What you need to know
- Google may reduce free account storage from 15GB to 5GB for users who don't link a phone number.
- Users who connect a phone number during signup can reportedly still unlock the full 15GB storage.
- Google has updated its support page wording from '15GB free' to 'up to 15GB' of free storage.
Google has so far offered 15GB of free storage with every Google account, but it looks like the company may be reducing that to just 5GB for new users.
Compared to other cloud storage providers like Apple (iCloud), Google has generally been fairly generous with its free 15GB storage offering. This storage is shared across services like Drive, Photos, and Gmail, and while 15GB isn't massive, companies like Apple still only offer 5GB for free.
However, it now looks like Google may be cutting that down to 5GB for some new accounts. A Reddit user recently reported that while creating a new Google account, they were only offered 5GB of free storage unless they linked a phone number to unlock the full 15GB (via Piunikaweb).
The notice reportedly says users can keep 5GB of free storage without linking a phone number, but connecting a number unlocks the full 15GB at no extra cost. Google also notes that the phone number is being used to ensure the free storage bonus is only applied once per person.
Google has also quietly updated its support page. Earlier, the page stated that every Google account came with 15GB of free storage. It now says users can get "up to 15GB" at no cost instead.
To be fair, Google does usually require a phone number to create an account. When we tried creating a new account ourselves, the signup flow did ask for a phone number and didn't allow us to skip it. So the sign up flow already showed 15GB of free storage. But in case users are able to skip this step, it seems the company will only offer 5GB of storage now.
It's still unclear why Google is making this change. Interestingly, the company only recently increased storage for paying Google AI Pro users up to 5TB, while now seemingly tightening restrictions around free storage for new users.
Android Central's Take
This honestly feels like another subtle push from Google to get more users onto paid storage plans. That said, considering how much free storage abuse and bot account creation happens these days, there might also be a genuine reason behind the change.
