Home Computing Phones News Google's free storage has been a competitive advantage over Apple's 5GB iCloud limit for years, but that’s changing. Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Trends Google has quietly altered one of the most reliable promises in consumer tech: 15GB of free cloud storage. For years, signing up for a Google account meant getting 15GB of free storage , shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. However, that’s changed.  New accounts are now defaulting to 5GB ( same as iCloud ), with the full 15GB available only if you have entered your phone number during setup. The prompt users are seeing reads: “Your account includes 5GB of storage. Now get even more storage space with your phone number.” sungusungu / Reddit What exactly changed? The policy change took effect sometime around March 18, 2026 (via 9To5Google ). That’s when the company updated its support page language from definitive to conditional.…