Apple has finalized iCloud pricing. At WWDC, it announced that 20 GB would cost $1 a month and that 5 GB would be free. Now, Apple has announced the costs for every tier. You can get 200 GB for $3.99, 500 GB for $9.99 and 1 TB for $19.99 a month. This is near identical to competing offerings by Google.
Some people may be disappointed that Apple has kept 5 GB as the free option, given that almost everyone now exceeds that minimum capacity. Thankfully, the paid-for plans are reasonably inexpensive. They certainly wipe the floor with Apple’s previous $20/year 10 GB upgrade.
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VP Sales Dropbox Inc: DANG IT!!! All we had to do was give 500GB at $9.95 a month and we would have matched Apples pricing!!!
CEO Dropbox Inc: That’s ok. Your salary should make up the difference. Your fired!
DropBox offers 1TB for 1/3 of Apple’s price and has done for about a month!
9.99 is not 1/3 of 19.99
Dropbox does 1 TB for 9.99 already…
Hard to pass up $10 less a month but I think where Apple will differ is the iCloud Drive plug-ins of apps and desktop programs that will allow version control between iOS 8 and Yosemite.
Hopefully someone (cough-9to5-cough) will do a thorough comparison of iCloud Drive compared to the other services.
YOU ARE fired. Spell police!
Great! Now Apple just need to roll it out to the rest of the world! Denmark is waiting!
The prices for Denmark are already available: 5GB free, 20GB 20kr/m, 200GB 29kr/m, 500GB 69kr/m, 1TB 139kr/m
Apple should of had 5GB free PER iOS device
When do these prices go live? With iOS 8? Wonder what happens for the people who just got charged an Autorenew 20 bucks for 10gig plans thats going away
The space will fill up fast with the new photos app for Yosemite. I thought the 20gb would be to small.i think the free tier should be 10gb though. Between my iPad Air and iohone 5 I’m already using 4.1 GB and really don’t have much stored.
When will this take effect? Sept. 17 with the IOS roll out or with the iPhone6 release a few days later?
It’s a start but they really need to raise the free level to 10GB; it essentially takes 5GB to handle the basics.
Agreed fully. Like I said I am at 4.1 GB for basics between iPad Air and iPhone 5. Higher resolution photos means it will be eaten in an instant.
Gives the marketing folk something to work on between now and December😄
So, just pay $0.99/month for 20GB then. I think thats reasonable considering you’re using 2 devices. $0.99/month really isn’t something that needs a 2nd thought.
I just think it will lead to bad customer experiences for people with 16GB iPhone 6’s, not to mention Apple releasing iCloudDrive. 5 GB won’t last long. Microsoft offers 15 GB for One Drive and it isn’t near as tightly integrated as iCloud is into I devices and macs.
I problem I just realized is that I got the 200 gb bump and refund but my daughter who I just learned is at her 5gb limit needs space. She has iPad and iphone and I bet one has not been backing up to the cloud. Now, I cannot just buy her a year of additional space because it is a monthly subscription rather than annual. I am not going to leave a credit card on her iphone and I don’t believe an iTunes card would maintain a 99 cent balance every month.
How is this “…near identical to competing offerings by Google.”? Google charges $9.99/month for 1TB. You get 500GB with iCloud.
To get 5 GB of free iCloud storage, just sign up for a free iTunes account.
If you buy a $650 iPhone you still get 5 GB free iCloud storage.
If you buy a $950 iPad you still get 5 GB free iCloud storage.
If you buy a $3000 iMac you still get 5 GB free iCloud storage.
Apple gives absolutely no incentive to get more iCloud storage if you buy more Apple hardware. You will use up more iCloud storage for every device you buy though.
…and MS charges 10$/month (100$/year) for 1TB and Office 365…. For 5 family members… And device backups and mail do not count in used space…
But fine, at least we can backup our phones cheaper now :p
Or OneDrive 1 TB from Microsoft for virtually every Office customer.
The prices are fine at the low end (0.99 for 20GB, then 4 times that for 10 times the storage) but the jump from 200GB to 500GB and 1TB are just a sliding scale. No incentive at all go higher. Dropbox is a better option at $10/mo for 1TB. Oh well.
So I currently have the $40 plan that gives me an additional 20gb. What does that turn in to on the new plan? Closest I see is the 200gb $3.99/monthly plan.
Is it available already or everyone has to wait for the new rates?
You have got to be kidding! For $99 PER YEAR you can subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium and get FIVE 1TB storage accounts and five licenses to Office Professional, Office for iPad, and Office Mobile. $19.99 per month for 1TB is criminal.
Exactly. I was looking for a comment like this. If you use OneDrive for Business, you get 1TB per user for $2.50/month…. Apple’s prices make no sense…
You know what the difference is? Apple users actually actively USE the online storage and a shitload of bandwidth. Microsoft can offer as much space as it wants, as it will remain almost empty for most people and they need very little server capacity and costs. Thats the difference. 1TB ic “criminal”? LOL. Noone but a very TINY minority of iOS users will ever need 1TB. Stop living in your little bubble.
Exactly. Another over-charged apple product.
By all means then – use one of the many, many alternatives that everyone is so quick to espouse! Given the amount of usage of iCloud vs. the alternatives (I’m utilizing at least 1gb of transfer bandwidth/week once you factor everything in), I’d say it’s very reasonably priced, and I’m happy to pay for all the hard work that went in to the seamless integration.
They’re coming along, but dropbox is still my choice. Nice to see they’re moving though.
so what about iCloud Photos limit? this 1000 number is still available ? or they change to the limit of space?
iCloud photos will not have a limit besides iCloud storage.
For $10/month, you can get 5TB + MS Office on 5 diff devices
One thing everyone is failing to mention is, no one’s even going to use 1TB, let alone 5 or more. The vast majority of people will use 200 GB or less, and virtually no one will use more than 500 GB, unless they work in a special-effects shop in Hollywood. Their prices are reasonable and, like Google, they include productivity apps for free. compare that with Microsoft, which makes you buy their productivity apps to get way too much storage space. I do agree, however, that each device should get you 5 GB free.
The monthly charge will last for how long