Free Cloud Storage: Every Quota, Ceiling and Encryption Default
Ten cloud drives. The real size of each free quota, the per-file and device ceilings, and which ones encrypt before upload.
Cloud storage is the category where the headline number is most misleading. Two gigabytes and twenty gigabytes describe the same product, and the limit that actually stops you is usually a file size, a device count or a transfer allowance rather than the total.
Read the ceiling, not the quota. Dropbox caps devices, Box caps each file at 250MB, Sync caps concurrent share links, MEGA meters transfers separately, and Nextcloud has no quota at all because you supply the disk. Only Sync and Filen encrypt before upload on the free tier.
All 10 reports in this category
- Box Free Gives 10GB, Then Stops You at a 250MB File. Ten gigabytes sounds generous until you meet the 250MB per-file ceiling. Box's free tier is built for documents, and it enforces that.
- Dropbox Free Is 2GB. That Is Two Hundred Photos and an Empty Inbox.. Two gigabytes was generous in 2014 and is a rounding error now. Dropbox Basic has not moved, and the ceiling arrives faster than most people expect.
- Filen Is the Open-Source Drive That Will Not Read Your Files. No free-quota figure on the marketing site, a German data centre and clients anyone can audit. The absence of a number is itself the point.
- Google Drive Free Is 15GB, and Gmail Is Already Spending It. The 15GB is not Drive's. It is shared with Gmail and Photos, and email alone can consume most of it without you ever uploading a file.
- iCloud's 5GB Has Not Changed Since 2011. It Shows.. Five gigabytes, shared across backups, photos, mail and documents on every Apple device you own. For most people it is gone before they notice.
- MEGA Gives 20GB Free. It Is Still the Biggest Allowance Here.. Twenty gigabytes free, encrypted before upload, with no card. MEGA wins the free-tier comparison on size and privacy at the same time.
- Nextcloud Is Free Forever If You Host It Yourself. There is no free tier and no gigabyte count. The software is free, unlimited and yours, provided you have somewhere to run it.
- OneDrive Free Is 5GB, and Word Already Knows Your Name. Five gigabytes is small on its own. Bundled with free Word, Excel and PowerPoint in the browser, it becomes the cheapest way into Office.
- pCloud Gives 10GB Free and Sells You Storage Forever. Ten gigabytes free, and a pricing model where you can buy storage once instead of renting it. The free tier tells you which half of that is the real pitch.
- Sync Free Is 5GB With Real Encryption. That Is the Trade.. Five gigabytes is small. Being the only mainstream drive that encrypts even the free tier is what makes the number worth paying attention to.
How these were measured
Every report records the same fields: what the free plan includes, what it withholds, what the first paid tier costs, and the point at which paying starts to make sense. Figures are taken from the vendor's own pricing and documentation pages and carry the date they were checked. Plan terms change without notice, so treat each number as a dated snapshot.