Google has made a notable change to its account storage policy, limiting the usual 15GB of free storage only to verified accounts with a phone number.
For years now, signing up for a Google account automatically gives users access to a pool of 15GB of free storage shared between Gmail, Drive, and Photos. Compared to Apple and some others, it is a generous amount that can go a long way.
But now there is an asterisk in this.
a user was notified During the process of setting up a new Google account, they would only get 5 GB of free storage. To get 15 GB, the user will need to link a phone number to the account.
Google’s notice says:
Your account includes 5 GB of storage. Now get even more storage space with your phone number for Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail.
- Unlock 15 GB of storage at no cost using your phone number
- Keep 5 GB of storage
Google will use your phone number to ensure that storage is added only once per person.
Understand the Google Account storage management policy at g.co/help/storagepolicy
The link is currently broken, but when looking for confirmation of this change, we noticed that Google updated its language around 15 GB of free storage. Previously, a support page saying that “Your Google account comes with 15 GB of cloud storage for free,” but that language has been updated to “up to 15GB of cloud storage free of charge.” The same language is reflected in another. support page about “How your Google storage works.”
Using the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine, we were able to verify that Google made this change sometime in March 2026. It appears for the first time in the archive. March 18and remains live today.
As far as we know, Google doesn’t explicitly say that linking the phone number for 15GB of storage is required outside of the new account setup process. And, most importantly, you are requested to link a phone number in most cases. When trying to create a new Google account on both desktop and mobile, we were forced to verify a phone number before continuing, but there are some cases where this verification is not necessary, such as when setting up a new Android phone without a SIM card.
If you manage to complete the account setup without linking a phone number, Google positions it as a policy to ensure this 15GB storage pool is only added “once per person,” although someone with multiple phone numbers could theoretically get around that block.
Either way, it prevents users and bots from abusing Google’s system and gaining more storage technically infinitely. there has been any reaction to the change, but it’s worth noting that, like everyone else, Google is facing the rising cost and shortage of memory and storage hardware, which is likely at least part of the motivation for this change.
We’ll update this article if Google provides any additional context, but it all seems pretty clear.
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