'Google One' Upgrades Paid Google Drive Storage Plans With New Features, Lower Rates

Google has announced an upgrade to its paid Google Drive storage plans by launching 'Google One'. The new development is aimed at offering more storage space on Google Drive at lower prices as well as give consumers one-tap access to Google experts to efficiently use the company's products and services. Importantly, Google hasn't made any changes for all Google account holders who have 15GB of free storage, but customers looking to purchase storage ranging between 100GB and 30TB now have new plans that start at $1.99 (approximately Rs. 134) per month. The paid plans are also shareable within families, which makes sense as people want to share their photos and videos with their family members. This also gives Google Drive a feature Apple iCloud has had for a while.

Existing subscribers to paid Google Drive storage plans will be upgraded to Google One automatically over the coming months. This rollout will start in the US and then expand all across the globe. Further, Google will send an email that consumers need to confirm to upgrade to Google One. The ultimate goal is to transform the current Google Drive paid plans into Google One offerings later this year. But notably, the new change will not affect G Suite business customers.

Consumers picking up 100GB storage will need to pay a monthly charge of $1.99. This is identical to what Google was offering previously. However, for consumers who want to buy 200GB storage, Google One has a new plan that comes at a monthly charge of $2.99 (approximately Rs. 205). Similarly, Google Drive consumers who are currently using the 1TB plan will be shifted to the new 2TB plan at no additional cost, while new users will need to pay $9.99 per month (around Rs. 675) to get 2TB storage through Google One. Pricing for plans larger than 2TB will not be changed under the new move. This means that you'll still get 10TB cloud storage at $99.99 (approximately Rs. 6,760) per month, 20TB at $199.99 (approximately Rs. 13,500) per month, and 30TB at $299.99 (approximately Rs. 20,300) per month.

"With Google One, we've upgraded our paid storage plans so you'll have all the space you need for your Google Drive, Gmail, and original quality photos and videos in Google Photos," said Pavni Diwanji, VP, Google One, in a blog post.

Alongside the upgraded paid storage plans, Google One brings access to experts that can help consumers understand the best use cases of various Google products and services. Google will also offer access to some extras, such as credits on Google Play or deals on select hotels found in Google Search. Google One consumers will also get family sharing option that can be leveraged to share a paid plan with up to five family members. This enables private storage space for each family members at zero extra charges.