Google Photos is undoubtedly the most popular photo and video storage solution online. It is said to have a total of more than 4 trillion photos so far, with roughly around 28 billion photos and videos uploaded every week. For the past five years, Google Photos has been offering unlimited free photo backups at ‘high quality.’ And that is about to change next year.
Starting June 1st, 2021, as per the amendments made by the company in its storage policy, any new photos and videos you upload will count toward the free 15GB of storage that comes with every Google Account or the additional storage you’ve purchased as a Google One subscriber. According to Google, the change allows the company to keep pace with the growing demand for storage. And that is fairly reasonable since the company does not indulge in using the personal information of users for advertising purposes, and as a result, keeping up with the ever-increasing demand for storage, especially at such a huge scale, is a task in itself.
Here’s what you need to know about the change in Google’s storage policy:
1. All the photos and videos uploaded in high quality before June 1, 2021, will be considered free and exempt from the storage limit. So all your existing photos and videos, in addition to the new ones you upload before June 1, 2021, will not be counted under your 15GB limit.
2. If you upload photos and videos in original quality, the new changes do not apply to you, and your uploads continue to count toward the 15GB limit across your Google account.
3. Pixel 1-5 users get to enjoy the benefits of free storage at high-quality even after June 1, 2021.
4. Google will send you alerts to warn you when you are about to approach the cap.
5. In addition to Google Photos, other Google services like Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides will also start counting against the cap starting June 1, 2021.
6. If you happen to be inactive on any one (or more) Google services (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Photos), Google will delete all the content present on those accounts.
7. Furthermore, if you are over your storage limit for two years, Google will delete your data across Gmail, Drive, and Photos.
To help you navigate through the changes, Google Photos is offering a service that provides you insights into how long your storage will last, depending on your usage. Furthermore, after June 1, 2021, there will be a new tool on Photos that will enable you to review and better manage your existing photos and videos.
While the free storage comes to an end, you can still enjoy the benefits of uploading photos in high quality by expanding your storage through a Google One subscription. Google One plans start at $1.99 per month for 100GB of storage and go all the way up to 30TB for $149.99 per month. In addition to the increased storage, the plan also includes benefits like access to Google experts, shared family plans, and more.