Microsoft is doubling its cloud storage, and doubling down on the competition.
Microsoft’s cloud service, OneDrive, currently offers 7GB of space for free users to store their photos, documents, and other files. But compared to Google’s competing Drive cloud service and its 15GB of free storage, the amount of space is practically a pittance.
On the company’s blog, Omar Shahine, group program manager for OneDrive, announced a dramatic increase in both free and paid storage options for the cloud service. OneDrive’s free option will go from 7GB to 15GB, while paid options will both increase in size and payment tiers.
The move from 7GB to 15GB doubles the current free size of OneDrive users, as well as putting it on par with Google Drive’s 15GB of storage. Unfortunately, companies like the storage-dedicated Dropbox are getting caught in the middle, and seem unable to match the steep discounts the software giants are offering to consumers in the name of extra storage.
But Microsoft won’t only be matching Google’s storage capacity; it’ll be matching its price points as well.
While it’ll offer 1TB of storage for anyone (up to five people) paying $9.99 per month for an Office 365 Home subscription, Microsoft will also offer 200GB for $2.99, and 300GB for $3.99, and while these do not include Office 365, they are storage tiers Google doesn’t offer. By comparison, Dropbox currently offers 100GB for $9.99, and 200GB for $19.99.
It’ll also give Office 365 Personal users 1TB of storage for a single person with their $6.99 subscription, up from the 20GB they were paying for previously. “All of these updates will take effect in the next month,” said Shahine. “For current subscribers, you are all set, you’ll automatically be moved to the lower prices.”