The most exciting thing that 2020 has brought us is unlimited Google Drive cloud storage! That’s right, the G Suite business plan now comes with unlimited cloud storage for just $12/month.
Never before (as far as I’m aware) has anyone offered unlimited storage for this cheap. Leave it to Google to be the first to do so.
While signup is slightly more complicated than normal because you need a domain name, don’t you worry. I’ll walk you through each step of the set up. It will be worth it because in a matter of a few minutes, you’ll have all the cloud storage that you’ll ever need.
Is Google Drive Unlimited Really Unlimited?
Without any restrictions on the amount of data, the G Suite business plan is truly an unlimited cloud storage option.
But restrictions do exist.
As described in a G Suite Admin help article, “a shared drive can contain a maximum of 400,000 files and folders”. Now that’s a big number and most people will never come close to it, nor should they. Google goes on to recommend that you keep the number of items in Google Drive “well below the strict limit”. Otherwise, it seems like Google Drive will start to act funny.
The only other major restriction is a bandwidth limitation. As described in the same G Suite help article, “individual users can only upload 750 GB each day”. So if you have a petabyte of data that you need to upload to Google Drive, this will take you over 3.5 years to finish.
As you can see, the Google Drive unlimited plan does indeed offer unlimited storage, but bandwidth and number of file limits may restrict your usage.
G Suite Business Account Requirements
As you probably already know, Google’s cloud storage service is called Drive. Drive allows you to upload and access your files from any device.
Until recently, users had to pay anywhere from $1.99/month for 100 GB to $299.99/month for 30 TB. While these pricing plans still exist for personal accounts, you’ll need a business account with G Suite to get unlimited Google Drive.
The one requirement for G Suite is a domain name. In other word, you must own a domain name in order to sign up for G Suite.
The best part is that you don’t even need to have a website. All you need is ownership of the domain name.
Before you throw in the towel, listen up. It’s SUPER EASY to get a domain name. And cheap too.
Update Feb 2020: Some users are able to get a free .page domain as part of the G Suite sign up process.
If this option isn’t available, you can get your domain name from Google Domains. Most domain names ending in .com are just $12/year.
If you already have a domain name, great! You can skip ahead. Otherwise, you can follow my Google Domains video tutorial to get your domain name. Another option is to buy your domain name directly from Google when signing up for G Suite.
How to Get Unlimited Cloud Storage with Google Drive
With a domain name in hand, you have all you need to get unlimited cloud storage with Google Drive.
On the G Suite by Google Cloud page, you’ll see 3 plans: Basic, Business, and Enterprise. We’re interested in the Business plan for $12/month. Go ahead and click on the Get Started button.
On the following few pages, you’ll fill out some basic information about your business. Like I said above, you don’t technically need a functioning business. In fact, you don’t even need a website.
After entering your address, phone number, and other personal information, the setup process is will complete.
Congratulations! At this point, you now have unlimited Google Drive storage.
You can verify this by going to your new Google Drive account. By default for most people, this will be accessible at:
https://drive.google.com/a/yourdomain.com
Right off the bat, you’ll see on the left side that Google doesn’t list a maximum storage capacity. It’ll initially say something like “0 bytes used”.
But in order to confirm that you do indeed have unlimited cloud storage, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, then Settings. Under the Storage section, click the link to View storage details. Somewhere on this Drive storage dashboard page, you see a very comforting note stating that your account can use unlimited storage.
By the way, for anyone who cares, swampview.com is a video production company that my best friend and I started in 2020.
If you have any questions about getting unlimited cloud storage with Google Drive, let me know in the comments below.
Note that only the G Suite Business and Enterprise plans include unlimited Drive storage.
