Snapchat is placing a storage cap on its popular Memories feature, requiring users with large archives to subscribe to new paid plans.
The social media platform announced that free Memories storage will be limited to 5GB. Beyond that, users must opt into one of Snapchat’s new Memories Storage subscription plans.
The entry-level plan provides 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month. Subscribers to Snapchat+ will get 250GB of storage for $3.99 monthly, while the premium Snapchat Platinum plan offers a massive 5TB of storage for $15.99 per month.
Since launching Memories nearly a decade ago, Snapchat says the feature has grown beyond expectations, with users collectively saving over 1 trillion Snaps. The company explained the shift in a blog post:
“It’s never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it, but we hope the value we provide with Memories is worth the cost.”
Snapchat added that these changes will allow it to continue investing in improving Memories for its community, while covering rising infrastructure costs.
To ease the transition, Snapchat will offer 12 months of temporary storage for Memories that exceed the new 5GB cap. Users can also download and back up their Snaps directly to their devices. If a user exceeds the limit and does not subscribe, Snapchat will prioritize saving older Snaps while deleting newer ones that surpass the cap.
The company emphasized that the change will not impact most users, since the majority have Memories well under 5GB. Instead, the update primarily targets heavy users with “thousands of Snaps.”
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By introducing tiered paid storage, Snapchat aims to balance monetization with accessibility, keeping free options available while catering to power users who rely heavily on the Memories feature.
