---
id: cloud-accounts.google-drive-uploads-are-slow
url: https://storagestudio.us/faq/cloud-accounts/google-drive-uploads-are-slow
category: "Cloud accounts"
subcategory: "Google Drive"
question: "Why are uploads to Google Drive slower than to other destinations?"
alt_questions:
  - "Google Drive transfer very slow Storage Studio"
  - "Backup to Google Drive taking hours"
  - "Google Drive upload speed limit"
  - "First backup to Google Drive crawling"
  - "Why is Google Drive slow compared with an external SSD?"
short_answer: "Google limits how fast apps can upload and adds a short delay per file, so big or many-file transfers take longer. It keeps running and resumes if interrupted. For a huge first copy, an external SSD or bucket storage is quicker."
tags: ["google drive", "speed", "uploads"]
related: ["https://storagestudio.us/faq/cloud-accounts/can-i-back-up-to-a-cloud-account", "https://storagestudio.us/faq/cloud-accounts/how-do-i-connect-google-drive"]
applies_to: "all"
last_reviewed: 2026-10-01
---

# Why are uploads to Google Drive slower than to other destinations?

Google deliberately limits how quickly apps can upload, and adds a small delay to each file, so a transfer or first backup with many files can take a long time. It isn't stuck — it keeps going in the background and resumes where it left off if interrupted.

For a very large first copy, an external SSD or bucket storage is usually much faster. After the first run, only changes are sent, so day-to-day use is quicker. See [backups](https://storagestudio.us/faq/backups/) for how ongoing backups work.