How our business works

Ads help fund our products

Our mission to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful has always been core to everything that we do at Google. It’s why we make so many of our products, like Search, Maps and Gmail, accessible and free of charge to everyone.

Advertising is what makes it possible to offer our products to everyone. While we sell things like Pixel phones, apps on the Play Store, YouTube subscriptions and tools for businesses, we make the vast majority of our money from advertising.

So how does advertising at Google work? We make money selling ad space to businesses – big and small, global and local – in two key ways. Firstly, businesses can reach potential customers by showing ads on a range of Google products such as Search, Maps and YouTube.

Secondly, businesses can buy ad space that we show on sites and apps that partner with us, like news publications and blogs. In this case, most of the money goes to the partner and helps fund their content. So ads not only help support Google, but also many other websites and creators.

Ultimately, we earn most of our money by showing ads alongside relevant search results on Google.com. If you’re interested, you can find out more about how we make money with advertising.

We also sell powerful tools and services

As well as offering services at no cost for users, we also make money by selling hardware products e.g. Pixel phones, Chromebook laptops, Google Nest home assistants etc; services and apps such as Youtube subscriptions and Play Store apps; and Cloud tools for businesses.

Although we make most of our revenue from advertising, paid products and services are still a key and growing part of how we make money. Learn more about our free and paid products.

We don’t sell your personal information to anyone

We use your personal information to make our products more helpful to you. It’s how we can auto-complete your searches, get you home faster with Maps, or show you more useful ads based on your interests. But we never sell your personal information to anyone, and you can use many of our products without signing in or saving any personal information at all.

When we show ads, advertisers pay us either for the placement of an ad – like a banner at the top of a web page – or for how an ad actually performs – like when someone clicks on it. Advertisers do not pay us for personal information, such as your name or email, and we never share that information with advertisers, unless you ask us to. We also never use your emails, documents, photos or sensitive information like race, religion or sexual orientation, to personalise ads to you. We share reports with our advertisers to help them understand the performance of their ads, but we do so without revealing any of your personal information. At every point in the process of showing you ads, we keep your personal information protected with industry-leading security technologies.

Your data, your choice

When it comes to privacy, we know that one size doesn’t fit all. That’s why we build powerful, easy-to-use privacy controls into your Google Account and directly into our products so that you can choose the privacy settings that are right for you.

When we show you ads, we give you transparency and controls so that you can make informed decisions. If you’re curious as to why you’re seeing a given ad, you can select Why this ad for more information. If you no longer find a specific ad relevant, you can mute it. You can use Ad Settings to control the information about you that’s used to show ads. And if you don’t want to see personalised ads at all, you can turn them off at any time.

Because of advertising, we’re able to offer our products to users around the world free of charge, helping people find answers and get things done. But, when you use our products you trust us with your personal information. That’s why we never sell your personal information and why we give you powerful privacy controls. It’s a responsibility that comes with creating products that are accessible for everyone, everywhere.