When Google first launched its original Pixel phones, they came with a promise of free photo uploads. Back then, the company still offered unlimited high-quality (not original-quality) photo storage for everyone, but if you bought a Pixel, Google doubled down on its deal and offered free full-quality uploads — meaning you could upload original-quality pictures to Google Photos, and they wouldn’t get recompressed, or count against your storage allowance. For the Pixel 3 and the 3 XL, the company offered to honor this until January 31st, 2022. Guess what today’s date is.
Photos uploaded as of tomorrow will begin eating up your Drive storage. Existing items won’t suddenly consume half of your remaining space, but this applies to anything you upload from tomorrow onwards. So if you absolutely need to back up something to Google Photos in full quality, and you’re looking at this post from your Pixel 3, stop doing so right this instant and go upload it. Why are you still reading this? Go!
While Google got rid of unlimited storage for most people on Photos, the company will still honor it for the “Storage saver” (previously high-quality) tier on Pixels. This means that whatever you upload in that quality will still not count against your Drive storage. It goes without saying here that if you upload something from another device, it will eat up your storage, and so will photos and videos uploaded in original quality even if you do so from your Pixel. Going forward your only free option is the storage saver tier, so remember to switch to that tomorrow (or pay up for Google One if you really need those original pics). Here are the full terms:
You get unlimited storage in Original quality at no charge for all photos and videos backed up to Google Photos from Pixel 3 through Jan 31, 2022. Photos and videos backed up on or before that date will remain in Original quality at no charge. After January 31, 2022 new photos and videos will be backed up in Storage saver quality (previously named High quality) at no charge. Photos and videos backed up in Original quality will count toward your Google Account storage.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
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