WhatsApp Chats Backed Up to Google Drive Will Soon Count Towards Storage Space

Chat Backups no longer free

In a recent announcement, WhatsApp and Google confirmed that starting in December 2023, backing up your WhatsApp conversation to Google Drive will no longer be free. Currently, chat backups do not count towards your Google account’s storage quota, but this will change for WhatsApp beta users. The change will be gradually rolled out to all Android devices next year.

Impact on Google account storage

If you are a user of WhatsApp beta, it’s worth checking your Google account storage situation. Personal Google accounts come with 15GB of free cloud storage, shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. While this is three times more than most mobile platforms offer, depending on your usage, it may be easy to exceed this limit with backups of pictures and files.

Managing your storage

To help manage your storage space, Google provides storage management tools and features. You can easily delete large files or photos that you no longer need. Additionally, within WhatsApp, you have the option to delete items that you do not want to include in your next backup.

Purchasing additional storage

If you need more storage space, you can purchase extra with Google One. For as little as $2 a month, you can have an additional 100GB of storage. Google One is also offering limited, one-time promotions for eligible users, so it may be worthwhile to wait for those before subscribing.

Workspace accounts and cloud storage

If you have a Workspace account through your job or another organization, you do not need to be concerned about WhatsApp backups using your personal storage space. This change only affects personal Google accounts.

Source: WhatsApp chats backed up to Google Drive will soon take up storage space