Yahoo Mail has reduced the free storage limit to 20 GB, which is a downgrade for loyal users. As a result, users worldwide will now have to pay monthly for storage.
Users received a notice on Tuesday stating that the change is effective immediately. All users were advised by the notice to assess their current storage and look into paid upgrade options.
Yahoo, which once offered a much larger storage limit, is now limiting free accounts to 20GB, which puts it in line with some of its competitors but still lags behind Gmail, which offers 15GB of free storage that can be shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.
Yahoo’s new free tier limited to emails
Yahoo’s new free tier, however, is limited to emails, which might be advantageous for people who don’t use cloud services as frequently.
Yahoo claims that users will no longer be able to send or receive emails after they hit the 20GB limit unless they upgrade their account or remove old messages.
Users will still be able to access the mailbox itself, giving them time to tidy up or select a premium plan.
Yahoo Mail subscription options
The company introduces two new storage subscription options which are 1 TB for $9.99/month and 100 GB for $1.99/month.
Yahoo is also promoting Yahoo Mail Plus, a premium service with 200GB of storage, an ad-free interface, and other benefits, for consumers who desire more than just more storage.
Ads will still be included in the new 100GB and 1TB plans, though, which might annoy paying customers.
Yahoo is also introducing improved mailbox management tools in an effort to ease the transition. These consist of: Tracking storage in real time across mobile and web apps, an attachment manager to assist users in clearing out storage hogs, a usage dashboard, and sorting tools for large emails.
Even though the goal of these tools is to make managing decreasing free space less difficult, many users may still be caught off guard by the sudden change, particularly those with extensive inbox histories that go back more than ten years.
Comparison with Gmail
Google’s Gmail, in contrast, still provides 15GB of free storage, though this is shared with their other services.
Users of Gmail can upgrade to 100GB for $1.99/month, which is the same cost as Yahoo, but this plan also comes with extra storage space in Google Drive and backups for Google Photos.
Additionally, Gmail provides free users with an ad-free experience; ads are only visible in the Promotions tab and are not very noticeable. On the other hand, Yahoo’s choice to display advertisements even to users of its more affordable plans might cause users to disagree about which platform offers better value.