Storage plans are sold in round numbers that mean nothing until you map them onto your own files. Here is how to work out which one you need, in about ten minutes.
Start from what you already have
The most reliable estimate is your current usage, not a guess about the future.
macOS: System Settings → General → Storage. Wait for it to finish calculating - the first pass under-reports.
Windows: Settings → System → Storage, then “Show more categories”.
Linux: du -sh ~/* 2>/dev/null | sort -h gives you the answer sorted, with
the biggest last.
Look at the categories rather than the total. Almost everyone finds one folder is 70% of everything, and it is nearly always photos or video. That folder is the whole estimate; the rest is rounding.
Rough sizes per file type
Working figures, useful for arithmetic rather than precision:
| Type | Each | 1,000 of them |
|---|---|---|
| Text document, spreadsheet | 20 KB - 2 MB | under 1 GB |
| PDF, text-based | 100 KB - 2 MB | ~1 GB |
| PDF, scanned | 2 - 20 MB | ~8 GB |
| Phone photo, 12 MP JPEG | 3 - 5 MB | ~4 GB |
| Camera RAW | 25 - 50 MB | ~35 GB |
| Design file with assets | 50 MB - 2 GB | - |
| 1080p video | 60 - 130 MB/min | - |
| 4K video, phone | 350 - 400 MB/min | - |
The pattern is stark: a thousand documents might not reach a gigabyte, and ten minutes of 4K passes four.
What 5 GB genuinely covers
Our free plan is 5 GB of total storage, and being concrete about that is more useful than being encouraging.
It comfortably holds years of documents, a working set of client deliverables, around 1,200 phone photos, or roughly 50 minutes of 1080p video.
It does not hold a photo library, a video project, or a machine backup. Those pass 5 GB quickly - a single 4K shoot or one database dump can exceed it - and there is no arrangement of words that changes the arithmetic.
It is total space rather than a transfer cap, so deleting a file frees the room again. That makes it genuinely useful for moving work out of the door, which is what most people use free tiers for.
Sizing a paid plan
Take your current usage, then add growth. The two behave completely differently: documents effectively do not grow, and photos and video grow relentlessly.
A practical method: work out twelve months of growth and add it to today’s total.
- 200 phone photos a month → about 10 GB a year
- A weekly 10-minute 4K video → about 200 GB a year
- Documents only → effectively flat
Then add headroom. Running at 95% of a plan is unpleasant: you spend time deleting things instead of working, usually at the worst moment.
Our paid plans start at $3.99/month for 100 GB, then 500 GB, up to 2 TB. As a rough guide: 100 GB suits an individual not working with video, 500 GB suits a photographer or a small team, and video work generally means the tier above that.
Three things people leave out and then run short
Versions. If you keep file history, older copies occupy space. That is usually the right trade - recovering last Tuesday’s file is worth more than the megabytes - but it belongs in the estimate rather than surprising you later.
Deleted files. A recoverable trash holds files for a retention window. Space does not return the instant you press delete, which confuses people mid-cleanup.
Shared material. In a team, shared folders count against a pool. One person archiving a video project consumes space everyone else was relying on. Our guide to team folders and permissions covers organising that.
The cost that is not on the pricing page
One number matters as much as the tier: whether downloads are billed separately.
A cheap plan with metered egress can cost considerably more in practice than a slightly dearer one without, especially if you share files widely or restore backups. We do not charge egress, and why that matters is worth understanding before comparing any two providers on headline price.
Also check what happens at the ceiling. Read-only and blocked uploads are recoverable states. Deletion is not. What free tiers really give you covers the questions worth asking.
A quick decision path
Under 5 GB and mostly documents? A free tier is genuinely enough. Between 5 and 100 GB, or any photo library? The entry paid tier. Working with video, RAW photography, or a team? Size from the table above and add a year of growth.
And whichever you choose, keep a second copy of anything irreplaceable somewhere else. Storage tiers are about capacity; they are not a substitute for having two copies.
