How to Recover a Forgotten Gmail Password

Change your password frequently, they said. And you did.
Now, of course, you remember the password you had last week, and even last month's. But the current Gmail password? Who knows?

Gmail knows. But it won't tell you.

Going through a validation process, you can set a new Gmail password — say, last week's —, however, and regain access to your account.

Recover a Forgotten Gmail Password

To reset your forgotten Gmail password:

Make sure you either
have a secondary email address specified for your Gmail account or
you have not logged into your Gmail account for 5 days.
Follow the I cannot access my account link from the Gmail log-in page.
Click I've forgotten my password.
Type your Gmail user name (what precedes "@gmail.com" in your Gmail address) under Username:.
Click Submit.
Type the letters in the captcha into the field beneath the image.
Click Submit.
Depending on whether you have a secondary email address specified or not,
open the Google Password Assistance message in your secondary email account and follow the password reset link in it or
type the answer to your security question and click Submit.
Enter the desired new password under both New password: and Re-enter password.
Click Reset password.
If you have used your Gmail account in the past five days but have not specified a secondary email address, you'll have to wait for these five days to pass.

No Secondary Address and Your Answer to the Security Question Does not Work?

Are you unable to reset your Gmail password, either through a secondary address or by answering your security question?

Make sure you are trying to access the right account.
Check the account name for misspellings.
Does the security question sound familiar?
Contact Google with as many details that allow them to identify you as the account holder as possible.
Somebody Hacked Your Gmail Account?

If you believe somebody has hacked into your Gmail account — because you do not get the password reset email at the secondary address you specified but the five days never pass while you cannot log in to your account, for example —, you can contact Gmail using this structured form.