Amazon just announced two new unlimited storage plans to encourage users to store all their photos and files in its cloud.
The first plan — just for photos — costs $11.99 per year and the second "everything" plan costs $59.99 per year. Amazon's offering free three-month trials for both.
Amazon isn't the first cloud storage company to offer an unlimited plan, but it is the only one making its unlimited plan accessible to anyone.
Dropbox, Microsoft, and Google, for example, only offer their unlimited plans for enterprise users (or, in Microsoft's case, with an Office 365 subscription).
For a non-business user, Dropbox sells 1 TB of space for $99 a year, Microsoft sells 1 TB of space and an Office 365 subscription for ~$84 a year, and Google offers 1 TB for $99.99 per year. Amazon's Unlimited Everything plan, at $59.99, is the cheapest option for the most space.
With these dirt-cheap prices and the promise that you'll never have to worry about upgrading your plan, Amazon hopes to win over customers who haven't picked a cloud storage service yet. Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing business that powers the web presences of big players like Netflix, has led the industry for years, but this move is a significant push to use its infrastructure for consumer-facing products.
Previously, Amazon was offering unlimited photo storage to anyone who had Amazon Prime or a Kindle Fire device. Those people will still get the service for free, but will have the option to upgrade to the "everything" plan.
Here's some more information about each plan from Amazon's press release:
- Unlimited Photos Plan (free 3-month trial, then $11.99 per year—equivalent of less than $1 per month): Store an infinite number of photos in Cloud Drive without worrying about taking up space on phones, cameras, or other devices. Customers can upload existing collections and store all future photos taken. This plan also includes 5 GB of additional storage for videos or other documents and files.
- Unlimited Everything Plan (free 3-month trial, then $59.99 per year—equivalent of less than $5 per month): Store an infinite number of new and existing photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music in Cloud Drive.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.
