Google quietly cuts free storage to 5GB with out a telephone quantity
Abstract created by Good Solutions AI
In abstract:
- PCWorld reviews that Google has quietly diminished free storage to 5GB for brand spanking new customers who don’t present telephone quantity verification throughout account creation.
- New accounts can nonetheless entry the complete 15GB by including telephone verification later, whereas current Google accounts stay unaffected by this coverage change.
- This shift pushes customers towards telephone verification or paid Google One plans for added storage past the diminished 5GB restrict.
For years now, Google has offered customers with 15 GB of on-line storage freed from cost. However that period appears to be ending. Going ahead, you’ll solely get 15 GB of free storage in case you give Google your telephone quantity—and that is in your Google account, which means it impacts Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Pictures.
Anybody signing up for a brand new Google account should now present a telephone quantity throughout registration to get 15 GB of free on-line storage. Anybody who doesn’t present a telephone quantity will solely obtain 5 GB of free on-line storage. This was noticed by affected customers on Reddit and it seemingly solely impacts new customers, not current customers.
Why does Google want a telephone quantity? It’s for verification of recent accounts. As soon as verified, you might be now not thought-about an nameless person—and thus you’re privileged to fifteen GB of storage.
In keeping with GoogleWatchBlog (machine translated), this telephone quantity verification might be accomplished at a later time. Which means you possibly can enroll with out a telephone quantity, then add it to your account later to bump up your cloud storage capability from 5GB to 15GB.
If you’d like extra cloud storage in your Google account however completely don’t wish to give away your telephone quantity, you possibly can pay for a Google One plan that begins at $19.99/12 months for 100 GB and goes as much as $99.99/12 months for two TB (with first-year reductions obtainable).
Google hasn’t formally issued an announcement or announcement about this transformation, however this help web page states: “Your Google Account comes with as much as 15 GB of cloud storage at no cost.” In keeping with 9to5Google, this web page beforehand mentioned “Your Google Account comes with 15 GB of cloud storage at no cost” and was stealthily modified in some unspecified time in the future in March 2026, verified utilizing Web Archive’s Wayback Machine.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.
