Google has long been among the most generous mainstream cloud providers, if by generous your comparison is with Apple’s 5GB of iCloud storage, Microsoft’s 5GB of OneDrive storage, or Dropbox’s tiny 2GB free tier.
Every Google account traditionally came with 15GB of free shared storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. To many users’ horror, the number is going down instead of up.
A louder public announcement would've been nice
A screenshot spotted on Reddit’s r/degoogle community, posted by user u/sungusungu, is raising eyebrows over what could be a major change. The post shows the user creating a new Google account when an unexpected screen appears titled “Review your storage options.” Instead of the usual 15GB of free cloud storage Google has offered for years.
The screen says the new account comes with just 5GB storage. Google then presents two choices. The first says to “Unlock 15GB storage at no cost by using your phone number, while the second says, “Keep 5GB storage”. They have since updated their support channel to reflect the change.
Starting March 9, 2026, new Google Accounts get 5 GB of storage with the option to unlock an additional 10 GB by verifying a valid phone number.
Google.
Using the Wayback Machine, the internet archive that stores snapshots of webpages over time, Engadget discovered that Google changed these wordings sometime between February 4 and March 23, 2026. Most people would expect a louder announcement for something this significant. When probed, they made the following statement to Engadget:
We're testing a new storage policy for new accounts created in select regions that will help us continue to provide a high quality storage service to our users, while encouraging users to improve their account security and data recovery.
Google… again.
Regardless of Google's justification, users aren’t taking the downgrade lightly. The main reaction is that the tech giant is monetizing privacy, and it'll make creating anonymous or burner Gmail accounts harder to maintain.
Here's what you can do
Google’s new 5GB-by-default policy may not apply to every new account in every situation. According to 9to5Google, they noticed that creating a new Google account on an Android phone that doesn’t have a SIM card inserted gets you the full 15GB immediately, or the system may skip asking for a phone number during setup.
When you create an account on an Android phone, Google already gets other trust signals from the device, such as your device ID, hardware fingerprint, operating system activation, Play Services registration, previous account history, location consistency, Wi-Fi networks, and whether the phone looks like a real consumer device instead of an automated bot.
So even without a SIM card, they may already feel confident that it's a physical device used by a real person. But if you’re creating a new Google account now, as-is and live with 5GB, it may be enough if it’s just for email or basic documents. You can verify a valid phone number and unlock the extra 10GB or buy extra storage through Google One, their paid cloud storage subscription.
