First, the reality: Drive has no bulk rename
It is worth stating plainly because it saves you a lot of clicking around looking for a button that does not exist. In the Google Drive web UI you can select many files at once to move them, share them, or delete them, but the Rename action only ever applies to a single highlighted file. Google has never shipped a native batch-rename tool for Drive.
So every method below is a way to work around that gap. Two of them run inside your browser (a Marketplace add-on, or a small Apps Script). One of them moves the work to your computer (Drive for desktop plus your operating system's file tools). And the last one is the native single-file rename, included here as the baseline so you know exactly what you are trading up from. Which one is right depends on how technical you are and whether you are comfortable granting a third-party tool access to your Drive.
Method 1: Marketplace add-ons (easiest, stays in the browser)
The most popular route for non-technical users is a Google Workspace Marketplace add-on. Tools such as "Multiple File Rename" and "Bulk Rename Files" install directly into Drive, and community guides (including the widely shared Folgo walkthrough) all follow the same shape. You open the Marketplace, search for the add-on, install it, and grant it permission to access your Drive files. From there you open the add-on, select the folder or the specific files you want, and choose a rename pattern: find-and-replace a string, add a prefix or suffix, or apply sequential numbering.
In practice, that turns a messy folder into something clean in one pass. A batch that started as "Untitled document, Copy of Report, scan (1).pdf, scan (2).pdf" becomes "Q1-Report-01, Q1-Report-02, Q1-Report-03, Q1-Report-04" after you set a prefix and a numbering rule and hit apply. No file is opened, and the whole set updates at once.
The trade-off is cost and permissions. Most of these add-ons are free for small batches but cap how many files you can rename per run or per day unless you upgrade to a paid tier. And because the add-on has to touch your files, you are granting a third party read and write access to your Drive. For a lot of people that is a perfectly acceptable trade for the convenience. If it is not, keep reading.
Method 2: Google Apps Script (free, for technical users)
If you can write a few lines of code, Apps Script gives you the same bulk power with no add-on and no third-party permissions beyond your own script. Apps Script is Google's built-in JavaScript environment, and it can talk to your Drive through the DriveApp service. A short script iterates over the files in a folder and calls setName on each one, applying whatever pattern you code in.
The core loop is only a handful of lines: get the folder by ID, loop through its files with a while loop on folder.getFiles(), and call file.setName() with a new name built from a prefix and a counter. You run it once from the Apps Script editor, authorize it against your own account, and the whole folder is renamed. It is completely free, it never leaves Google's ecosystem, and you have total control over the naming logic. The catch is obvious: you have to be comfortable reading and editing code, and a mistake in the loop renames files in ways you did not intend, so test it on a copy of the folder first.
Method 3: The desktop-sync workaround (often the fastest)
This is the method most guides leave out, and it is frequently the quickest of all. Install Google Drive for desktop, which syncs your Drive files to a folder on your computer. Once the files are synced locally, you rename them with your operating system's own tools: File Explorer plus PowerRename (from Microsoft PowerToys) on Windows, or Finder's built-in batch rename on macOS. When you rename the local copies, Drive for desktop syncs the new names back up to the cloud automatically.
Why this is often best: your desktop file tools already do bulk find-and-replace, numbering, and prefixing, and they are fast and free. More importantly, you never have to grant a Marketplace add-on access to your entire Drive, because the renaming happens on files that are already on your machine. For anyone who is cautious about third-party Drive permissions, this is the cleanest path. The only requirement is that the files finish syncing before and after you rename them, so give the sync a moment to settle.
Method 4: Native single-file rename (the baseline)
For completeness, the native way is the one everyone already knows: right-click a file in Drive, choose Rename, type the new name, and press Enter. It works perfectly for one file, or for the occasional two or three. It simply does not scale, because there is no way to apply it to a selection. If you only have a handful of files to fix, this is genuinely the right tool and you do not need anything on this list. Past roughly five files, one of the three methods above will save you real time.
The four methods compared
Here is how the approaches stack up on the factors that usually decide it: whether they need an install or a permission grant, whether they can rename in bulk at all, how technical they are, and what they cost.
Ways to rename multiple files in Google Drive
| Approach | Needs install / permission | Bulk-capable | Technical level | Cost |
|---|
| Marketplace add-on | Yes, grants Drive access | Yes | Low (point and click) | Free tier with limits, paid to scale |
| Google Apps Script | No add-on, self-authorized script | Yes | High (you write code) | Free |
| Desktop sync (Drive for desktop) | Install Drive for desktop, no add-on permission | Yes | Low to medium | Free |
| Native single-file rename | No | No (one at a time) | None | Free |
How to choose
If you want to stay in the browser and you are not writing code, use a Marketplace add-on and accept the free-tier limits (or pay to lift them). If you are a developer, Apps Script gives you the most control for zero cost and no extra permissions. If your main concern is not handing a third-party add-on access to your whole Drive, use the desktop-sync workaround, which keeps the renaming on your own machine. And if you are only fixing a couple of files, the native right-click rename is all you need.
One honest note that fits the desktop-sync path: renamer.ai is a desktop application, so if you already sync your Drive with Drive for desktop, it can read and rename the synced document files by their actual content locally, and those new names sync back to Drive like any other change. That is the only place a content-aware desktop renamer touches this workflow, and it is optional. For the broader picture of batch-renaming tools across platforms, see our guide to bulk rename software.