Photo & video app
Google Photos
Google’s photo backup and gallery, sharing 15 GB of free storage with Gmail and Drive.
Google Photos backs up the photos and videos on your phone to your Google Account, so you can see them on any device and keep them if the phone is lost. It sorts your library by date, place and the people in it, and lets you search for things like “beach” or “receipts” without tagging anything. Shared albums and partner sharing send pictures to family and friends.
Google launched Photos in May 2015 with free unlimited backup at reduced quality. That ended on 1 June 2021: since then every new backup counts toward the 15 GB of free storage shared with Gmail and Drive. With backup on, Photos keeps the phone and the account in step, so deleting a picture in one place deletes it in both.
01Is Google Photos free?
Google Photos is free to use. Backups count toward the 15 GB of storage that comes with every Google Account, shared with Gmail and Google Drive. When that fills up, more space comes from a paid Google One plan. Choosing Storage saver instead of Original quality makes each backup smaller, but it still counts toward your storage.
02How to start using Google Photos
- 1
Install Google Photos on iPhone, or open it on Android, where it is usually already installed, and sign in with your Google Account.
- 2
Turn on Backup and choose the backup quality: Original quality or the smaller Storage saver.
- 3
Choose whether to back up over mobile data or only on Wi-Fi under Backup settings.
- 4
Check that backup has finished before you delete anything from the phone. Free up space removes only copies that are safely backed up.
- 5
Open photos.google.com on a computer to see the same library.
03Is Google Photos safe?
Deleting from the phone deletes everywhere
With backup on, deleting a photo in Google Photos removes it from the phone and your account. It stays in Trash for 30 days, and then it is gone for good.
Shared albums and links
Anyone with a shared album’s link can see it. Check Sharing for old albums and links, and remove the ones you no longer want open.
Location in your photos
Photos can hold the place they were taken. When you share, you can remove the location, and you can hide it from people you share with in settings.
