Every free cloud storage tier that clears our bar in 2026: 8 offers meet the criteria and 1 offer is demoted with a named reason. Recorded changes and a published ranking method. We could not confirm today's terms for 2 of them: on 1 the page we cite did not answer, and on 1 our own read did not confirm them. Each row says why.
10 GB storage (unlockable via tasks). File sharing. Built-in media player. Automatic upload from mobile. Up to 5 GB additional via referral bonuses. Client-side encryption is a paid add-on. The page we cite for pCloud states in words that it is free, which confirms the price — the limits stated here come from our own record rather than from that page.
2 GB storage. Up to 3 devices linked. File sharing. 30-day version history. Dropbox Paper access. 100 MB max file size via web (larger via desktop app). Dropbox Transfer up to 100 MB.
Up to 1,000 photos/videos. No storage size limit per photo (originals preserved). Community features (groups, comments, favorites). Basic stats. Ad-supported. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-15, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Withheld: As of 2026-09-05, mega.io/pricing reads: MEGA's pricing page, fetched 2026-09-05, renders its plan table as "Transfer | Free: Limited | Pro plans: Up to 20 TB | Pro Flexi: Flexible starting at 3 TB | Business: Flexible starting at 3 TB". The free storage figure is not readable from this page: it renders as the unresolved template variable !{freePlanStorage} in all three places the page states it, including the FAQ answer "Yes, our free plan includes !{freePlanStorage} of storage." Our stored description's 20 GB was not re-verified here and is not contradicted. We are not publishing our stored MEGA terms beside it — our own correction record says they did not match MEGA's page. Read what we recorded ↓
15 GB shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Photos stored at original quality count against quota. Basic editing tools. Sharing, albums, face grouping. No unlimited storage saver quality since June 2021.
5 GB total across iCloud Drive, Photos, Mail, backups, Notes. Device backups, iCloud Keychain, Find My included. No iCloud Private Relay or Hide My Email on free tier.
15 GB shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Google Docs/Sheets/Slides don't count against quota. Real-time collaboration. File sharing with permissions. Max file upload 5 TB.
5 GB storage. File sharing and collaboration. Office for the web (Word, Excel, PowerPoint — basic editing). Personal Vault (3 files limit on free). Photo upload. Mobile app. When we read the page we cite for this offer on 2026-10-16, we found a change we could not reconcile with the terms we publish, and we have read it again since, on 2026-11-07, without confirming them, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
| Vendor | Free Tier | Key Limits | Durability | Read / catalogue date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pCloud | Free | 10 GB storage (unlockable via tasks). File sharing. Built-in media player. Automatic upload from mobile. Up to 5 GB addi... not confirmed · page states a free price · 2026-10-31 | stable | 2026-10-31 / 2026-10-06 |
| Dropbox | Free (Basic) | 2 GB storage. Up to 3 devices linked. File sharing. 30-day version history. Dropbox Paper access. 100 MB max file size v... | stable | 2026-10-25 |
| Flickr | Free | Up to 1,000 photos/videos. No storage size limit per photo (originals preserved). Community features (groups, comments, ... | not published page states no amount · 2026-10-15 |
2026-10-15 / 2026-08-19 |
| MEGA | Free | As of 2026-09-05, mega.io/pricing reads: MEGA's pricing page, fetched 2026-09-05, renders its plan table as "Transfer | Free… Our stored MEGA terms are withheld. | stable | 2026-11-02 |
| Google Photos | Free | 15 GB shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Photos stored at original quality count against quota. Basic... | stable | 2026-11-07 |
| iCloud | Free | 5 GB total across iCloud Drive, Photos, Mail, backups, Notes. Device backups, iCloud Keychain, Find My included. No iClo... | stable | 2026-11-07 |
| Google Drive | Free | 15 GB shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Google Docs/Sheets/Slides don't count against quota. Real-ti... | stable | 2026-11-07 |
| Internxt | Free | Free plan offers 1GB of encrypted cloud storage. | stable | 2026-11-06 |
We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 8 free cloud storage offers that clear our bar, each listed with the terms we publish and the date we last read them. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
8 offers meet our criteria for this category. Of those, 7 carry no recorded change to the terms we publish, and we publish no durability signal for 1. The Durability column below says which offer is in which group, and links the dated record behind every change. We withhold the class where the pricing page does not resolve or states no amount, tier or rate we can read, where we refused the last read, where the listing is gated, or where a narrowing in our records cites no source or no archived copy of the vendor's page has confirmed it. We do not rank these by how much you get, because the limits are not comparable without reading each vendor's page.