Snapchat has announced a move to limit free access to its Memories archive, introducing paid tiers and prompting criticism from long-term users who relied on the feature as a digital backup.
Snap has begun telling users that its Memories archive will no longer be unlimited for free, marking a notable change for one of Snapchat’s most popular long-running features. According to Bloomberg, the move is already drawing criticism from users who have treated the service as a digital back-up for photos and videos stored over many years.
The company has set a 5GB free cap on Memories, with anyone above that threshold facing a choice between exporting content or paying for extra storage. TechCrunch reported that Snapchat’s new Memories Storage plans include 100GB for $1.99 a month, 250GB for Snapchat+ subscribers at $3.99 a month and 5TB for Snapchat Platinum users at $15.99 a month. Users will have 12 months to adjust before content beyond the free limit may be removed.
Snapchat says the vast majority of users will not be affected, a point echoed by Wizcase and other outlets covering the change. The company has also pointed to the scale of the feature as a reason for the shift. SlashGear reported that more than one trillion Memories have been saved since the feature launched in 2016, a figure that helps explain why storage costs are now becoming a commercial issue for Snap.
The company is encouraging people to preserve their archives by exporting Memories to a device’s camera roll or by using its Download My Data tool. Gulf News reported that users whose content exceeds the cap will receive temporary storage for 12 months, giving them time to download files or move to a paid plan. The change appears to reflect a broader pattern in consumer software, where services that once bundled storage for free increasingly reserve large archives for paid tiers.
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