Best Cloud Storage 2026: 5 Big Names, Priced per TB
Most people buy the cloud attached to their phone and overpay for it. The tables below price all five side by side, including the one vendor that sells storage you buy once.
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Cloud storage is the subscription people choose least and pay longest: the phone fills up, the OS offers its own cloud, and the card gets charged monthly for a decade. This comparison prices the five big options side by side, checked against every vendor's own pages on July 16, 2026, so the ecosystem default can at least be a checked decision.
Two structural things the stickers hide. Apple sells iCloud+ monthly only, no annual discount exists, while Google and Microsoft shave about 16 percent for paying yearly. And Google quietly removed its 200 GB middle tier for new signups, so the jump now runs straight from 100 GB at $1.99 to 2 TB at $9.99.
Best for most people: Google One. The 15 GB free tier is triple anyone else's, Basic is $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year for 100 GB, and every paid tier shares with five family members.
Best bundle: Microsoft 365 Family. $129.99 a year buys 6 TB (1 TB each for six people) plus desktop Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for all of them. Nothing else on this page is close per terabyte.
Best for iPhone households: iCloud+. Private Relay, Hide My Email, and camera-roll backup that just works. Monthly billing only, so the 2 TB tier costs $119.88 a year against Google's $99.99.
Best one-time buy: pCloud. Lifetime plans at $199 for 500 GB, $399 for 2 TB, and $1,190 for 10 TB replace the subscription entirely; the 2 TB plan breaks even against Google One in about four years.
Plus 2 TB: $9.99/mo billed annually, $11.99 month-to-month
Family 2 TB shared, up to 6
Monthly or annual
Microsoft 365
Basic 100 GB: $1.99/mo, $19.99/yr
Personal 1 TB + Office + Copilot: $9.99/mo, $99.99/yr
Family 6 TB (1 TB x 6) + Office: $12.99/mo, $129.99/yr
Monthly or annual
iCloud+
50 GB: $0.99; 200 GB: $2.99
2 TB: $9.99; 6 TB: $29.99; 12 TB: $59.99
All tiers share with 6 total
Monthly only
pCloud
Lifetime 500 GB: $199 once
Lifetime 2 TB: $399; 10 TB: $1,190 once
Family lifetime plans sold separately
Lifetime, annual, or monthly
Vendor-printed prices, July 16, 2026. pCloud's lifetime figures carried crossed-out higher list prices at check time, so they sit somewhere between sale and standing price; its monthly and annual subscription rates rendered only in its checkout scripts, so they are deliberately not quoted here. Google's AI-branded tiers (2 TB and up) bundle Gemini allowances that are most of the price story.
Google One: the default that earns it
Google One starts ahead on the free tier alone: 15 GB against everyone else's 2 to 5, shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. Paid tiers run $1.99 a month for 100 GB, then jump to the AI-branded plans: 2 TB at $9.99 with a Gemini allowance, and 5 TB at $19.99 with the Pro models, NotebookLM, and a YouTube Premium Lite subscription folded in. Annual billing knocks roughly 16 percent off everything, and all paid tiers share with five family members.
Two footnotes. The 200 GB middle tier no longer appears for new signups, an unpopular quiet removal that forces the $1.99-to-$9.99 jump. And the 5 TB tier was 2 TB until April 2026, when Google doubled-plus the storage without touching the price, which is the direction you want a subscription drifting.
Pros
15 GB free is the category's most generous
Family sharing on every paid tier
AI tiers genuinely add value if you use Gemini
Annual billing discount on all plans
Cons
No 200 GB option for new subscribers
Storage entangles with Gmail quota
AI features you may not want carry the upper tiers
Dropbox remains the best pure file layer: the sync client is still the one that never breaks, sharing controls are precise, and the 2 TB Plus plan at $9.99 a month billed annually includes 50 GB transfers and unlimited self-sign eSignatures. Business tiers run $15 a user for Standard (from a single user) and $24 for Advanced.
The problem is the ladder's shape: 2 GB free is a demo, there is no small paid tier, and $11.99 month-to-month for 2 TB is the most expensive plain storage on this page. You pay Dropbox for the software, and for people who live in shared folders with clients, that premium keeps being worth it.
Pros
Best sync engine and sharing controls in the business
OS-neutral: equally at home on Mac, Windows, Linux
Transfers and eSignature built into Plus
Cons
2 GB free tier is the smallest here
No cheap small tier; entry is the 2 TB plan
Monthly billing at $11.99 is the priciest 2 TB
Microsoft 365: storage disguised as an Office subscription
Microsoft sells OneDrive storage the way it sells everything, bundled. Basic at $1.99 for 100 GB matches Google. The real offer is Personal at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year: 1 TB of OneDrive plus full desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Copilot. Family at $129.99 a year covers six people with 1 TB each and Office for all of them, which prices out near $1.80 per person per month for what rivals charge $9.99 to match on storage alone.
The structural limit is per-person storage: 1 TB each, no bigger consumer tier exists. Heavy photographers and video hobbyists outgrow it; families with documents and normal photo libraries mostly never do. Anyone already paying for Office should stop reading and just use the terabyte they own.
Pros
Family plan is the best storage-per-dollar deal here
Desktop Office apps ride along from Personal up
Copilot included for the subscription owner
Cons
1 TB per person is the hard ceiling
Storage value is tangled with software you may not need
Windows-first experience elsewhere
iCloud+: the Apple tax, itemized
iCloud+ prices cleanly: 50 GB for $0.99, 200 GB for $2.99, 2 TB for $9.99, then 6 TB and 12 TB at $29.99 and $59.99 for the camera-roll maximalists. Every paid tier includes Private Relay, Hide My Email, custom email domains, and family sharing with up to six people, and the 200 GB tier Apple kept is exactly the one Google dropped.
The quiet cost is billing structure: Apple offers no annual option, so 2 TB runs $119.88 a year while Google charges $99.99 for the same terabytes. Inside an iPhone household the integration usually justifies the spread. Outside one, iCloud+ has no argument at all, which is the honest summary of ecosystem storage.
Pros
Keeps the 200 GB tier the family photo library actually needs
Private Relay and Hide My Email add real privacy value
Six-person sharing on every tier
Cons
Monthly billing only; no annual discount exists
Worthless outside Apple devices
12 TB tops out the lineup at $719.88 a year
pCloud: buy the storage once
pCloud's pitch is the anti-subscription: lifetime plans at $199 for 500 GB, $399 for 2 TB, and $1,190 for 10 TB, one payment, Swiss hosting, done. Against Google One's 2 TB at $99.99 a year, the $399 lifetime pays for itself in year four and prints money every year after. Subscriptions exist too, sold monthly and annually, and the optional Crypto add-on gives a client-side encrypted folder for the genuinely private stuff.
The honest risks are actuarial rather than technical: a lifetime plan is a bet the company outlives your break-even, and pCloud has taken that bet since 2013. Its free tier starts small and grows to 10 GB through onboarding steps. For a media archive that just needs to exist cheaply for a decade, nothing else in the table competes on total cost.
Pros
Lifetime pricing beats every subscription within about four years
OS-neutral apps plus a client-side encryption option
Swiss jurisdiction appeals to the privacy-minded
Cons
Lifetime value depends on the vendor's longevity
Subscription rates hide in the checkout, not the pricing page
No bundled extras to speak of
How to decide in two questions
First: which ecosystem already holds your photos? Fighting the OS default costs friction daily, and both Google One and iCloud+ are good enough that the fight rarely pays. Second: does anyone in the house need Office? If yes, Microsoft 365 Family at $129.99 quietly wins the whole comparison, six terabytes and the apps for less than Google charges one person with Gemini.
The two exceptions are the specialists. Client-facing file work still justifies Dropbox's premium. And a large archive you plan to keep for ten years belongs on a pCloud lifetime plan, where the subscription meter simply stops. Pair whichever you pick with real backups; our encrypted storage guide covers the zero-knowledge tier of this market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best cloud storage in 2026?
Google One for most people: the biggest free tier (15 GB), $1.99 entry, and family sharing throughout. Microsoft 365 Family is the best value at scale ($129.99 a year for 6 TB plus Office for six people). iCloud+ wins inside Apple households, Dropbox wins for client file work, and pCloud wins total cost with lifetime plans.
How much does 2 TB of cloud storage cost?
As of July 2026: $9.99 a month everywhere (Google One, Dropbox Plus billed annually, iCloud+). Annually, Google charges $99.99 while iCloud+ has no annual option ($119.88 over twelve months). pCloud sells 2 TB for a one-time $399, which undercuts every subscription after about four years.
Which service has the biggest free tier?
Google One at 15 GB, though it is shared with Gmail and Google Photos. pCloud reaches up to 10 GB after onboarding steps. Microsoft and Apple give 5 GB, and Dropbox gives 2 GB. Free tiers are marketing; every real photo library ends up on a paid plan.
What happened to Google's 200 GB plan?
It no longer appears for new signups; the current public lineup runs 100 GB ($1.99), then 2 TB ($9.99). Existing 200 GB subscribers keep it for now. Apple still sells 200 GB for $2.99, one of the few spots where iCloud+ beats Google on price fit.
Is Microsoft 365 Family really the best deal?
Per terabyte with software included, yes: $129.99 a year covers six people with 1 TB each plus desktop Office apps. The limits are structural: storage is per person (no pooling past 1 TB each) and the value assumes you use Word and Excel at all.
Why doesn't iCloud+ have an annual plan?
Apple only bills iCloud+ monthly, confirmed on its own plan pages. There is no yearly discount, so the 2 TB tier costs about 20 percent more per year than Google's equivalent. Bundling it inside Apple One is the closest thing to a discount Apple offers.
Are pCloud lifetime plans legitimate?
The company has sold them since 2013 and the current prices ($199 for 500 GB, $399 for 2 TB, $1,190 for 10 TB) come straight off its pricing page. The real consideration is longevity risk: a lifetime deal is only as good as the company's future, so keep an independent backup of anything irreplaceable regardless of vendor.
Should I just use the storage that came with my phone?
Usually, at the small tiers: the $0.99 to $2.99 plans from Apple and Google are frictionless and fairly priced. The decision point is 2 TB, where annual billing, family bundles, and lifetime alternatives diverge by hundreds of dollars over a few years. That is the tier worth twenty minutes of math.
Microsoft 365: storage disguised as an Office subscription
