No unlimited Google Photos storage beyond June 2021, Google confirms

Google is cutting back on its free unlimited photo storage from next year. It has been over five years since Google announced Google Photos, which it claimed was its attempts to 'go back and start over' with its photo sharing and storage proposition. From that point, Google offered unlimited and free photo backups, albeit only in 'high quality'. By contrast, Pixel smartphones originally had access to unlimited full resolution backups.

That benefit ended with the Pixel 4 series, and now Google has announced that it plans to phase out unlimited 'high quality' backups on Google Photos, too. Starting on June 1, 2021, Google will give its users a 15 GB data cap, after which it will require a Google One subscription. However, Google Workspace documents and spreadsheets will also count against this cap, so it is not just for photos.

Anything uploaded before that cut-off will not count against your 15 GB, though. Additionally, people with Pixel smartphones will be unaffected by the change. However, it remains to be seen for how long that benefit will last, too.