The photos and videos you save in Google Photos will use up space in your Google Account. This space is a cloud storage where you can keep your photos and videos with these qualities:
- Storage saver
- Original quality
- Express quality
You get 15 GB of storage or you can buy more. If you don’t use Google Photos for 2 or more years, or if you run out of storage, your photos and videos might be deleted.
Keep your Google Photos active
The easiest way to keep your account in Google Photos active is to use it on your device. Just make sure you’re signed in and connected to the internet. Here’s what you can do to keep your account active:
- Use Google Photos on your Android device, iPhone and iPad, or computer to:
- Find your photos and videos
- Share a photo or video with someone
- Make an album or a photo book
- Save a photo or video to Google Photos
If you have Google One membership and your account is in good standing, your photos and videos won’t be deleted.
If you don’t use Google Photos for 2 years or more, your photos and videos might be deleted. Before that happens, we’ll:
- Send you an email. We’ll contact you at least 3 months before your photos and videos might be deleted. If you're notified that your account is inactive, follow the link in the email to sign in to Google Photos to keep your account active.
- Give you a chance to avoid deletion once you use Google Photos again.
- Let you download your photos and videos to your computer. Learn how to download your Google data.
If you stay inactive for 2 years or more:
- Your photos and videos are deleted and sent to trash.
- Your backed up photos and videos deleted because of inactivity stays in your trash for 60 days before they’re deleted forever.
- Your locked folder for photos and videos are deleted permanently.
You can restore photos from an album if they're still in your trash. Learn how to restore your photos.
You should check your settings if your account has been inactive for 2 years or more. After your photos and videos are deleted because of inactivity, some settings like Backup and notifications stay the same. Other settings, like partner sharing and Face Groups settings are reset. Learn how Face Groups works.
Learn about the inactive Google Account policy.
Manage your storage
Important:
- Each Google Account comes with 15 GB of storage. You can use this for:
- Gmail
- Google Drive
- Google Photos
- If you have a Pixel phone that is Pixel 5 or earlier, you get unlimited storage for photos and videos backed up from your device at no charge. Learn more about your storage options.
- Any photos or videos backed up in High quality or Express quality before June 1, 2021 don't count on your Google Account storage.
- Photos and videos backed up in Original quality use up your Google Account storage. Learn more about photo and video backup options.
- Photos backed up in Original quality and then you compress to Storage saver quality, previously called High quality, use up your Google Account storage.
You can use the storage management tool to check how much space you have left, clean up your storage, and get more storage. You can:
- Check how much storage you have left.
- Estimate how long your storage will last based on how often you back up items to your Google Account.
- Find items you can delete to clean up space, like blurry photos, screenshots, and large videos.
- Buy more storage with a Google One plan (where available).
We can’t estimate how long your storage will last if:
- You haven't backed up items to your Google Account consistently over the past few months.
- You’re almost out of storage and we can't give you an accurate timeline estimate.
- Your account is from your:
- Work
- School
- Family
- Another group
- You're out of storage.
If you run out of storage, you won't be able to save new photos and videos. If you’re out of storage for 2 years, your photos and videos in Google Photos might be deleted. Learn more about your storage quota.
You can always clean up space in your Google Account through the Google Photos app or Google One storage manager.