Google Photos wants money: Stricter storage limitations kick in next week

Enlarge / The Google Photos storage management tool. (credit: Google)

Google Photos would like some of your money.

The service is turning six years old and will kick off its quest for monetization next week, when Google will start getting more restrictive about photo storage limits. The goal is to push users over the 15GB free limit that comes with every Google account so they'll buy more storage via the "Google One" program.

Google Photos launched with two photo storage tiers: uncompressed "Original" quality, which counted toward your storage usage, and compressed "High Quality" photos, which did not count toward the limit. Starting on June 1, all newly uploaded photos-even the compressed ones-will count toward the storage limit. Images uploaded before that date that didn't count toward the limit still won't count. But with automatic upload, it's only a matter of time before shutterbugs fill up their online storage.

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