalance's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Full details are in the Privacy Policy.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. There is no account, no paid tier and no advertising. There is also no server to pay for — the whole thing is a static page.
Can DriveBalance open my files?
No. The drive.metadata.readonly scope does not grant access to file contents
and has no download capability, so the content of your files is out of reach by design — not
merely by promise.
Will it delete anything?
Never. It has read-only metadata access and no delete capability at all. It shows you what to look at and links you into Drive, where you decide.
Why is my Google Doc shown as 0 bytes?
Google-native files — Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms — don't count against your storage quota, so DriveBalance shows them as free. Only uploaded files (videos, photos, PDFs, zips…) use your space, and those are what it ranks.
Do files shared with me count?
No. Only files you own count against your quota. DriveBalance focuses on the files you own — the ones you can actually delete to get space back.
Who makes it?
An independent developer. DriveBalance is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Google LLC. Questions: contact@drivebalance.emergence.md.
Ready to find your dead weight?
Sign in with Google, and see your exact Drive usage in seconds.