Dropbox, the popular online data storage provider, has announced that it will be discontinuing its unlimited storage option. The decision comes after the company realized that a small number of customers were using an excessive amount of resources, which had the potential to degrade the service for other users.
According to a blog post by Dropbox, their highest-tier storage plan, previously advertised as "all the space you need," will now be capped at around 5 terabytes per user for new customers. This amount is sufficient to save approximately 33 million documents, according to the company.
Originally designed for businesses, some customers were found to be misusing the unlimited plan for activities such as cryptocurrency mining, pooling storage with strangers, or even reselling the cloud service. These activities often consumed thousands of times more storage than legitimate business customers, jeopardizing the reliability of the service for everyone else.
With over 18 million paying users, Dropbox is a prominent player in the cloud storage industry and reported $2.5 billion in annual recurring revenue during its most recent fiscal quarter. The company has been expanding its services beyond storage, offering document management and video-specific tools.
This move by Dropbox follows a similar decision by Google, which removed its "as much storage as you need" branding for its highest-tier Workspace plan in May. Google customers who exceeded their storage limits began facing additional charges or the need to purchase extra capacity. In response, some users have even contemplated switching to Dropbox.
While Dropbox has faced increased pressure on its server capacity in recent weeks due to the surge in unintended uses, Google introduced "pooled storage" for its customers last year. Those using over 80% of their plan's limit are notified and have the option to request more storage.
Under the new storage plan, each additional terabyte will cost $8 per month, compared to the previous unlimited plan priced at $24 per month. However, current users with less than 35 terabytes, which accounts for over 99% of top-tier plan subscribers, can maintain their current storage at the same price for a period of five years. Dropbox will reach out to those exceeding this limit to discuss alternative options.
The demand for cloud storage services continues to grow, with IDC projecting a 25% increase in spending on cloud storage to $59.9 billion this year, and $127.8 billion by 2027. Other major players in the industry, such as Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, have already made changes to their storage plans in the past.
While Dropbox acknowledges that this change in policy may disappoint some customers, the company aims to ensure that the majority of teams on its Advanced plan do not experience any disruption.