Summary. Moments ago, Google announced via email to their customers of online storage that the storage capacity has been increased significantly. For example, someone paying $20 per year for 10GB of storage would now get 80GB of storage for the same price.
Industry Impact. As Google raises the watermark for storage while decreasing prices, this will presumably help reduce fees for other online storage providers.
The content below is from the email notice and these Google pages:
- Purchase Additional Storage
- Twice the Storage for a Quarter the Price
- Upgrading Storage: How it Works
- Upgrading Storage: Improved Storage Prices
Email Announcement
Subject: Google storage update: More space for your photos and email
Hi,
We wanted to let you know about some exciting changes to your Google paid storage plan. While storage costs have dropped naturally in the past few years, we’ve also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. On Tuesday, November 10th, we increased the size of each of our tiers to make storage even more affordable and accessible. For the same $20.00 per year, you’ll now get 80 GB, 8 times as much storage as before. Your current plan will be automatically upgraded and your new quota will automatically show up in your account in the next 24 hours.
We hope you’ll like the extra space, but if it’s more than you need you can always change your storage plan or renewal preferences for next year in your Google account settings: www.google.com/accounts/purchasestorage. Feel free to visit our Help Center for more information.
Thanks,
The Google storage team
Twice the storage for a quarter of the price [source]
11/10/2009 06:17:00 PM
People today have more personal data online than ever before. More and more people are starting to move the bulk of their data off the desktop and into servers “in the cloud,” where it’s accessible from any computer or mobile device and easily shareable with friends and family. At the same time, digital photo technology is making it easier and cheaper than ever to take a lot of pictures, and client software like Picasa 3.5 makes it easier than ever to move photos from your camera to the cloud. That’s why we’ve always given you lots of free storage in products like Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, and why for the past two years we’ve offered additional storage you can purchase if you need even more space.
While the cost of hard drive storage has continued to drop in these two years, we’ve also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. Today we’re dramatically lowering our prices to make extra storage even more affordable. You can now buy 20 GB for only $5 a year — that’s twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price, and enough space for more than 10,000 full resolution pictures taken with a five megapixel camera. Since most people have less than 10 GB of photos, chances are you can now save all your memories online for a year for the cost of a triple mocha. If you need more than 20 GB, plans range all the way up to 16 TB, which is enough room for 8 million full resolution photos! And Google paid storage offers an extra level of security, protection and accessibility that you can’t get with an external drive — at a similar cost per gigabyte.
As always, extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and people who have extra storage will be automatically upgraded. So if you need more space for thousands of photos of your toddler, or if you’re running out of room in your overflowing inbox, visit www.google.com/accounts/PurchaseStorage to see all the plans and to buy more storage.
Posted by Elvin Lee, Software Engineer
Upgrading Storage: How it Works [source]
Google offers a way to purchase more storage space when you run out of free storage space in Gmail, Picasa Web Albums and Blogger (for photos). You can check your current storage usage or purchase additional storage at any time.
Free storage. Free storage space is specific to each product. Picasa Web Albums offers 1 GB of storage for photos and videos only. Gmail provides 7+ GB (and counting) which is reserved just for Gmail messages. Free storage from one product cannot be used by or transferred to another product. All photos posted to Blogger are included in the 1 GB of free storage allotted to Picasa Web Albums.
Paid Storage. When you run out of free storage for any product, you can purchase additional storage that is shared between products. This shared storage can be used for Picasa Web Albums uploads, Gmail messages or a mix of both – it will be used by any product that’s over its free storage quota on a first-come, first-served basis. Choose from the following storage plans:
- 20 GB – $5/yr
- 80 GB – $20/yr
- 200 GB – $50/yr
- 400 GB – $100/yr
- 1 TB – $256/yr
- 2 TB – $512/yr
- 4 TB – $1024/yr
- 8 TB – $2048/yr
- 16 TB – $4096/yr
Please note that 1 TB equals 1024 GB.
Google storage purchases are non-refundable. You can upgrade storage plans for the pro-rated difference at any time. The Google storage you purchase is yours for the full year, at which time the plan will auto-renew based on your preference. Paid storage for one Google Account cannot be transferred to a different account. Learn more about Google storage refunds, renewals and cancellations.
It’s normal to experience a delay of up to 24 hours before purchased storage is added to your account. See our storage troubleshooting steps for more information.
On November 10, 2009, Google made changes to both the storage tiers and pricing we offer. If you purchased storage under the previous storage plan, learn more about what this means for you.
Upgrading Storage: Improved Storage Prices [source]
Google has offered people the option to purchase additional storage for photos and email for over two years, and we’ve recently dramatically lowered our prices to make this storage even more affordable. As of November 10, 2009, there are several more storage tiers to choose from, including 20GB of storage for only $5 a year.
If you purchased storage before November 10, 2009:
- Your total storage will be increased according to the table below at no extra cost. For example, if you had previously purchased 10 GB of Google storage, you now have 80 GB available.
- Your plan renewal date will not change. It will renew based on your preferences one year from your previous purchase date. Unless you manually adjust your plan, you’ll be renewed for the new storage amount at the new cost as shown below.
If you purchased your storage within 30 days of this change – between October 10, 2009 and November 10, 2009 – you can contact us to request a downgrade in your plan and/or a refund of the price difference.
| Previous Storage Tiers |
Previous Cost | New Storage Tiers |
New Cost |
| n/a | n/a | 20 GB | $5.00 USD per year |
| 10 GB | $20.00 USD per year | 80 GB | $20.00 USD per year |
| 40 GB | $75.00 USD per year | 200 GB | $50.00 USD per year |
| n/a | n/a | 400 GB | $100.00 USD per year |
| 150 GB | $250.00 USD per year | 1 TB | $256.00 USD per year |
| 400 GB | $500.00 USD per year | 2 TB | $512.00 USD per year |
| n/a | n/a | 4 TB | $1024.00 USD per year |
| n/a | n/a | 8 TB | $2048.00 USD per year |
| n/a | n/a | 16 TB | $4096.00 USD per year |