Last update: 17.04.2024
Google One is one of the world’s most popular personal storage services. It is a collection of several services such as Google Photos, Google Drive (Gdrive), Google Sheets, Gmail or Google Docs. Everything came together one day to form Google One. The service rose to the top in popularity thanks to its relatively large free space (15GB) and built-in support for an online file editor.
Pros
- Price/quality ratio
- Unlimited file transfer
- Mobile app
- PC environment
- Google Sheets, Docs, Slides, Forms
- Excellent solution for home
- Excellent solution for business
- Document editing
- Photo editing
- Albums and photo sorting
- Photo tagging
- Sharing and syncing
- Saved file version history
- Incorporating artificial intelligence
Cons
- Space shared between all services
- One service draws on the space of another
- Google Photos is no longer unlimited
- Deleting accounts when inactive from 2023
- For paid packages, we would expect more room in 2024
Reviews of Google Photos, Google Drive, Gmail
Google’s popular storage for photos and other files has had limited space for a few months now. Of course, Google has left nothing to chance, and since it doesn’t want to lose its clients, it’s offering them a new type of storage with paid space. This storage has been given the telling name of Google One.
Google One is actually nothing but Google’s cloud storage, which has been operating on a pay-as-you-go basis since 2018.
So technically, you don’t have to worry about your data or stored files. When you first sign up for Google One, you’ll already be delighted to know that as a new customer, you get 100 GB of space for just two dollars a month. In addition, all information (contacts, photos, messages) can be saved to the cloud from Android devices automatically. If you’re already using Google Drive services, you’re still left with 15 GB of free space. You’ll have to pay extra for all the extra services and for storage expansion according to the current Google One tariffs.
Advantages of Google One storage
If you find the prices high, you may be convinced by the additional services you get as a bonus. For example, with 100GB of space, it’s round-the-clock help from Google experts. In addition, you can share your space with up to 6 other people. Of course, you also get better bonuses with higher plans. For example, discounts on Google Store purchases from 3 to 10% and automatic backup of contacts, messages, video clips and photos on Android are very convenient. Gamers will be pleased to know that they get discounts on online gaming in Google Stadia when they buy space in Google One. Plus, when you buy more than 2TB of space, you get the option to VPN secure your Android phone whenever you’re online.
Google Photos, Gdrive, Utilities and Gmail
One of the big benefits is definitely Google Photos, which is one of the world’s most popular services. You can upload all your family photos and videos to Google Photos. You can optimize, share, edit and tag your photos. Full support for online editors in the manner of Word and Excel this time under the brand Google Sheets, Google Docs and Google Slides. Expanded capacity for the world’s most popular email: Gmail and, of course, Google Drive (Gdrive) data and document storage.
Disadvantages of Google One storage
The community was very hurt when recently (2021) Google announced that it would stop offering unlimited capacity for its Google Photos. Many people condemned this move and we admit that it’s also the reason why our site started. We started looking for a quality alternative and this project was born. Google Photos lured millions of users with the prospect that capacity (for optimized photos only) would be unlimited. However, the strategy has changed, and now, once you exhaust the 15 GB of free shared storage, you’ll have to pay or download/delete your old photos. As an additional takeaway from the review, we’d also appreciate the increased customizability of both the Gdrive and Google Photos environments.
Complete deletion after two years
Google has decided to modify its terms of use from December 2023. If a user account has been inactive on Google for more than 2 years, they will automatically delete it completely. However, which account is considered active? Primarily one where you read or send emails, use Google Drive, watch videos on YouTube, search through it, or download apps from Google Play.
Google One storage pricing and capacity
Google One (Google Photos and Gdrive) price
You can use Google One through the app or web browser of the same name. If you have a Google account, signing in is a simple matter. Simply sign in to Google services and then click through to Google One.
You’ll immediately be able to see how much space you’re currently using. To buy more space, you’ll need to pay for the service with a credit card or on Google Play. As we mentioned earlier, you get the first 15 GB for free and 100 GB for a monthly fee of $1.99 per month ($13.99 per year). Prices for additional space increase exponentially, for example, you’ll pay $2.99 per month ($30 per year) for 200 GB and $9.99 per month ($99.99 per year) for 2 TB. The maximum space you can buy is 30 TB for $149 per month. You don’t normally see packages like 200GB in the price list on the site, you’ll see the extended price list through your Google account.
Artificial Intelligence in Google One (AI Gemini)
Google has added a new AI-focused package in 2024 – it’s the AI Premium 2TB package – which costs $21.99 per month. Compared to the regular price for 2TB ($9.99 per month), AI Premium 2TB is considerably more expensive ($21.99 per month). Let’s see what services Google is asking twice the amount for: you get access to AI 1.0 Ultra, help with typing in Gmail and Docs, improved video quality on Meet, and a rather vaguely defined benefit: “Peak Performance”. The benefit here is that for two months, you can try this AI package for almost free. However, by 2024, we would already expect to see more capacity on paid programmes.
Review summary
Google One, with its wide scope, many tools and benefits, will surely be a stalwart in the market. The quality of workmanship, the high speed of editors but also the synchronization of documents or photos puts it high in the overall rating. Capacity-wise, it may fall short of services like IDrive (50 TB) or G Cloud (unlimited) but hand on heart, how many people realistically need more than the 30 TB that Google offers with the most expensive package? Google Photos and file editing tools are strong arguments for opting for Google One.