
I’ve been a Google Photos user since it launched in May 2018. I signed up for it when it was free, no matter how many photos I backed up. But on June 1, 2021, Google flipped a switch: My Google Photos uploads began to take up space like the rest of my Google apps, and I quickly ran out of the complimentary 15GB storage.
I didn’t mind paying a couple of bucks each month for more storage, and so I did … until I realized I’d spent close to $500 in the last three years alone.