Unlimited Google Photos is back — and there's one way to get it

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Back in 2015, Google announced an extremely generous offer: unlimited storage on Google Photos. This generosity proved to be unsustainable, and in 2020 Google announced that unlimited Google Photos storage would end in June 2021, thanks to 28 billion images and videos being uploaded every week.

For those that find the new free 15GB cap a constant headache, we’ve got some good news: unlimited Google Photos storage is coming back, albeit for a price and only for T-Mobile customers in the United States.

Currently, T-Mobile offers two Google One packages: a $5-per-month offering which offers customers 500GB storage for Gmail and Google Drive, or a $10 package which delivers 2TB.

As reported by TechRadar, from April 26 T-Mobile will offer its customers a new plan which provides the same 2TB of cloud storage alongside unlimited uploads of high-resolution images to Google Photos for $15 per month.

While that’s $5 more than Google One Premium, Google’s own offering requires any photos uploaded to come out of the bundled 2TB storage allocation. Notably, however, while Google One’s features can be shared with up to five family members, the unlimited Google Photos storage is only available to the main T-Mobile account holder.

How much is too much?

While it’s certainly nice not to fret about which photos are keepers and which aren’t worth eating into your allocation, a truly unlimited Google Photos option is probably overkill for most people.

2TB, after all, is around 600,000 photographs, meaning you’d need to take over 1,600 photos a day to fill the space in a year. In other words, only the most prolific photographer (or more likely, videographer) will likely need to spend that extra cash.

Of course, the equation becomes more complicated if you’re already using your Google Drive allowance for other things. If you’re terrible at clearing out your Gmail, or use Drive as a backup for your entire PC, then it may be a relief not to have to worry about Google Photos eating into that storage cap.

Either way, it’s significant that T-Mobile is offering something that is no longer available from Google directly. Is this a sign that other carriers will follow suit eventually? We’ll have to wait and see.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.