Cloud Storage Cost Comparison Calculator

iCloud vs Google One vs Dropbox vs OneDrive: 2026 price comparison

The four big consumer clouds price storage in very different steps, so the cheapest one flips depending on how much you actually store. iCloud+ and Google One both have a small 200 GB tier at about $2.99/mo, which makes them the value picks for a typical phone library. Dropbox has no small paid plan at all: its cheapest is Plus at 2 TB for $11.99/mo, so a modest library pays for space it will never touch. OneDrive splits the difference, with a standalone 100 GB plan at $1.99/mo and everything larger bundled into a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Free allowances vary too: iCloud and OneDrive give 5 GB, Google One gives 15 GB (shared with Gmail and Drive), and Dropbox gives just 2 GB. So it tends to shake out like this: small libraries favor the iCloud or Google 200 GB tier, medium libraries land on a 1 to 2 TB plan around $9.99 to $12.99/mo, and Dropbox only earns its keep once you genuinely need multiple terabytes.

How to pick the cheapest plan for your library size

It comes down to one move: pick the smallest tier that covers your library, then compare the cost. Buying a bigger tier "to be safe" is money left on the table, because you pay for the whole tier whether you fill it or not. Cost per GB tells you how efficient a plan is, but it can mislead. Dropbox Plus has a fine cost per GB at 2 TB, yet if you only store 200 GB you are still paying the full $11.99/mo, so the honest number is what the smallest fitting plan costs you, not the theoretical per-GB rate.

Billing period matters. Annual plans on Google One, Dropbox, and Microsoft 365 save roughly 15 to 17%, while Apple iCloud+ is monthly only, so its yearly figure is just twelve months added up. Flip the toggle above and the ranking can change, because an annual discount sometimes moves a provider ahead. One caveat on family plans: OneDrive Family is 1 TB per person (up to six people), not 6 TB for one account, and Dropbox Family is 2 TB shared. If you are sizing a single library, do not count that shared capacity as yours.

Stop paying for storage you do not need: clean up first

Before you upgrade, look at what is actually in the library. Most camera rolls are heavy with duplicates, near-identical burst shots, screenshots you dealt with months ago, and long videos you have never rewatched. Clearing those can drop you across a tier boundary, and the saving repeats every month. Going from 210 GB to 195 GB moves you off a 2 TB plan back to a 200 GB plan on iCloud or Google, cutting $9.99/mo to $2.99/mo. A smaller library can even fall back under a free allowance and cost nothing.

That is the job Swipe44 does. You go through the camera roll by swiping, right to keep and left to delete, working from Recents, Random, or a single month so it never becomes one giant chore. Duplicates are hashed on-device and grouped for review, everything you mark is batch-deleted behind one system confirmation, and the app reports how much space came back. Nothing is uploaded and iCloud originals are never downloaded, so the "free this much to drop a tier" figure above is a target you can hit in a few minutes of swiping.

Want to size the input first? Estimate your library with the iPhone storage size calculator or the video storage calculator, plan device space with the phone storage planner, or dig into Apple's tiers alone with the iCloud storage cost calculator.