Apple Quietly Lowers iCloud Storage Prices
Buried in Apple’s recent jam-packed announcements was a tidbit that was easily missed: prices for 200 GB and 1 TB of storage are dropping, the first paid level of storage is increasing in capacity from 20 GB to 50 GB, and the 500 GB tier seems to be going away. All iCloud accounts get 5 GB of storage for free, but if you need more than that for features like iCloud Photo Library, iCloud backups, and iCloud Drive, here are the new pricing tiers:
- 50 GB: $0.99 per month (previously 20 GB for $0.99 per month)
- 200 GB: $2.99 per month (previously 200 GB for $3.99 per month)
- 1 TB: $9.99 per month (previously 1 TB for $19.99 per month)
The new pricing brings iCloud in line with competitors Dropbox and Google Drive, both of which also charge $9.99 for 1 TB of storage.
Our wallets will appreciate the price drops, but we’d like to see an annual payment option to simplify our bookkeeping too. It’s likely that Apple avoided an annual option previously to make it easier to change the monthly prices for existing customers. As it stands, we suspect that those with 200 GB and 1 TB plans will simply be charged the new lower rates going forward, and people who had 20 GB and 500 GB plans will receive 50 GB and 1 TB of storage for the same costs.
Apple did not announce when the new pricing will become available, but our best guess is that it will happen within the next month or so, alongside iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan.
Cheaper is one thing, but cranking up performance is another. iCloud Drive is still absolutely glacial here in NL.....
Just received my iCloud storage statement. Still $3.99 for $200GB.
Yeah, I received my statement yesterday morning and it was still $3.99 for 200 GB as well. :-(
Here in the UK, I'm currently on a 'legacy' 20GB plan charged at £7.49 annually, which is due to renew in March next year. (It was originally a 15GB plan, but got bumped up the last time Apple changed their pricing tiers.) I'll await confirmation from Apple as to whether I can keep my current plan, and what capacity I'll have going forward.
I just (like a bit over half an hour ago) received an email from Apple saying that my 20 GB account has now been upgraded to a 50 GB account (same fee). So sounds like the upgrade is NOW... (-: