Hassan Khan
After nearly ten years of letting users save unlimited Snaps, Snapchat is putting a cap on its Memories feature. The company Announced that free storage will now be limited to 5GB. If your collection of Snaps and videos goes beyond that, you’ll need to pay for extra space under one of Snapchat’s new subscription plans.
Paid Storage Plans Roll Out
Snapchat says it’s introducing three tiers of paid storage. The entry level plan gives users 100GB for $1.99 per month. Snapchat+ subscribers, who already pay $3.99 monthly, will now get 250GB of Memories storage bundled into their plan. For those with massive collections, a new Snapchat Platinum plan offers 5TB of storage for $15.99 per month.
The shift comes as the app grapples with the sheer volume of content its users have saved. Since launching Memories in 2016, people have stored over 1 trillion Snaps an enormous digital archive that’s costly to maintain.
A Difficult but Necessary Change
In a blog post, Snapchat admitted the change might frustrate some longtime users. “It’s never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it, but we hope the value we provide with Memories is worth the cost,” the company said.
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To ease the transition, Snapchat will give users a 12 month grace period to manage excess storage. If you go over the 5GB limit and don’t subscribe, your oldest Snaps will stay safe, but newer ones above the limit will eventually be deleted. Users can also download their Memories to personal devices at any time.
Most Users Won’t Be Affected
Snapchat insists the majority of its community won’t feel the pinch, since most people have less than 5GB stored. The new rules are really aimed at heavy users those with thousands of Snaps piling up in their accounts.
An Overview
By charging for storage, Snapchat is finding a way to cover rising infrastructure costs while still keeping the Memories feature free for casual users. For people who treat Snapchat as a personal photo album, the new plans might feel like a small price to pay to keep a decade of memories safe.
Summary
Snapchat is capping free Memories storage at 5GB, with paid plans starting at $1.99/month for 100GB and going up to $15.99/month for 5TB. Users over the limit will get a 12 month grace period before newer Snaps are deleted, though they can download content anytime. The move targets heavy users while helping Snapchat manage infrastructure costs.
