Google announces account storage policy changes, effective June 1, 2021

At present, every Google Account comes with 15 GB of free storage across Gmail, Drive and Photos, but, starting June 1, any new photo or video backed up in High quality in Google Photos will count towards the free 15 GB storage quota or any additional storage purchased as a Google One member. However, all existing high-quality photos and videos (under 16MP/1080p) will not count towards the storage.

Google on Wednesday announced important storage policy changes for Google Accounts that will go into effect on June 1, 2021. The upcoming changes will apply to Photos and Drive (specifically Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files).

At present, every Google Account comes with 15 GB of free storage across Gmail, Drive and Photos, but, starting June 1, any new photo or video backed up in High quality in Google Photos will count towards the free 15 GB storage quota or any additional storage purchased as a Google One member. However, all existing high-quality photos and videos (under 16MP/1080p) will not count towards the storage.

Similarly, any new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms or Jamboard file will also start to count towards the free 15 GB of allotted storage or any additional storage provided through Google One.

Additionally, new policies have been introduced for Google Accounts that are either inactive or over their storage limit across Gmail, Drive (including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboard files) and/or Photos. Beginning June 1, if an account is inactive in one or more of these services for two years, Google may delete the content in the product(s) in which the users was inactive. As for storage, if users are over their storage limit for two years, Google may delete their content across Gmail, Drive and Photos.

Google recommends users to periodically visit Gmail, Drive or Photos on the web or mobile to keep the account active. To manage the storage, once can use the free storage manager in the Google One app and on the web and users who need more than free 15 GB of storage, they can upgrade to a larger storage plan with Google One.

"Over the past decade, Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos have helped billions of people securely store and manage their emails, documents, photos, videos and more. Today, people are uploading more content than ever before, in fact, more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day. These changes to our storage policy are necessary to provide our users with a great experience and to keep pace with the growing demand," Google wrote in a blog post.