As per the latest Google blog post, it is going to put an end to its free unlimited storage service for Google Photos. This will come into effect from June next year. The company has put a capping of 15GB and once you exceed the limit the users will be charged a fee. Also, this capping is not valid on the high-quality photos and videos already stored.
From June 1, 2021, Google Photos will be changing its unlimited High-quality storage policy. As per the company any new photos and videos, you upload will count toward the free 15 GB of storage that comes with every Google Account or the additional storage you’ve purchased as a Google One member. For expanding your storage, the plans start at $1.99 per month in the U.S. for 100 GB of storage and include additional member benefits like access to Google experts, shared family plans and more.
Whereas any High-quality photos or videos that have been uploaded before June 1, 2021, will not count toward your 15GB of free storage. So those content stored before will be considered free and will be exempted from the further storage limit on Google Photos. In case you still want to verify your backup quality at any time in the Photos app by going to back up & sync in Settings.
Other than the high quality if you upload your photos and videos in Original quality the changes will not affect the user the company says. However, the company will still continue to count the data in your free storage that will now be limited to 15GB across your Google Account.
As per the company, those users having Google Pixel devices will be exempted from this change even after June 1, 2021.
The company in its blog post said, “This change does not take effect for another six months, so you don’t need to do anything right now. And once this change does take effect on June 1, 2021, over 80 percent of you should still be able to store roughly three more years worth of memories with your free 15 GB of storage. As your storage nears 15 GB, we will notify you in the app and follow up by email.”
To check this change won’t affect you, you can check your storage in a personalized estimate . This will let you know how frequently you back up photos, videos and other content to your Google Account.
After this change comes into effect a new free tool in the Google Photos app will be accessible to easily manage your backed-up photos and videos. Using this tool, you can review the memories you want to keep while also surfacing shots you might prefer to delete, like dark or blurry photos or large videos. If you are running out of storage you can expand it through Google One.
