Due to the large amount of data we make use of on the daily, the average free storage space of Google Drove might not be enough for everybody which is why the Google One is meant to solve that problem. If you want to know what the service is all about and how you can get yourself one of it, below is a short guide on the service.

What is Google One anyway?

FYI, when you create a Google account, you’re automatically located a 15GB of free storage which works across multiple Google platforms especially their services that requires it and those includes Google Photos, GMail as well as the Google Drive storage.

For many, this 15GB of free storage space is just enough to back up pictures and some files from GMail or G-Drive etc. Meanwhile the search engine giant made it known that the Google Photos platform will also start counting towards the storage by mid-2021.

Also, if you get lots of emails with large attachments and are not in the habit of cleaning up your mailbox, 15 GB will run out fast which is why the company is offering the Google One service in order to help increase those storage.

Two ways by which you can purchase/subscribe to this service is by either doing it on the website or by using the Android app (iOS is also available), is very easy.

What is the Cost of Google One

With that said, you can just bump up your storage space option from the conventional 15GB of free storage and go as high as 100GB or even 30TB of space all depending on your needs. Meanwhile the pricing differ from based on the storage space you opting for as well as your country of origin. But a simple breakdown of the pricing can be found below in US Dollar and Nigerian Naira and South African Rand (All price exchange is done with Google so it might be higher or lower in your local exchange market.)

• 100 GB  – $1.99/month (NG₦ 758.59 / SAR 29.01) US$ 19.99/year (NG₦ 7,620 / SAR 291.38)
• 200 GB – $2.99/month (NG₦ 1,139.79 / SAR 43.58) $29.99/year (NG₦ 11,432.19 / SAR 437.15)
• 2 TB  – $9.99/month (NG₦ 3,808.19 / SAR 145.62) $99.99/year (NG₦ 38,116.19 / SAR 1,457.51)
• 10 TB  – $49.99/month (NG₦ 19,056.19 / SAR 728.68)
• 20 TB  – $99.99/month (NG₦ 38,116.19 / SAR 1,457.51)
• 30 TB – $149.99/month (NG₦ 57,176.19 / SAR 2,186.33)

Monthly pricing compared to yearly pricing can be pretty different and the discount you get might make the service worthwhile. A good example is getting the product discounted down for the yearly payment which would have been much more if you were paying monthly. If you’re paying NG₦390/month in Nigeria for example, that price gets reduced to just NG₦3,900/year instead of NG₦4,680 and that’s how it is in other regions such as South Africa, Britain, India or US.

And also, you will have the chance of sharing your storage space with up to five family members without paying for their costs. It’s in fact so well built that each and everyone have their own separate storage account within the umbrella account you already paid for.

Other Benefits, VPN inclusive

While the Google One service might just seem like an upgrade to grab more storage spaces to back up your content with ease on the platform, its actually more than that. The good thing is the 24/7 support for Google Products all which can be accessed through their website or the mobile application for the service and also the service comes in English, German and French and you can either chat or email their customer support team.

As a member, you also get the member benefits which can include about 40% off with hotels booked through Google but there are even much more benefits to be gotten from this all depending on your location and Google promised to keep adding newer features to the service which includes about 10% off Google Store device purchases, Google Play Credits and other cool values.

Then there is the Google VPN service which can be accessed via the Android application of the service which as we all know help you keep your internet access secured and well encrypted from prying eyes.

There are just two caveats with the VPN service, though — it’s only available on the 2TB plan or higher and only for US users. So Nigerian and South African users won’t be getting this access. Meanwhile this can be reversed with time as Google already promised to roll the feature out in more regions around the world.

And if you download the mobile application, it’ll be much easier for you to have your phone backed up based on your own terms and settings. You can also easily clean up your account space and restore your backup data from the cloud with one click.

What if you want to cancel Google One account?

Not everyone might want to depend solely on Google despite offering one of the best services out there including the new Google One service. So if you’re among those who want to just opt out of Google One, you can cancel the subscription by simply doing the following:

Head over to the Google One website and then click on Settings on the Menu right at the left side and then click on the Cancel link which will be presented to you. Just like that, the account will be gone.

This is a cool service and its very inexpensive considering the amount of storage space you get for so little price as well as the other key benefits you also get for subscribing to their higher plans.

The Google One service will be great for small business owners who need to constantly make use of the internet storage to back up their files and data. And it might be great for individuals who just don’t want to lose any of their files ever again. But either way, the service is definitely worth it but of course not everyone will like it which is why there are other alternatives out there already such as Dropbox, Amazon Cloud service, Microsoft Azure and so forth.