Choose how to set up your wallet

M5wallet isn’t an account that someone can reset for you by email. How you set up decides what you need to keep safe, and what you’ll need to get back into your wallet.

Wallet type	What you keep safe	Where you can create it
Seed phrase wallet	A 12-word recovery phrase	Browser extension, desktop, mobile
Google sign-in	Your Google account and a 4-digit PIN	Browser extension, desktop, mobile (the web app hands sign-in to the extension)
M5 Vault	Your phone and your vault password	Mobile app
Hardware wallet	The device and its own recovery phrase	Extension and web over USB, desktop over USB or Bluetooth, mobile over Bluetooth

Which one should I pick?

You want the most familiar option: a seed phrase wallet. Anyone who has the 12 words controls the wallet, so write them down offline and never share them.
You don’t want to look after a word list: sign in with Google. To get back in on a new device you need both your Google account and your PIN, and a forgotten PIN can lock you out for good.
You don’t want any single secret at all: an M5 Vault splits signing between two parties, so a complete private key never exists in one place. You create it in the mobile app.
You already own a hardware wallet: connect it. Your keys stay on the device and you confirm every transaction on it.

You can add more wallets later, so this choice isn’t permanent. One device can hold only one Google sign-in wallet at a time.