Cloud storage is one of the few subscriptions that’s hard to leave. Once years of photos and documents are uploaded, moving them somewhere else takes time, so the plan you choose today is usually the one you’ll keep paying for, while your library keeps growing. That makes the cheapest cloud storage a question of years more than months.
Some services let you pay once and keep the space for life, others charge the same every year, and a few look cheap only until the first renewal. I priced every plan and worked out what each one costs over time. Out of the 20+ services we’ve tested, these five offer the most storage for your money. The quick ranking comes next, followed by prices for every storage size.
Cheapest Cloud Storage for October 2026
- pCloud: Best for long-term value, with lifetime plans at every size
- Internxt: Best for the lowest one-time price per terabyte
- NordLocker: Best for a cheap first year of encrypted storage
- Sync.com: Best for unlimited storage, with a low first-year price
- MEGA: Best for large storage on a yearly plan
Cheapest Cloud Storage by Size
US list prices before tax. Internxt charges in euros.
| Storage | Lowest yearly price | Renews at | Lowest one-time price |
| 100 GB | Google One, $19.99 | $19.99 | None |
| 500 GB | NordLocker, $35.88 | $59.88 | pCloud Premium, $219 |
| 1 TB | Sync.com Personal, $72 | $144 | Internxt Essential, €285 |
| 2 TB | TeraBox Premium, about $36 | $35.99 | pCloud Premium Plus, $499 |
| 3 TB | MEGA Pro I, about $113 | About $113 | Internxt Premium, €435 |
| 5 TB | IDrive Personal, $83.92 | $119.88 | Internxt Ultimate, €585 |
| 10 TB | MEGA Pro II, about $225 | About $225 | pCloud Ultra, $1,499 |
| Unlimited | Sync.com Personal Unlimited, $270 | $540 | None |
TeraBox doesn’t encrypt files end to end, the setup where only you have the key, so keep it for files that wouldn’t cause harm if exposed. Its owner, Flextech, is based in Tokyo. NordLocker is the cheapest encrypted alternative at 2 TB for a first year. IDrive has the lowest 5 TB price, but it’s built mainly for backing up computers.
Cheap Cloud Storage, Ranked and Reviewed
1. pCloud: Best Value Over Time
Pros
- Lifetime licenses across all storage tiers
- Yearly billing cuts the monthly rate
- Quick transfers on every plan
- Backs up chosen PC folders
- Free tier for testing first
Cons
- Encryption add-on adds to the bill
- Strict refund terms
pCloud costs more than NordLocker in year one and less from year two, and every storage size also comes with a lifetime option:
- Premium 500 GB: $49.99 a year or $219 for life
- Premium Plus 2 TB: $99.99 a year or $499 for life
- Ultra 10 TB: $299.99 a year or $1,499 for life
The cheaper tiers aren’t slower. pCloud moved our 500 MB test archive up and back in 3 minutes 56 seconds, the lowest total in our fastest cloud storage tests and close to what our home connection allows. Zero-knowledge encryption, where only you have the key to your files, costs about $150 extra for life, so add it to the total if you store sensitive documents.
Refund requests must come within 14 days, and pCloud may not refund discounted purchases, so try the free plan before you buy a lifetime deal. Plan-by-plan details are in our pCloud review.
2. Internxt: Cheapest per Terabyte for Life
Pros
- Lowest one-time cost per terabyte
- Every price includes encryption
- VPN and antivirus at no extra cost
- Refund window on every purchase
- Public source code
Cons
- Charged in euros
- Brief trash period on the cheapest tier
Internxt sells three lifetime plans, each paid once:
- Essential 1 TB: about €285
- Premium 3 TB: about €435
- Ultimate 5 TB: about €585
The Ultimate plan comes to about €117 per terabyte, the lowest one-time rate we found, and there’s no renewal to plan for. Every plan includes zero-knowledge encryption with a post-quantum layer, built to resist future quantum computers, so there’s no add-on to buy, and paid plans add a VPN and antivirus. Prices are in euros even for US buyers, so the final charge depends on the exchange rate, and some cards add a foreign transaction fee.
Its combined upload and download time for our 500 MB archive was 3 minutes 58 seconds, practically tied with pCloud, and each purchase comes with a 30-day refund window. The Essential plan’s trash empties after a week, so restore mistakes quickly. Our Internxt review has more detail, and our Internxt vs pCloud comparison puts the two head to head.
3. NordLocker: Cheapest Encrypted 2 TB for a First Year
Pros
- Cheapest encrypted 2 TB in year one
- End-to-end encryption at no extra cost
- Share links with expiry dates
- Simple apps
Cons
- Much higher price from year two
- No way to undo a deletion
- Uploads by hand only
NordLocker‘s 2 TB plan renews at about $180 a year, but the first year costs about $84, which works out to about $7 a month on yearly billing. The 500 GB plan follows the same pattern, at about $60 a year after a first year of about $36. From year two, its 2 TB plan costs more than pCloud or Google One, so it’s cheapest only if you plan to stay a single year. Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, builds it, and every upload is encrypted end to end at no extra charge.
Its round trip for our 500 MB archive took 4 minutes 15 seconds. That’s close enough to pCloud’s 3 minutes 56 seconds that only big uploads show the difference. NordLocker has no trash folder, so deleting a file is final. Keep a copy of important files on another drive, and expect to add files by hand, with no automatic backup. Our NordLocker review covers the rest, and NordLocker also ranks among the most secure cloud storage services.
4. Sync.com: Cheapest 1 TB and Unlimited Plans
Pros
- Cheapest 1 TB in year one
- Unlimited tier for individuals
- Zero-knowledge on every plan
- Canadian company and servers
- Long version history
Cons
- Promotional first-year pricing
- Slower uploads
- Syncs one folder only
Sync.com discounts every personal plan for the first year:
- Personal 1 TB: $72 for the first year, then $144
- Pro Solo 5 TB: $168 for the first year, then $336
- Personal Unlimited: $270 for the first year, then $540
That makes it the cheapest 1 TB plan for a first year and the only unlimited plan for individuals in our ranking. Budget for a renewal at double the price. Sync.com is based in Toronto and stores files in Ontario, and it’s also the lowest-cost Canadian service we tested.
Our archive took 4 minutes 40 seconds up and back, the slowest round trip in our ranking, so allow extra time for big uploads. Its desktop app syncs a single folder, so files have to be moved into it. Our Sync.com review has the full test.
5. MEGA: Most Storage Without a Renewal Jump
Pros
- Large storage for a modest yearly price
- Large free tier
- Encrypted on free and paid tiers
- VPN and password manager on paid plans
Cons
- Refunds only for billing errors
- Transfer quota on every plan
- No lifetime option
MEGA‘s Pro I plan offers 3 TB for about $113 a year, about the yearly price of 2 TB on pCloud or Google One, and the price stays the same at renewal. The Essential plan covers 200 GB for about $45 a year, the Pro II plan moves up to 10 TB for about $225, and the Pro III plan to 20 TB for about $338. Paid plans include MEGA VPN and the MEGA Pass password manager, and MEGA encrypts every file end to end.
Each plan has a transfer quota, the limit on how much can be downloaded. On Pro I, it’s 36 TB a year, about 1,500 hours of HD video a month. Our 500 MB round trip took 4 minutes 25 seconds, so start big uploads overnight. Refunds cover only billing errors, so start on the free account first: MEGA’s free plan offers 20 GB, the largest encrypted free plan we tested.
Cloud Storage Cost per Terabyte
Price per terabyte for one year of storage. For lifetime plans, we divided the one-time price over five years.
| Plan | Price | Cost per TB per year |
| IDrive Personal 5 TB, first year | $83.92 | $16.78, then $23.98 |
| TeraBox Premium 2 TB, yearly | About $36 | About $18 |
| Internxt Ultimate 5 TB, lifetime | €585 once | About €23 |
| MEGA Pro II 10 TB, yearly | About $225 | About $23 |
| pCloud Ultra 10 TB, yearly | $299.99 | $30 |
| Sync.com Pro Solo 5 TB, first year | $168 | $33.60, then $67.20 |
| MEGA Pro I 3 TB, yearly | About $113 | About $38 |
| NordLocker 2 TB, first year | $83.88 | $41.94, then $89.94 |
| pCloud Premium Plus 2 TB, lifetime | $499 once | $49.90 |
| Google One 2 TB, yearly | $99.99 | $50 |
| Dropbox Plus 2 TB, yearly | $119.88 | $59.94 |
| iCloud+ 2 TB, monthly | $119.88 a year | $59.94 |
| Microsoft 365 Personal 1 TB, yearly | $99.99 | $99.99, with Office apps |
Bigger plans cost less per terabyte, so buying more space than you use today can still save money over time.
Cheap Cloud Storage for Photos and Backups
For a photo library under 100 GB, Google One’s 100 GB plan, at about $20 a year, is the lowest price from a major service. iPhone users can also choose iCloud+ 200 GB, at about $3 a month. Bigger libraries cost less over time on a pCloud lifetime plan, and our guides to cloud storage for photos and keeping videos in the cloud compare more services.
pCloud and Google Drive back up chosen PC folders on every plan, so documents and photos don’t require a separate backup subscription. Whole-computer backup is a different product. IDrive is built for it, and our IDrive review covers the details.
How to Pay Less for Cloud Storage
- Pay yearly: pCloud’s 2 TB plan costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, about $20 less over 12 months.
- Check the renewal price: NordLocker’s and Sync.com’s renewals cost about twice their first-year prices.
- Read the first-month terms: Internxt shows €1.99 a month for 1 TB, but that rate covers only the first month, and billing then renews at €9.99 a month.
- Buy lifetime only for long-term use: pCloud’s 2 TB lifetime plan matches five years of yearly payments.
- Share a family plan: Google One and iCloud+ storage can be shared with up to five other people at no extra cost.
- Start free: our ranking of free cloud storage covers plans of up to 20 GB.
Verdict
Is it cheaper to pay once or to pay every year? For most people, paying once wins, because files tend to stay in the cloud for years. pCloud’s 2 TB lifetime plan costs no more than five years of a yearly 2 TB plan from Google One, Dropbox, or iCloud+, and you pay nothing after that. Internxt is the better one-time buy per terabyte, with encryption included in the price, if you don’t mind paying in euros.
Look elsewhere if you want storage for a single year. NordLocker has the lowest encrypted 2 TB price and Sync.com the lowest 1 TB price for year one, but their renewals roughly double. MEGA has the most storage of any yearly plan that keeps the same price at renewal. Our main list of the best cloud storage services ranks on features beyond price. Before you pay for any plan, check its renewal price, because that’s the number you’ll see every year after the first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest cloud storage per TB?
IDrive and TeraBox cost the least per terabyte, though IDrive is built for computer backup and TeraBox doesn’t encrypt files end to end. Internxt’s largest lifetime plan is the cheapest encrypted alternative.
What is the cheapest 1 TB cloud storage?
Sync.com has the cheapest 1 TB plan for the first year, with end-to-end encryption included, though the renewal costs much more. Internxt’s 1 TB lifetime plan avoids renewals altogether.
What is the cheapest 2 TB cloud storage?
TeraBox has the cheapest 2 TB plan, without end-to-end encryption. NordLocker is the cheapest encrypted 2 TB plan for a first year, and pCloud’s lifetime plan costs the least long term.
What is the cheapest cloud storage in Canada?
Sync.com is the cheapest Canadian cloud storage, with files kept in Ontario and end-to-end encryption on every plan. Its first-year discounts lower the price further, though renewals cost more.
What is the cheapest cloud storage for photos?
Google One’s smallest plan is the cheapest from a major service for a modest photo library. Larger libraries cost less over time on a pCloud lifetime plan with automatic photo upload.
Is cheap cloud storage safe?
Yes, when it comes from an established company and encrypts files properly. Internxt, NordLocker, Sync.com, and MEGA encrypt files end to end even on cheap plans, so the company can’t read them.