After almost ten years of acting like a digital time capsule for your life moments, Snapchat is finally putting a price tag on its Memories feature.

Snapchat introduces storage plans

Snapchat recently announced that free Memories storage is getting capped at 5 GB. Go over that limit and you’ll have to pick one of its new paid Memories Storage Plans.The new Memories Storage Plans come in three tiers: 100 GB, 250 GB with Snapchat+, or a massive 5 TB with Snapchat Platinum. If you’ve already blown past the 5 GB free cap, Snapchat will give you a 12-month grace period to keep your extra Memories. After that, you’ll have to upgrade or risk losing them.

Upgrading is available anytime, and you’ll still have the option to download your Memories straight to your device if you’d rather not pay.

So what’s the damage? A recent report breaks it down: 100 GB will cost $1.99/month, Snapchat+ users get 250 GB included in their $3.99 subscription, and Platinum subscribers get a whopping 5 TB for $15.99/month.Of course, not everyone’s happy about this. But Snapchat says it never expected Memories to grow this huge when it first launched – and with users now saving over 1 trillion Memories, the company had little choice but to rethink how it handles all that storage.

Why Snapchat is really doing this

People shared more than 1 trillion selfies on the app. | Image credit – Snap

Let’s be real – this isn’t just about storage caps. Snapchat may have hundreds of millions of users, but it’s still way behind giants like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok that rack up billions.

So, probably, this way, it can tackle its growing infrastructure costs, squeeze some revenue out of the folks saving thousands of snaps, and still let most casual users keep their Memories without paying a cent.

Another subscription to add to the pile

I get it – nobody’s thrilled about paying for yet another subscription. They stack up fast, like autumn leaves you can’t rake away. But at the same time, hosting more than 5 GB of content per user isn’t exactly cheap when you’re talking about nearly 900 million people.If you’re not interested in giving Snapchat more of your money, there’s still an easy out: download your Memories and keep them backed up elsewhere. That way, you don’t lose your digital scrapbook – and you don’t end up stuck with one more monthly bill.

Travel Easy with Nomad eSIM – 30% Off

Data-only plans & global coverage – code IPHONEARENA30 until Oct 31

We may earn a commission if you make a purchase

This offer is not available in your area.