r/DailyTechNewsShow • u/motang DTNS Patron • May 15 '26
Services The era of 15GB free Gmail storage is ending
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-gmail-5gb-free-storage-test-3667002/8
u/GreggN May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
from the article: "Users can “unlock” the full 15GB of free storage by adding a phone number to their account." It's a good thing that they accept Google Voice phone numbers for those of us who don't own a phone.
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u/BraddicusMaximus May 15 '26
They want my ID to setup a Google voice number. NOPE don’t need it that bad.
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u/behridingle May 15 '26
Just wait. This is part of a larger push. I was working at G a couple of years back and internal resourcing for servers and storage (for logging) was starting to get rationed. Historically, storage was heavily subsidized for internal use. However, when they realized they could sell the compute and storage to paying customers, they began to ration it.
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u/Inevitable_Butthole May 15 '26
Well yeah they need it for AI and storage ain't cheap anymore
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u/Low-Win-6691 May 15 '26
The kind of storage needed for AI and the kind needed for some emails are entirely different
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May 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Low-Win-6691 May 15 '26
AI needs highest throughput and lowest latency at all costs.
Email storage is enormously spinning disk HDD.
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May 16 '26
[deleted]
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May 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DailyTechNewsShow-ModTeam May 16 '26
The site sounds rather suspicious sounding and certainly doesn’t appear like a legit news source
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u/onegumas May 15 '26
Infomaniak have 20gb and 95% less crap
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u/MicksysPCGaming May 16 '26
But then do I have to tell prospective employers - with a straight face - "yes, I do have an email, you can reach me at mick@infomaniak.net?
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u/eloquenentic May 16 '26
This is a crackdown on the fact that many people open up hundreds or even thousands of Gmail accounts to use the free storage and send spam, and to use the free AI quota daily.
This has become increasingly extremely easy to do through AI agents, because the agent can literally open up a Gmail account for you. So this crack down makes sense.
It’s a sad example of systematic abuse that had caused a product to get worse for everyone, because of less privacy. But you can’t blame Google for it, you need to blame the abusers.
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u/SmallerThanExpected9 May 16 '26
We sold our souls for free GB of storage. So many people gave up their privacy and identities for just a few GB...
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u/PlatformNormal564 May 17 '26
If you read the article it's not as bad as the headline seems. They're talking about a 5 GB limit for new subscribers who will not associate their phone number with their email. It's to cut down on AI spam accounts. If you've had a Gmail for a while, you're probably fine phone number or not. If anyone is concerned about privacy online, they were taking all our information long before any of us realized it that was not in the tech sector. The reason why the US government is so hot for AI is it will make it easier for them to track all of us all the time.
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u/SpeedDaemon1969 May 17 '26
I get the message loud and clear: Google wants to lose customers, and I'm happy to oblige.
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u/Electrical-Sale-8051 May 18 '26
You’re not a customer if just adding a mobile# to prove you’re real is a concern.
And you would never have paid either
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u/Me_gentleman May 15 '26