Google Photos Free Storage Options and Alternatives

Google Photos offers a generous free storage option, but it's essential to understand the terms and alternatives available.

Google Photos provides 15 GB of free storage space, which can be used for photos, videos, and other files.

However, this storage is shared across all Google services, including Gmail and Drive.

If you're looking to expand your storage, you can upgrade to a paid plan starting at $1.99 per month for 100 GB.

Alternatively, you can consider using other free storage options, such as Flickr, which offers 1 TB of free storage.

Google Photos Saver is a feature that compresses photos and videos, storing them in a lower quality than the original files. This means you won't have access to the full resolution and quality of your uploaded content.

Google has rebranded the "High quality" upload option to "Storage saver", which is a telling move. It suggests that "High quality" wasn't as great as it seemed.

If you don't want to pay for Google One storage, you might want to reconsider your upload settings. Uploading at Original quality can be a better option, especially if you have high-quality photos and videos.

Google Photos Saver is a trade-off between storage space and image quality. If you're short on storage, it might be a compromise you're willing to make.

You'll need to keep some storage free if you want to keep receiving emails and creating new Google Docs or uploading files, as your 15GB of free storage is used by Gmail and Google Drive as well as Google Photos.

You can clear out large files taking up space in your Google storage, but this is only a temporary fix as that space will fill up again with photos and videos sooner or later.

Google Photos offers a tool that identifies blurry, dark photos and large videos so you can choose which ones to delete to free up space.

Intriguing read: How to Keep Your Onedrive from Running Out of Storage

To get a personalized estimate of when your free storage will fill up, open the Google Photos app and look in the Manage storage section (under Backup & sync), or check the email you received about the change.

The deletion process using the "Free up space" tool can take as little as three seconds or ten minutes—it solely depends on how much is being deleted.

You can free up space in Google Photos by using the app's built-in cleanup tools.

Google Photos offers a tool that identifies blurry, dark photos and large videos, making it easy to delete them and free up space.

If you're running low on storage, you can also use the Google One storage manager to get a bird's-eye view of what's using up your space.

Here are some steps to follow:

You can also use the "Free up space" tool in Google Photos to automatically remove local files that have a safely backed-up copy in the cloud.

This can save you tens of GBs of photos and video that are stored in two locations – in the cloud and on your phone.

To use "Free up space", head to the Library tab in the Google Photos app, tap Utilities, and then tap Free up space.

You'll see how many items will be removed, and you can delete all the items from your phone by tapping Free up.

Remember, it will only delete photos that have a copy in the cloud, so any photo that is local only will be safe where it is.

The deletion process can take as little as three seconds or ten minutes, depending on how much is being deleted.

Suggestion: Delete Picasa Photos

To manage your storage space on mobile devices, you need to download and install Google Photos from the Google Play Store or Apple Store. This app is a great tool for freeing up space on your device.

To get started, open the Google Photos app and tap on the menu icon in the top left corner. This will give you access to the app's settings.

Tap on Settings > Back up & sync and turn the backup process on to start saving your photos and videos to the cloud. This will help free up space on your device.

For another approach, see: Copy Lightroom Settings

You can upload unlimited photos to Google Photos by changing the upload size to high quality. This will save space in your Google Drive storage, but you'll still be limited by your 15GB of free storage.

To manage your storage, Google offers a personalized estimate of when your free storage will fill up, based on how many photos and videos you upload regularly. You can find this estimate by opening the Google Photos app and looking in the Manage storage section (under Backup & sync).

If you're running low on storage, you can recover some space by switching to high-quality only, which will reduce the size of your uploaded images. Alternatively, you can upgrade your storage plan to get more space.

Discover more: Managing Onedrive Storage

Here are some tips for managing your Google Photos storage:

To upload photos to Google Photos, you can start by going to the Google Photos website and logging in to your Google account. This is the first step in uploading photos to Google Photos.

Google Photos works with all types of devices, including mobile devices and PCs. You can access the Google Photos website from any device with a web browser.

To upload photos from your mobile device, open the Google Photos app on your iPhone or other mobile device. Then, tap the plus sign to select the photos you want to upload.

If you want to upload photos in their original size, you can do so, but be aware that this will take up your Google Drive storage. Alternatively, you can choose to upload photos in high quality, which is unlimited but compressed.

For more insights, see: Upload Url Google Cloud Storage

You can change the upload size in Google Photos to free up storage space. This can be done by selecting High quality instead of Original, which allows for unlimited uploads.

If you choose High quality, you'll be able to upload an unlimited amount of photos without taking up your Google Drive storage. This is a great option if you want to keep uploading photos without running out of space.

To change the upload size, open the Google Photos app on your iPhone and tap Settings > Backup & Sync > Upload Size. You can then select either Original or High quality, depending on your needs.

If you're already running low on storage, you can switch to High quality to recover some space. This will reduce the size of your uploaded photos to match the High Quality setting.

Here's a summary of the options:

By changing the upload size, you can make the most of your Google Photos storage space and keep uploading your favorite memories.

Google Photos offers a generous 15GB of free storage, but it's not uncommon for users to quickly fill it up. You can use the Google One storage manager to get a bird's-eye view of what's taking up space across all your Google apps.

If you're running low on storage, it's a good idea to check for big files clogging up your storage. You can use the search function in Gmail to find emails larger than a certain file size, and deleting them can free up a significant amount of space.

Google Photos has a new storage management tool that suggests deleting blurry photos or large videos to save space. This can be a great way to free up some extra storage without having to delete all your favorite memories.

If you're looking for alternatives to Google Photos, there are a few options worth considering. Amazon Photos is a great option if you're already a Prime subscriber, offering unlimited storage as part of the subscription.

Here are some alternatives to Google Photos:

Google Photos used to offer free unlimited storage, but now many users are getting alerts that they're running out of space. This has led to confusion about whether Google Photos still offers unlimited storage.

Actually, before June 2021, Google Photos did offer unlimited storage, but with some limitations. You could only upload photos and videos in the "High Quality" setting, which meant each photo had to be 16MP or less and each video clip had to be 1080p or less.

If you chose to upload full-quality pictures and videos, they would count against your Google Drive quota, sharing space with other Google services like Gmail and Google Drive. You'd get 15 GB of free storage or could upgrade to 100 GB for $1.99/month.

Google Photos will end the unlimited storage space service on June 1, 2021, and content saved before this date will remain safe, not counting against your Google quota.

A different take: Free Cloud Drive

If you've cleaned up your Google Photos library and still need more space, you can always upgrade your storage plan to get more space.

Upgrading your storage plan is a straightforward process. Tap Settings > Backup & Sync > Buy storage, and then follow the instructions to choose your plan and upgrade.

You'll have the option to upgrade to a paid plan, which will give you more storage space. The cost varies depending on the plan you choose, but you can expect to pay around $1.99/month for 100 GB of storage.

If you're not sure which plan to choose, consider how often you take photos and videos, and how much space you need to store them. You can also check your current storage usage to see how much space you have left.

Here are the current Google Photos storage plans:

Keep in mind that upgrading your storage plan will give you more space, but it won't automatically delete any of your photos or videos. You'll still need to manage your storage space by deleting or compressing files as needed.

If you're looking for alternatives to Google Photos, there are a few options worth considering. Google Photos quickly eliminated any meaningful competition with its free unlimited storage, but there are still some decent alternatives out there.

Amazon Photos is a great option if you're already a Prime subscriber, as you get unlimited storage included with the subscription.

Microsoft OneDrive is another alternative, especially if you're already paying for the Office subscription (Microsoft 365), which comes with 1TB of cloud storage.

If you'd like to check out a self-hosted alternative, Synology Photos is worth considering, as it's free (other than the hardware you need to buy) and comes with an interface similar to Google Photos.

Here are some of the alternatives mentioned, along with their key features: