Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Google One subscriptions offer more cloud storage for low prices, other perks

Mark Jansen
By
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google Drive offers a lot of storage space by default with a free 15GB plan available for all. But if you’re a power user, or you simply like having as much backed up in the cloud as possible, then you might have taken advantage of Google’s paid plans. These storage-boosting options can increase your available storage by up to a huge 10TB, making it perfect for anyone who needs a huge amount of reliable, cloud-based storage.

Those Google Drive subscription plans are now being replaced with something simpler and cheaper. Starting August 15, Google users in the U.S. will be able to subscribe to Google One — a subscription-based service that offers more storage options, increased support, lower prices, and even benefits. Google announced the plan back in May, but it’s now finally available for those in the U.S. Here’s everything you need to know about Google One.

Related Videos

Increase your storage space

Increased storage space will likely remain the main reason to subscribe to Google One, and Google is sweetening the deal by increasing the number of plans to choose from. Pricing for the highest tier 10TB account will remain the same ($100 a month), but Google is adding a new option at the lower-end of the scale, as well as boosting the storage of its most popular option, without increasing the asking price.

Related

The lowest tier remains the same: 100GB for $2 a month. There’s now also a 200GB option for $3 a month, and the old 1TB option has been replaced by 2TB plan but it retains the same $10 a month price tag. If you’re already paying for extra storage, your subscription will automatically be ported over to Google One’s equivalent option. People paying for the 1TB option will get an automatic upgrade to the 2TB plan, which is a nice upgrade.

Nabbing a subscription brings you cloud-based storage not just for Google Drive, but for Google Photos, and Gmail. Storing photos in Google Photos is free, but photos and videos are compressed. If you choose to save the original, high-resolution version of the photo, it will utilize the account storage you pay for through the Google One plan.

Benefits on Google and beyond

You won’t just get increased storage for stumping up some green: Google One subscribers will also get access to various perks and benefits. Details on these are a bit thin on the ground at the moment, but Google has mentioned it will start with credits to spend in the Google Play Store, as well as discounts and deals on hotels found through Google Search. You can expect more deals as time goes by — such as price cuts on the Google Express delivery service as well as the Google Store — in the coming months.

While this probably isn’t a reason to pay the Google One fee, it’s a great additional bonus.

More support from Google, and for your family

Finally, Google One subscribers will be able to access 24/7 support teams directly from Google. These Google-based specialists will be able to help with a range of inquiries for all of Google’s products, from using Gmail offline, or recovering accidentally deleted files.

You’ll also be able to share your Google One account with up to five members of your family, sharing the benefits across accounts, while keeping payment on a single card.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Which Google One subscription is right for you? Google’s paid plans explained
google drive application on samsung s7 screen

Google One gives you online cloud storage that works across Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail. If that sounds at all familiar, it's because Google One was previously known as paid storage for Google Drive, which has been around since 2018. Right now, with Google Drive, you can still get 15GB of free storage for your photos and files, but if you want more than this, you'll need to subscribe to Google One.

With six subscription tiers to choose from, each with a range of benefits, things can get confusing pretty quickly. We've done the hard work for you, and we'll take you through the cost and benefits associated with each tier, as well as explain how to get -- and how to cancel -- a Google One subscription.
Isn't Google One the same as Google Drive?
On June 1, Google capped unlimited free storage in Google Drive at 15GB. So if you want more storage, Google One is the solution. You can access Google One through the dedicated app or alternatively through your browser. It's worth noting here that you can't sign up for Google One if you have a Google business account. Business users will need a paid Google Drive subscription for Cloud storage, as Google One is only compatible with personal accounts.
How to sign up for Google One

Read more
OnePlus Nord CE 5G vs. Google Pixel 4a 5G
OnePlus Nord CE 5G Screen

OnePlus urges us to "never settle," and the manufacturer certainly never settles when it comes to affordable phones. It's just released the OnePlus Nord CE 5G, a budget device that promises some tasty specs. It largely delivers on such promises, offering a generous 4,500mAh battery, 6.43-inch AMOLED display, 5G support, and some admirably smooth software. But in a world of surprisingly great budget Android phones, it faces some serious competition, with the Google Pixel 4a 5G leading the pack. For $499, it offers one of the best cameras around, as well as a long-lasting battery, user-friendly software, and a decent display and processor.

With the OnePlus Nord CE ("Core Edition") 5G and Pixel 4a 5G offering different strengths and weaknesses, it's not obvious which phone is the best overall. Luckily, we've put the two phones against each other in a head-to-head comparison. By looking at their specs, designs, displays, performance, cameras, software, and special features, we can help you decide which is the best device for your purposes.
Specs

Read more
Google Photos now shows more of the photos you want, fewer of the ones you don’t
Google Photos

Google detailed a selection of feature updates to Google Photos during the Google I/O 2021 keynote presentation, starting with an incredible statistic: There are 4 trillion photos and videos stored in Google Photos, an astonishing number, but the vast majority are never viewed.

Google is using A.I. to make sure the memories you’ve made and stored in Google Photos don’t get forgotten. It begins with an approach it calls Little Patterns. When it finds three or more photos that look similar, including shapes and colors, machine learning puts them together into a single story. Google showed a demonstration where it identified someone wearing a distinctive orange backpack, which was featured in multiple photos of a hiking tour, that was ready to be collected into a new story.

Read more