pCloud Review 2026: Speed, Security, and Lifetime Plans Tested

pCloud is best known for a deal most cloud services don’t offer: storage you pay for once and keep. That’s an appealing idea if you’re tired of monthly bills, but it also means trusting one company to stay fast, safe, and in business for years after you’ve paid.

I tested it the way a long-term customer would. Starting from a new free account, I uploaded and downloaded files, set up the phone app, and deleted files to see what came back. It’s an easy service to like, but there’s one catch to know before you buy, so keep reading for the full picture.

What Is pCloud?

pCloud is an online storage service with apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. The company started in 2013, has its registered office in Baar, Switzerland, and says it has over 22 million users. At signup, you choose where your files are stored: the US, in Dallas data centers, or the EU, in Luxembourg. Moving an existing account to the other region later costs a one-time fee of about $20.

Its central app, pCloud Drive, adds your account to the computer as an extra drive without filling the local disk. Sync, backup, file sharing, and media playback work through it. The company also offers Transfer, a free file-sending tool, and the Pass password manager. If online storage is new to you, the guide to what cloud storage is explains the basics.

Is pCloud Safe?

Yes, for most files. pCloud encrypts every file with 256-bit AES, a widely used encryption standard, both during and after upload. The connection itself is protected by TLS, the same standard that secures banking websites. It also keeps at least five copies of each file across three or more server locations, so a failed drive at one data center doesn’t cost you a file.

Two-factor login adds a one-time code to every sign-in, and the company operates under Swiss data protection law and states full GDPR compliance. Standard encryption uses keys that pCloud manages, though, so the company could technically open stored files. A February 2026 incident let some customers see other people’s file names, folder names, and modification dates in their own accounts.

pCloud told those users that it affected a limited number of accounts, but I couldn’t find a public statement about it from the company.

pCloud Encryption and the Crypto Folder

The pCloud Encryption add-on encrypts files on your device before upload and stores them in the Crypto Folder, so the company never sees their contents. It uses 4096-bit RSA, another common standard, for your private key and 256-bit AES for each file and folder key, and the servers never receive those keys. The add-on costs about $150 for life, or about $50 a year, and works in the desktop and mobile apps.

The Crypto Folder has its own passphrase, separate from your account password, and the company can’t reset it, so a forgotten passphrase locks those files for good. Keep it in a password manager or on paper. Business plans include encryption at no extra charge. In October 2024, researchers at ETH Zurich published flaws in pCloud’s encryption design.

In their scenario, a compromised server could plant files in an account, rename or move existing ones, and replace a user’s keys to decrypt later uploads. pCloud didn’t respond to the researchers before publication and later described the attacks as theoretical. I found no announced fix.

The add-on still protects files if stored data leaks, but its guarantees assume no attacker controls the company’s servers, so I’d keep the most sensitive documents with a service that encrypts files on your device by default.

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pCloud Speed Test Results

I tested the desktop app with two files, a 500 MB archive and a 2.16 GB file, on a Windows 11 PC in Europe. My connection offered 187.95 Mbps of download speed and 19.69 Mbps of upload speed, and the account used the US data region in Dallas. The 2 GB upload averaged about 18.9 Mbps, or 96% of the available upload speed. Downloads were much quicker, at 24 seconds for the archive and 1 minute 45 seconds for the larger file.

pCloud’s combined upload and download times were the lowest I recorded in both tests. The fastest cloud storage comparison lists the other services’ results. Speed was identical on free and paid accounts, and the company says it doesn’t throttle uploads or downloads on any plan. The desktop app also lets you cap sync speed, which keeps bandwidth free for video calls or games.

pCloud Free Plan: What’s Included

Signing up requires only an email address and a password. My new account started with 2 GB. Five setup tasks, such as installing the desktop app, added 1 GB each, and friend invites unlock the last 3 GB of the 10 GB limit. The free plan also includes PC folder backup and automatic photo upload.

Deleted files and old file versions stay recoverable for 15 days. Free accounts also have activity rules: pCloud deletes a free account and its files after 12 months without a login, and new users must verify their email address within 30 days. Signing in once in a while keeps a free account active, and paid and lifetime accounts aren’t affected. The free cloud storage ranking puts pCloud’s plan next to MEGA and Google Drive.

pCloud Features

Sync and Backup

The Sync tab pairs a folder on your computer with one in pCloud, and changes on either side copy over. When you edit a large file, pCloud uploads only the changed parts, so small edits sync quickly. Backup is separate: it uploads chosen PC folders or whole drives and keeps them current, so files stay recoverable if the computer fails. pCloud can also import files from Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Google Photos, which makes switching easier.

Those imports can repeat once every 28 days, and each Google Photos import copies up to 2,000 pictures, so a large library takes several rounds. Facebook backups repeat every seven days. A NAS, a network storage drive kept at home, can also back up to pCloud through common file-transfer protocols.

File Recovery: Trash, Revisions, and Rewind

Paid plans let you recover deleted files, and earlier copies of edited ones, from the past 30 days. Rewind goes further and rolls the whole account, or selected folders, back to a chosen date, so it can undo a bad sync or a ransomware attack. Earlier versions and deleted files don’t count toward your storage.

Extended File History, a paid extra, lengthens every recovery period to 365 days. Coverage starts on the purchase date and can’t bring back files lost earlier, so add it before files go missing.

File Sharing

Share links are public by default, but paid accounts can add a password and an end date, so send sensitive files from a paid account. Each link comes with download and traffic statistics, and links can show your own logo, message, and cover image. File requests let other people add files to a folder without seeing what’s already in it.

Photos, Music, and Video

The apps include a built-in music player with playlists and sorting by artist and album, and videos stream without a download first. The Photos view arranges images on a timeline and includes basic editing tools.

The cloud storage for photos guide ranks photo-focused services.

Document Editing With pCloud Docs

pCloud Docs, added in September 2026, edits documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, Markdown, and plain text in the browser. Changes save straight back to your account, files keep their native Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats, and pCloud processes the files itself.

People invited to a folder can edit the same file at once, with each cursor labeled by name, though invitations only work between accounts in the same data region, so collaborators should pick the same region at signup. Documents support comments and tracked changes, and the PDF editor adds annotations, redaction, and form filling. Docs requires a paid plan.

File Size and Link Traffic Limits

pCloud sets no maximum file size, so large video projects and disk images upload whole. Shared links do have a monthly traffic limit. Downloads and streams by other people count against an allowance of 50 GB on the free plan, rising to 1 TB, 4 TB, and 20 TB on the Premium, Premium Plus, and Ultra plans. For scale, 1 TB is about 500 hours of HD video, and heavy users can buy extra traffic.

pCloud Transfer, Pass, and Save

• pCloud Transfer sends up to 5 GB of files at a time by email or link, with no account required. Password protection is optional and limits each encrypted file to 200 MB, and transfers stay available for seven days.
• pCloud Pass is a separate password manager with a free plan for one device and paid plans for unlimited devices.
• pCloud Save, a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, copies images, videos, and files from websites to your account.

pCloud Apps and Ease of Use

Desktop apps cover Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Mint, and the web app works in a browser with nothing to install. The phone app has tabs for Files, the Crypto Folder, and Photos, and its side menu lists audio, documents, offline files, trash, shared links, and file requests. On first launch, it offers to enable Automatic Upload.

Its settings let you upload photos, videos, or both, and choose between new items only and the whole camera roll. Other settings cover which phone folders upload and whether mobile data is used. The app locks after a set idle time and unlocks with a passcode or fingerprint. The Free Up Device Storage option removes local copies of photos already backed up.

The Android app can also scan paper documents straight into your account. On an iPhone, the app appears in Files, so other apps can save to it directly. A Live Photo arrives in pCloud as two files, a still image and a short video, so keep iCloud Photos if the motion is important to you.

pCloud Pricing and Plans

All prices are in US dollars, before tax. Plans differ in storage and link traffic, and new purchases come with a 14-day refund window, short for a lifetime purchase, so test the free plan first. Family plans are lifetime-only, splitting 2 TB, 5 TB, or 10 TB among up to five people.

Business plans start at about $96 per user each year, with a three-user minimum, and include 180 days of file history. Lower-cost services appear in the cheapest cloud storage roundup.

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Is a pCloud Lifetime Plan Worth It?

A lifetime plan pays for itself after about five years. The 2 TB license costs just under $500, almost exactly five years of yearly billing at about $100, and the 10 TB license follows the same math. The 500 GB license breaks even a little sooner, after just under four and a half years.

The terms define lifetime as the shorter of 99 years or the account holder’s life. The main risk is the company itself: the license lasts only as long as pCloud operates, so buy lifetime storage only if you plan to keep your files there for years.

Verdict

Who should choose pCloud? People whose files are mostly photos, video, or archives. It had the lowest combined transfer times I recorded, sets no file size limit, and its one-time pricing pays off for long-term users. PC folder backup and Rewind also recover files after a deleted folder or a ransomware attack.

The catch is privacy. pCloud keeps the keys to standard files, its Crypto Folder costs extra, and the weaknesses ETH Zurich reported still have no announced fix. If you mainly store tax records, contracts, or ID scans, choose a service where only you have the keys, and the cloud storage guide covers the alternatives.

pCloud has been in business since 2013, a solid record for a company that sells storage for life. For other files, start on the free plan and test the speed on your own connection before paying for lifetime storage.

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