How much cloud storage do I need? A quick way to size it for photos and backups
Your phone says the cloud is full again and offers the next plan up. Here's how to work out what you actually need, instead of guessing.
Typical sizes
| Item | Roughly |
|---|---|
| Phone photo (high-efficiency HEIF) | 1.5 to 3 MB |
| Phone photo (JPEG / most compatible) | 3 to 5 MB |
| Raw / pro photo | 25 to 75 MB |
| 1 minute of 1080p video | 60 to 130 MB |
| 1 minute of 4K video | 170 to 450 MB |
| Phone backup (apps, settings, messages; photos counted separately) | 2 to 10 GB, more with large chat histories |
What fits in common plan sizes
Using 3 MB per photo and 300 MB per minute of 4K video. Real numbers vary with your settings.
| Plan | Photos only | 4K video only | Usually enough for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 GB | about 5,000 | about 50 minutes | Email and documents, a few months of photos |
| 50 GB | about 17,000 | about 2.8 hours | One person who mostly takes photos and backs up one phone |
| 200 GB | about 68,000 | about 11 hours | One heavy user or a couple keeping everything |
| 2 TB | about 680,000 | about 4.6 days | A family sharing one plan, or lots of video |
Plans are counted in decimal gigabytes while some phones show binary ones, so a “200 GB” plan can look a few percent smaller on your phone. The unit converter converts between GB and GiB if you want to check.
Work out your own number
- Look up your library size: the cloud storage screen in your phone settings shows it split by photos, backups and other apps.
- Check how much it grew in the last year (compare with the number of photos you took, or look at the storage history if your service shows it).
- Add backups for every device that uses the account.
- Take the total, add one year's growth, and pick the next plan up.
Make a smaller plan last
- Video first: sort by size and delete or trim long clips you'll never rewatch; a single 10-minute 4K clip can weigh as much as 1,000 photos.
- Empty Recently Deleted in the cloud too; deleted items often still count for about 30 days.
- Stop backing up old devices and delete their backups.
- Exclude big chat media from the phone backup if it's also kept by the chat app.
- Use the high-efficiency format for new photos and videos, which roughly halves sizes.
- Keep a copy you control: an external drive at home for the full archive, the cloud for recent years.
Uploading a big library?
The first upload of a large library can take days on home broadband because upload speeds are low. See how long uploads take by size and speed.
Related
Time Machine slow or stuck · SD card not detected · Video size per minute, 1080p vs 4K · Back up photos to an external drive · Phone storage full but nothing on it · Megapixels vs file size · Convert HEIC to JPG
Questions
Is 50 GB of cloud storage enough?
For one person who mostly takes photos and backs up one phone, often yes: 50 GB holds roughly 12,000 to 25,000 phone photos. If you film a lot of 4K video, it fills much faster, since an hour of 4K can be 10 to 25 GB.
How many photos fit in 200 GB?
Roughly 50,000 to 100,000 typical phone photos, depending on format and resolution. Videos take far more space per minute.
How big is a phone backup?
Usually 2 to 10 GB for apps, settings and messages, because photos are normally stored separately in the photo library. Large chat histories with media can make it much bigger.
Why is my cloud storage still full after deleting photos?
Deleted items often stay in a Recently Deleted folder for about 30 days and still count. Old device backups and synced chat media are other common space users.
Published · updated .