Cloud Storage Pricing & Cost-per-TB Comparison Guide
Compare cost per terabyte and historical price changes across major storage providers: Backblaze, Dropbox, Google One, and iCloud+.
Cloud storage is foundational to modern computing—ranging from everyday photo backups to petabyte-scale enterprise archiving. However, rising hardware costs and infrastructure overheads have triggered steady price adjustments across major storage providers.
To help you find the best value for your storage volume, this guide breaks down historical price revisions and evaluates real costs per terabyte (TB).
1. Major Cloud Storage Price Revisions
Recent adjustments have impacted both individual unlimited backup plans and commercial sync storage tiers:
| Provider | Plan | Previous Price | New Price | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze | Computer Backup (Monthly) | $7.00 | $9.00 | +28.6% |
| Backblaze | Computer Backup (Annual) | $70.00 | $99.00 | +41.4% |
| Backblaze | B2 Cloud Storage (1TB) | $5.00 | $6.00 | +20.0% |
| Dropbox | Plus (Monthly 2TB) | $9.99 | $11.99 | +20.0% |
| Dropbox | Plus (Annual, monthly equiv.) | $8.25 | $9.99 | +21.1% |
| Dropbox | Professional (Monthly 3TB) | $19.99 | $24.99 | +25.0% |
Backblaze: Adjusting the Unlimited Backup Benchmark
Long recognized for unlimited desktop backup, Backblaze increased its annual subscription from $70 to $99 (+41.4%), citing hard drive supply chain dynamics and data center inflation. Its developer-focused object storage, B2 Cloud Storage, also adjusted from $5.00 to $6.00 per TB/month (+20.0%).
Dropbox: Breaching the $10 Consumer Threshold
Dropbox Plus—the core 2TB tier for personal users—moved from $9.99 to $11.99/month, crossing the psychological $10 mark. Annual commitments rose from $99 to $119.88/year, while the 3TB Professional plan jumped from $19.99 to $24.99/month (+25.0%).
2. Real Cost Breakdown per Terabyte (TB)
When evaluating cloud storage, the most objective metric is the effective monthly cost per 1TB:
Large-scale Archiving & Cold Storage (Lowest Cost per TB)
- Backblaze B2: $6.00/TB per month (with egress fees applicable for downloads)
- Ideal for server backups and media archives at 40–60% below consumer sync services.
Everyday File Sync & Collaboration (Standard 2TB Tiers)
- Google One: 2TB tier at $9.99/month ($99.99/year)
- Apple iCloud+: 2TB tier at $9.99/month (includes Family Sharing)
- Dropbox Plus: 2TB tier at $11.99/month ($119.88/year)
- While Google One and iCloud+ maintain the standard $9.99/mo rate for 2TB, Dropbox now commands a 20% premium.
How much have your subscriptions gone up?
Pick the services you use to see increases by period, per currency.
3. Best Practices to Cut Storage Spend
- Opt for Annual Billing: Most cloud providers discount annual upfront commitments by 15% to 20%.
- Utilize Family & Group Pooling: Both Google One and Apple iCloud+ allow pooling 2TB across up to 5 family members, reducing per-person cost to around $2/month.
- Implement the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy: Pair local drives (primary snapshot) with affordable S3-compatible cloud tiers like Backblaze B2 (offsite archive) rather than keeping multi-terabyte data in expensive sync drives.
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