How to set up a passkey on your Google account step by step
Key takeaways
- Google has supported passkeys on all accounts since May 3, 2023, and made them the default sign-in option for personal accounts in October 2023.
- Setup takes a few minutes: visit the passkeys page, click "Create a passkey," and verify with your fingerprint, face scan, or screen-lock PIN.
- Your password still works as a backup, and you can remove any passkey later from your account's Security settings.
A passkey lets you sign in to your Google account the same way you unlock your phone: with a fingerprint, a face scan, or your screen-lock PIN. There is no password to type, remember, or phish.
Google began rolling out passkey support across Google Accounts on all major platforms on May 3, 2023, in a post by product managers Christiaan Brand and Sriram Karra titled "The beginning of the end of the password." In October 2023 the company made passkeys the default sign-in option for personal accounts, saying they are 40% faster than passwords.
This article walks through the exact setup, including what you need before you start, how to create a passkey on your phone or computer, how to sign in on a new device, and what to do if you lose your device.
Before you start: what you need
Google documents a short list of requirements, and it is worth checking before you begin.
Your device needs to run Windows 10, macOS Ventura, or ChromeOS 109 or newer on a computer, or Android 9 or iOS 16 or newer on a phone. Your browser should be Chrome 109 or newer, Safari 16 or newer, Edge 109 or newer, or Firefox 122 or newer. Keep your operating system and browser up to date; passkeys may not work in private or incognito windows.
Your phone must have a screen lock turned on. If you plan to use your phone's passkey to sign in on a nearby computer, Bluetooth needs to be on. On Apple devices, iCloud Keychain must be turned on so the passkey can sync.
One warning from Google's own docs: do not create passkeys on a shared device. Anyone who can unlock that device can sign in to your Google Account, even after you sign out. A family tablet or a work computer other people use is the wrong place for this.
If you use a Google Workspace account through work or school, your administrator may restrict passkey sign-in. Personal accounts have no such restriction, and creating a passkey is free.
Step 1: Open Google's passkey page
Go to Google's passkey page and sign in with your password if prompted.
- The address is Google's official passkey management page: https://g.co/passkeys
Step 2: Click "Create a passkey"
On the passkeys page, click Create a passkey. Google will ask which device should store it. You can create it on the device you are using right now, or choose Use another device to set it up elsewhere, for example on a hardware security key.
If your browser asks permission to access your system's passkeys, allow it and follow the on-screen prompts.
Step 3: Verify with your fingerprint, face, or PIN
Google now asks you to prove you are the device's owner. On a phone, that means your fingerprint, face scan, or screen-lock PIN. On a MacBook it might be Touch ID; on a Windows PC, Windows Hello or your device PIN.
This verification never leaves your device. Google does not receive your fingerprint or face data; it only receives the cryptographic proof that you unlocked the device. When the "Passkey created" confirmation appears, click Done.
That is the whole setup. From now on, signing in to your Google account will offer the passkey first instead of asking for your password.
Step 4: Name it (optional but useful)
Back in your Google Account settings, go to Security, scroll to How you sign in to Google, and open Passkeys. You will see your new passkey listed. You can give each one a name, such as "Pixel 8" or "Work laptop," which makes it much easier to manage them later when you have several.
Using your passkey on a new device
A passkey created on one device does not magically exist on all of them. How it travels depends on your platform.
On Android, passkeys sync through Google Password Manager, so the same passkeys are available on every Android device signed in to the same Google Account, and in Chrome. They are end-to-end encrypted: the private key is uploaded only in encrypted form, and Google says recovering synced passkeys on a new device requires entering an existing device's screen lock, with about 10 or fewer guesses allowed.
On Apple devices, passkeys sync through iCloud Keychain, which must be turned on.
To sign in on a computer that does not have your passkey, start signing in as usual, then click Try another way and choose Use your passkey. A QR code appears on the computer screen.
Scan it with your phone's camera (Bluetooth must be on), tap Use passkey to sign in on the phone, and verify with your fingerprint or face. If that sounds like too much, you can always click Try another way and sign in with your password instead.
If you lose your phone or want to remove a passkey
Losing the device that holds your passkey is the scenario everyone worries about, and Google has a documented path for it.
First, your password still works. Creating a passkey does not delete your password, and if you have 2-Step Verification turned on, a passkey also satisfies the second step, so you are not locked out of that either.
To remove a passkey, go to your Google Account, open Security, then How you sign in to Google, then Passkeys and security keys. Select the passkey and click Remove.
For passkeys that Android created automatically, go to Your devices, then Manage all devices, select the lost device, and sign it out. If a passkey prompt keeps appearing after removal, Google advises checking any third-party credential managers that might hold a copy.
If the device is lost or stolen, sign in on another device and remove that device's passkey or sign the device out entirely. With Google Password Manager sync, signing in on a new Android device restores your passkeys once you enter another existing device's screen lock.
One quirk worth knowing: Google says a newly created passkey can take up to 7 days before it is available at sign-in. If your new passkey does not appear immediately, that delay is documented behavior, not a bug.
There is also a smaller time limit on Android: after you sign out, you can sign back in with your passkey for up to 6 hours. After that you will need another sign-in method, and signing in generates a fresh passkey while the old one expires.
Passkeys and 2-Step Verification
A common question is how passkeys interact with 2-Step Verification (2SV), Google's name for two-factor authentication.
A passkey counts as both factors at once. The authenticator is something you have (the device holding the key), and the fingerprint or PIN is something you are or know. So when you sign in with a passkey, Google skips the separate second step.
That is convenient, and it is also why the setup warnings matter: anyone who can unlock the device holding your passkey can sign in fully. Keep your screen lock strong, and do not set up passkeys on devices you share.
If you ever want the password-first experience back, Google provides a toggle for it. In your account's sign-in options, turn off Skip password when possible and Google will ask for your password again by default, with the passkey still available as an option.
Why bother: the numbers behind the switch
Google's case for the switch rests on two claims it has repeated since the 2023 launch. "Passkeys let users sign in to apps and sites the same way they unlock their devices," Brand and Karra wrote in the May 2023 announcement, "with a fingerprint, a face scan or a screen lock PIN."
They added that unlike passwords, passkeys resist phishing attacks better than SMS one-time codes.
The scale is now enormous. The FIDO Alliance reported in May 2026 that Google has processed 2.5 billion passkey authentications across 800 million accounts. The alliance's own testing found passkey sign-ins succeed 93% of the time versus 63% for passwords, taking 8.5 seconds instead of 31.2.
The broader picture is more gradual: across all passkey-enabled services, only about 26% of sign-ins actually use passkeys, and our explainer on why most websites still do not offer passkey login digs into the recovery and engineering reasons. For a deeper look at the standard underneath it all, see what WebAuthn is in simple terms.
The bottom line
Setting up a passkey on your Google account takes a few minutes: open the passkeys page, create the passkey, and verify with your fingerprint, face, or PIN. Your password keeps working as a backup, your passkeys sync across your devices through Google Password Manager or iCloud Keychain, and you can remove any passkey from your Security settings at any time.
Do it on a device only you use, give each passkey a clear name, and check your recovery options while you are in the settings. That is the whole job.
Tags: passkeys, Google account, how-to, login security
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