Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has announced that its Memories storage feature will no longer be unlimited.
From now on, users will only be able to keep 5 gigabytes (GB) of saved content for free. Anyone storing more than that will be required to pay for one of Snap’s new storage plans.
The decision was published in a company blog post on September 26 and is now being introduced through a gradual global rollout. Snapchat confirmed that it has provided a 12-month grace period for people who already exceed the free limit. During this period, users can either reduce their saved content, export it, or subscribe.
According to Snap, more than one trillion Memories have been saved since the feature launched in 2016, making it one of the platform’s most widely used tools. Memories allows users to preserve Snaps that were originally designed to disappear after 24 hours.
A Snap spokesperson told TechCrunch that the first tier of the new service will cost $1.99 (£1.48) per month for 100GB. Those who already subscribe to Snapchat+ for $3.99 per month will have their storage raised to 250GB. A new Platinum plan offering 5 terabytes (TB) will be introduced at $15.99 per month, positioning Snapchat as a competitor to storage services such as Google Drive and iCloud.
“These changes will allow us to continue to invest in making Memories better for our entire community,” Snap said in its announcement.
The company acknowledged that “it is never easy to move from a free service to a paid one,” but argued that the new system would be “worth the cost” for those who rely on it heavily.
The change however has received backlash from long-time users, many of whom have accumulated years of photos and videos on the platform. Posts on social media describe the move as “greedy” and “unfair.” Some say they now face the choice of paying recurring fees or losing personal archives that stretch back nearly a decade.
One user wrote that being asked to pay for access to their own digital history felt “like being locked out of my memories unless I pay ransom.”
Two Gen-Z Snapchat users in Nigeria, speaking to The News Chronicle about the development gave their views. One said they were “indifferent” to it as they normally stored images and videos taken from the app in their phone storage not necessarily on the app. Another user commented, “it doesn’t seem like the price for it is a lot, so it won’t be too much of a problem if my storage exceeds 5GB and I have to upgrade to the paid plan.”
Snapchat stated that “the vast majority of Snapchatters” fell under the 5GB limit and will not be affected. Industry analysts, however, see the update as the start of an action that other social media apps will likely pursue. Drew Benvie, chief executive of the consultancy Battenhall, said:
“The road to paying for storage on social media is inevitable. In an era where people post less but save more, this is the direction all platforms will take.”
Snapchat currently reports over 900 million monthly active users, a large base but still smaller than rivals Instagram and TikTok, which count their users in the billions.
The rollout will take place worldwide in stages, though exact regional pricing including for the UK, Nigeria, and other markets has not yet been detailed.
