Thanks yet again 2020!
Google announced on Wednesday that Google Photos will no longer offer unlimited free storage for “high quality” photos starting next year. in the blog post, Google said that “In order to welcome even more of your memories and build Google Photos for the future, we are changing our unlimited High quality storage policy.”
Starting on June 1, 2021, Google Photos will limit free storage to 15GB, with additional storage coming the way of a Google One monthly subscription, which starts at $1.99 per month for 100GB. If you’re like me and you have WAY more than 15 gigs of photos currently in Google Photos, there’s no need to panic. All photos and documents that are uploaded prior to June 1st WILL NOT count against the 15GB limit. Google claims that over 80% of users shouldn’t hit the 15GB cap for roughly 3 years.
Google is also promoting a new free tool that will be released next year that sounds like it’s meant to help organize and clean up your photos, ensuring that unwanted, dark, or blurry photos are taking up part of your 15 gigs.
“We know this is a big shift and may come as a surprise, so we wanted to let you know well in advance and give you resources to make this easier,” said Shimrit Ben-Yair, Vice President of Google Photos.
Also of note: Pixel owners will still be able to upload high-quality photos for free without counting against their cap.
So the question is now: what will you do in 6 months if you’re a Google Photos user? Stick with what you already have and pony up the money when it comes time to expand storage, or look elsewhere for photo backups and organizing? It’s worth noting that Google’s 15GB free is more than most cloud storage offers. Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive give you 5GB while Dropbox barely gives you anything with just 2GB.