Google Photos to Start Charging for Uploads from June 1, 2021

May, 2021 - By WMR

From June 1, 2021 Google will start charging its users for storage beyond 15GB on Google Photos.

Google Photos was launched in 2015 and has remained one of the best services of Google. Since the time Google Photos was launched, Google offered unlimited free storage to its users, which allowed them to store their photos or videos in “high-quality”. As Google had declared in November 2020, this free storage facility is going to end soon. In simple words, regardless the quality of photos or videos which users upload to Google Photos, will be counted against the Google One storage plan. If the uploads exceed the 15GB storage capacity, user will have to pay to avail the services. The photos or videos, which are uploaded prior to June 1, will not be counted against the storage limit.

For a regular user of Google Photos, who needs decent backup storage it is probably worth buying at least one of the Google One storage plans. No doubt Google Photos is an exceptional service, and paying for it one won’t have to regret. According to a recent research by Google, 80% of its users will not hit the 15GB limit for at least next three years. So might be many users may not ever need to buy a storage, or at least not for certain years.

To be noted, the free storage limit offered by Google is three times of Apple’s iCloud, which offers only 5GB of free storage. Google One is also set to offer a free VPN service for Android if one subscribes to Google One storage of 2TB or more. For 100GB of storage plan user will have to spend $2 per month, for 200GB $3 per month, for 2TB $10 per month or for 30TB up to $150 per month. However Google Pixel smartphone users will be able to upload “high-quality” photos for free after June 1, 2021, without any storage limit limitations.