Yahoo is reducing its free email storage capacity from 1TB to 20GB
Users who cross the 20GB limit won’t be able to send or receive emails again unless they pay for additional storage.
If you were born in the '90s or older, there's a pretty good chance you have a Yahoo email account. Yahoo was the main thing back then, before the advent of Gmail, and it earned its fame largely because of its generous email storage. At one point, Yahoo was offering a whole terabyte of free space, an insane amount compared to Google’s 15GB, which covers Gmail, Drive, and Photos.
But now, it looks like that approach is no longer sustainable. Yahoo has just slashed its free storage cap from 1TB all the way down to 20GB. While that’s still more than Gmail’s free allowance (if you’re just talking email), it’s a massive downgrade from what Yahoo users have grown used to.
The change, which is already in effect, means anyone who crosses the 20GB limit won’t be able to send or receive emails unless they delete old messages or upgrade to one of Yahoo's new paid plans. The two new options are 100GB for $1.99/month and 1TB for $9.99/month. And for those who want an ad-free experience, there’s Yahoo Mail Plus at $5/month, which gives you 200GB and a few extra features.
If you're one of those who immediately thought $2 isn't a whole lot to fork out, beware, that tier comes with ads. So, even if you're paying, you're not getting a completely clean inbox unless you shell out more.
Henry Chikwem
To make the transition less painful, Yahoo is rolling out a few helpful tools like real-time storage tracking, sorting filters for large emails, and an attachment manager to help users clear up space. But let’s be honest, the sudden drop from 1TB to 20GB is going to hit long-time users the hardest, especially those with decade-old email histories.
This move puts Yahoo a bit more in line with competitors like Gmail, which offers less free storage overall, but arguably more value through integration with Drive and Photos, plus a less cluttered ad experience. Yahoo Mail still commands around 225 million users globally, but it’s clearly under pressure to monetise more aggressively.
Ultimately, it’s a big shift for a platform that once prided itself on massive free storage. Whether users stick around or finally make the jump to alternatives will likely come down to how much they’re willing to pay, and how tolerant they are of ads in a service they may have used for free for over 15 years.
Oyinebiladou Omemu
