Plans, how to check space and more

Google Photos will officially end its unlimited free storage policy for pictures at ‘high resolution’ and ‘express resolution’ starting tomorrow, June 1. The policy change was announced in November last year. If you’ve relied only on Google Photos to back up all your smartphone pictures, you will soon need to start worrying about the storage space on your account.

The policy change also means Google wants more consumers to pay up for the cloud storage service. Here’s everything to keep in mind as Google changes its policy on cloud storage for Photos.

Google Photos storage: What was the earlier policy, what has changed?

Google offers 15GB free storage space. This space is divided across Gmail, Google Drive and Photos. Under the earlier policy, photos at high or express resolution, which are both compressed formats, did not account towards free storage. This meant one could upload photos for free without worrying about running out of storage.

From June 1, these photos will count towards the 15GB free quota. If you are continuously uploading photos to your Google account, then you will perhaps need to buy some extra storage space.

Google Photos storage: How much do the storage plans cost?

Google One storage is the paid subscription which will add 100GB or more storage to your account depending on what plan you decide to choose. The basic plan starts at 100GB which is Rs 130 per month or Rs 1300 per year.

The 200GB plan starts at Rs 210 per month. The…

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