Microsoft changing OneDrive storage plans

This post originally appeared on NotedTech on 12 November 2015.

Earlier this month on the OneDrive blog:

Since we started to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users.

Here are the changes:

We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.

100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.

Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.

Looks like a few bad apples ruined it for the rest of the OneDrive user base. The new plans seem very similar to Apple’s iCloud pricing, which currently is: 5 GB free, 50 GB for $.99/month, 200 GB for $2.99/month, and 1TB for $9.99/month. If you’re new to cloud storage, it looks like the determining factor is which platform are you working with most: Apple’s or Microsoft’s?

Interestingly, Microsoft will seemingly just offer 2 options: 5 GB free, or the addition of 50 GB of storage for $1.99/month. If you want 1 TB, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription. That is, if you want an Office 365 subscription. I don’t know of many people that have one outside of a work created account.