Google unifies cloud storage so you get 15GB shared across Gmail, Drive, & Google+

Google has modified its cloud storage allocation for regular users of its services so they now share 15GB of free storage across Gmail, Drive, and Google+ Photos.

“With this new combined storage space, you won’t have to worry about how much you’re storing and where,” Clay Bavor, the product management director for Google Apps, wrote in a blog post. “For example, maybe you’re a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2GB in Gmail. Now it doesn’t matter, because you can use your storage the way you want.”

Google’s goal with the reallocation seems to be to simplify the purchase of cloud storage and make it more clear how much free storage you have. So if you were planning to buy more space for Gmail or more space for your Drive account, you’ll do that all in one place. Google will also update its Google Drive storage page to help people better understand how their storage is allocated.

On top of making unified storage available to consumers that use Gmail, Drive, and Google+, unified storage will come to Google Apps users as well. Google Apps users will end up with 30GB of unified storage that’s shared between Drive and Gmail.

The changes to Google’s cloud storage will roll out to all users “over the next couple of weeks.”

Photo via Google