How Android Gmail app stores messages locally

[AC Question]

I have had my Gmail account on my destop PC for many years, so I have many many thousands of old messages, which take several Gigabytes of Gmail cloud storage, say 10Gb.

Now I want to setup Gmail app on my Android phone. Will it download all those old messages and store them locally on my Android phone?

If so, will it need 10Gb of local phone storage?
Can I limit the number of locally stored messages? Say, only messages for the last 3 months?

Can I set phone's SD card for message storage?

 

[Tim1954]

Not at all. You can choose how many days the email client synchs... Or none at all...