When I checked my Gmail inbox this morning, there was a pink banner on top instructing me to free up space or pay. But my data takes up more than 21 gigabytes. It turns out the promotion lasted two years.Īs of today, I'm back to being just another Google account holder with 15 gigabytes of standard-issue free storage. The purchase happened to come with a perk: 100 gigabytes of free storage.īut last month, Google emailed me and let me know that the extra storage would soon be going away. My specific situation was helped along because a few years ago bought a Chromebook as a sort of backup computer. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Google did introduce free and unlimited storage of images and videos through Google Photos in 2015, but if you want that free tier, you'll need to be okay with content getting compressed or resized.) Then in 2012 it jumped 33 percent to 10 gigabytes.Īnd 2013 was the most recent time Google raised the limit - bringing it up 50 percent to 15 gigabytes.īut now it's been five years since Google gave free users more room for stuff. In 2011 the limit was 168 percent larger, at 7.5 gigabytes. In 2005, it jumped 100 percent to 2 gigabytes.īy 2007, users had about 40 percent more - 2.8 gigabytes. It helps that Google has raised the limit on data storage for Gmail users multiple times. I wonder if he started paying at some point. I imagine that today Page, who is now CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet, remains a Gmail user. It's fast and easy and has all the storage I need. 'Gmail solves all of my communication needs. Way back in 2004, the press release introducing Gmail to the world included an impactful quote from Google cofounder Larry Page: That would go against the original value proposition of Gmail, though. The simpler thing to do would be to pull out my credit card and start paying Google.

Or I could move them to services from other providers like Microsoft, which I pay $99.99 per year for the Office 365 suite that includes Outlook for email and OneDrive for storage. I could clear up space by deleting emails (email takes up much more of my space than photos or files) or moving some data around to other Google accounts.

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