Snapchat puts a price on your memories: The Memories feature becomes paid
After nearly 10 years of storing users’ life moments for free, Snapchat is changing the rules. Snapchat now limits the free Memories storage to 5 GB.
Beyond that, users will need to subscribe to a paid plan to continue saving their snaps.
New Storage Plans for Snapchat
Three tiers are available:
- 100 GB for $1.99/month,
- 250 GB included in the Snapchat+ subscription for $3.99/month,
- and a massive 5 TB in the Snapchat Platinum offer for $15.99/month.
If you have already exceeded the 5 GB free limit, Snapchat provides a 12-month grace period to retain your content before you must pay… or risk losing it. Users can always download their memories to their device to avoid subscribing.
Officially, Snap states that Memories has taken on unexpected proportions: more than one trillion snaps have been saved to date. Behind this announcement, the underlying issue is clear: with nearly 900 million active users, infrastructure costs are skyrocketing, and Snapchat is looking for a way to monetize heavy storage users.
Another Subscription to Add…
This decision has prompted dissatisfaction: it’s difficult to add another subscription to the already long list. However, Snap is playing a clever card: the vast majority of users will remain within the free limit, while power users—those who have transformed Memories into a true digital time capsule—will help fund part of the bill.
In summary, Snapchat is turning Memories into a freemium service. If you want to secure all your memories without limits, you’ll now need to pay. Otherwise, there’s always the option to save your snaps elsewhere… at the cost of losing the app’s convenience.
