Google is cutting free storage limits, but I found an alternative that doesn't require a subscription

The era of 15GB of free storage for Gmail may be coming to an end. Users who have recently signed up for new Google accounts have reported that they receive just 5GB of storage. While it isn’t as draconian as it sounds at first, as users can unlock the full 15GB by adding their phone number, it still marks a notable step up in Google’s campaign to force us to link our phone numbers with our Google accounts.

While this may seem like a move to force people to adopt additional security measures, this feels like the wrong move from Google. Five gigabytes is a paltry amount for new users, and it will quickly fill up.

I’ve long since passed Google's 15GB limit

It's a problem most of us face

I’ve had the same Google account for a decade, and I’ve used up 73.99GB of my Google One storage. If I didn't have an alternative in place, I couldn't go back without making tough decisions about what to delete.

But here’s the interesting part: were it not for photos, I would only be using 2.17GB of my Google storage. That includes my emails, Drive files, device backups, and app backups. It’s well within the new limits set by Google, so the only problem is photos.

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For most people, the situation is likely the same. Photos and videos take up the lion’s share of storage, so if new Google users find a new place for their photos, the 5GB limit won’t be a problem. But where to put them?

A simple solution to storing photos is to take advantage of multiple cloud storage solutions at once. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you automatically get unlimited photo storage and 5GB of video storage included within your subscription. It’s incredibly generous, and a no-brainer if you already have a Prime subscription. If you don’t, Amazon offers 5GB of storage, the same as OneDrive and Proton Drive. If you don’t mind juggling multiple apps, splitting your photos across multiple services does work, and can even help you organize your photos (e.g., photos from 2025 in OneDrive, 2024 in Proton Drive, and so on).

The problem with all these solutions is that they rely on the whims of a cloud storage service. If storage limits change, servers go down, or the service suffers a data breach, your photos and personal information are at risk.

Instead, I recommend the hardware route.

You don’t need to mess around with complex hardware setups to store your photos

A cheap external hard drive is all you need

A frequently recommended alternative for cloud storage is a Network Attached Storage (NAS). This is essentially a self-hosted server where you can back up all your files. However, self-hosting isn’t for everyone. Instead, I recommend using the devices you use every day.

My Google Pixel 10 Pro comes with 128GB of storage, a paltry amount in this day and age. My PC, on the other hand, has 1TB of storage. Now, let’s return to the 71.82GB that a decade of photos has taken up. Can you see where those photos can fit without me needing to spend another penny?

However, the real problem is not storage, but management. First, here’s my recommended workflow for subscription-free photo management:

1. Take photos and let them fill Google Photos storage.
2. Download them to a computer.
3. Back them up to a 1TB external hard drive.

My PC can technically store all my photos, but storing them in one place is a bad idea. I run yearly backups, where I copy all my photos from one year into a folder, compress them, and then store them on a 1TB external hard drive with previous years. However, in the three years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never once had to pull photos from it.

I still use Google Photos, because the frequency with which I upgrade Pixel devices means I’m regularly getting free storage (I’m currently coasting on the 5TB that came with my Google Pixel 11 Pro). However, I don’t consider this a reliable solution.

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Using your own hardware, whether a NAS or external hard drive, is the most reliable way of storing your photos. But there’s one more problem to tackle.

Storage is easy, management is hard

Good offline photo managers are hard to find

Finding gigabytes or terabytes of storage for your photos is the easy part. But how to manage them? I use Picasa 3, an image organizer that Google stopped supporting in 2016. Despite its dated interface, it’s still superior to anything else I’ve found.

A modern alternative is Immich. This creates what is essentially a private Google Photos service. It’s designed to run on Linux servers (if you already have a NAS, this is the best solution for you), but you can run it on Windows. The setup process is lengthy, but Immich provides a detailed walkthrough.

At the end of the day, 5GB is enough

I’m not a fan of Google’s push to force us to link phone numbers to our Google accounts. It’s one of the reasons why Apple ID is superior. But when there are so many alternatives to Google Photos for storage, 5GB is not as problematic as you might think. Whether you take advantage of Amazon Prime’s generous allowance or comfort yourself with Picasa’s retro appeal like me, you can save thousands of photos without giving Google your phone number or paying it a penny.