Google cuts free storage to 5GB unless you hand over your phone number

Google is quietly cutting the free storage it hands to new account holders — from 15GB to 5GB — unless you verify with a phone number at sign-up. The change was reported by 9to5Google after account creation tests and a Wayback Machine trace pinpointed the policy shift to around March 2026. Right now it's active in Kenya and Nigeria, but the documentation change suggests a broader rollout is being laid the groundwork for.

The details

Create a new Google account without linking a mobile number and you get 5GB shared across Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos. Add a phone number and the full 15GB unlocks. Existing accounts are not affected — this only hits people signing up fresh. Google's support pages already reflect the shift, quietly swapping "comes with 15GB" for "up to 15GB," giving the company room to set conditions on that ceiling.

Google's stated reason is anti-abuse: account farming — where one person spins up dozens of accounts to multiply free storage — is a documented problem. The unofficial pressure is cost. Running data centers is increasingly expensive as AI workloads compete for the same storage hardware, and every unmonitored gigabyte handed out for free is a direct infrastructure cost.

What it means for you

For most users who already have a Google account and use two-factor authentication, nothing changes today. But the shift matters for two groups: people who create secondary or throwaway accounts for privacy reasons, and anyone signing up to Google services for the first time who hasn't yet handed over a phone number.

5GB fills up fast in 2026. A handful of large email attachments, a dozen high-resolution photos, and a phone backup will eat through it quickly. Google is nudging those users toward a Google One paid subscription — starting at $1.99/month for 100GB in the US.

The competitive framing is worth noting. Apple iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive have both offered 5GB free for years. Google's 15GB had been a genuine differentiator. That advantage is now conditional on handing over personal identification, which GizChina frames as a trade-off between storage generosity and verified-user data — valuable for ad targeting. Whether the 5GB floor spreads beyond Africa to the US and UK hasn't been confirmed, but the documentation already reads like it's written for everywhere.