Will you pay to store your media in Google Photos?

Five years after it started as a service that you can use exclusively for free, some users will soon have to pay for Google Photos. On Wednesday, Google announced that from June 1, 2021, unlimited “high quality” storage space will no longer be offered. Any new compressed photos and videos you upload to the service after that date will count towards your Google Drive limit. If you exceed the 15GB free limit, you’ll have to pay for a Google One subscription. The 100 GB base tier costs $ 1.99 in the US.

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In a post on its Keyword Blog, Google said the change will allow it “to keep up with the growing demand for storage”. Photos users upload roughly 28 billion photos and videos per week, according to the search giant, and their servers already have more than 4 trillion images on them. The company was also quick to point out that 80% of photo users are unlikely to have to pay for additional storage for a few years.

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However, it’s a major change in how Photos works that detracts from the platform’s best advantage. Understandably, it can lead you to re-evaluate the use of the service. With that in mind, are you planning to subscribe to Google One to keep using Google Photos? Or are you looking for other services? As always, let us know by voting on our poll and sharing your thoughts in the comment section. We’ll highlight the best in a follow-up post.