In a world of cheap storage, why is Google still offering only 15GB for free?

23 Dec 2025, 12:00 by Roland Udvarlaki, Jon Gilbert · Android Police

Sign up for a new Google account, and you'll receive 15GB of free storage, shared across Photos, Drive, Gmail, and other Google apps.

It seems like a lot, but as videos, large files, and email attachments pile up, you can find yourself reaching this limit faster than you thought.

However, 15GB is enough for everyday users to manage their emails and messages, store files in Google Drive and back up devices.

Some, including myself, would argue that 15GB of storage is more than enough for general users, because at the end of the day, what matters is that you can send, receive, and manage your emails safely, knowing that everything you do will be kept safe.

But as files have become larger, storage limits fill up fast. It's clear that more storage is needed to store the vast amount of online data, so why doesn't Google increase its free storage limit?

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Google's limited storage is more reasonable than you think

15GB is enough for most users

While 15GB of storage might not sound like a lot, it's arguably more than enough for most people.

For non-power users, 15GB of storage offers enough space and flexibility to go about their everyday lives without thinking about how they will store their files and receive emails.

The capacity is enough to receive emails from friends, family, coupons, and other marketing materials to stay up-to-date.

Emails take up very little space, and while photos and videos in Google Photos and Google Drive could quickly add up, the built-in storage saver option does an outstanding job minimizing file sizes while retaining the original quality.

And let's face it, many people with Google in the US have iPhones with an entirely separate backup and file storage system — they may not even need any storage on Drive and Photos.

Google offers easy-to-use tools to clear out your cloud storage.

Google has also done a great job cleaning up junk and spam over the years, and all emails in the bin folder get deleted after 30 days.

The same is true for deleted files in Google Drive. For content removed from Google Photos, a 60-day window is applied.

Google's operating costs are high, so it doesn't want to give too much away for free

15GB is just enough storage to entice users into committing to a paid plan

The simplest reason why Google is unlikely to increase its free storage tier is that it wants to make money.

Imagine a world where Google gives out unlimited storage.

While an advertising company the size of Google would be happy to take advantage of the additional data, it could quickly become exorbitant in maintenance costs. Data centers are expensive to build and maintain.

Storage space has become cheaper in recent years, even for enterprise customers, but costs are high when a company like Google serves billions of users worldwide.

Do you remember when Google offered Pixel users unlimited storage in Google Photos?

The company backtracked on that promise a few years later as storing all the user-uploaded data became harder to maintain and too expensive.

Additionally, some users figured out how to manipulate the system. They uploaded content that wasn't part of the supported file format and structure, and the company had to reintroduce paid plans to help with the increased costs.

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In short, 15GB is just enough to ensure Google's profit margins remain high without turning away new users who may eventually switch to a paid storage plan.

There are benefits to paying for more storage

Google has opted for a smart marketing technique to help incentivize people to upgrade to higher storage tiers with its Google One brand.

Users who rely on Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos are given additional features with paid Google One storage tiers, including:

A VPN
Cashback from the Google Store
Premium calling features
Automatic monitoring of the dark web for your personal details
Access to the Gemini Advanced AI model

It's an impressive group of features. The Google One AI tier is the only way to access Gemini Advanced with a personal Google account.

All that said, there's a possibility Google could increase the free storage tier in the future, but as things stand, that's likely many more years away.

It is fair to assume that the software giant will figure out a way to shrink files further, and compress them without affecting the quality too much before that happens.