What Cloud Storage Requirements Best Suit My Needs?
How much cloud storage do I need? We help you plan for your current and future cloud storage requirements with the best pricing and features.
Figuring out your current cloud storage can be difficult because we never know how much data we will need to store in the future.
While a free cloud storage plan of a few hundred gigabytes may be enough now, we constantly take photos, videos, and create documents that will quickly take up storage, meaning you would have to update your cloud storage plan sooner than you thought.
To make things easier and to plan for your future storage needs, we explain in detail the cloud storage requirements for personal, business, and enterprise use, and the best cloud storage to meet any of your storage needs.
Table of contents
- What types of cloud storage plans are available?
- What types of files take up the most storage?
- How much cloud storage do I need for my files?
- How much cloud storage do I need in the future?
- Related articles
What types of cloud storage plans are available?
Free cloud storage
For many users, your cloud storage requirements may be low, as you only have a few photos to save in a separate cloud service as an additional backup for files. For this, some free cloud storage plans may be enough for:
- Photos
- Documents
- Important files (contracts, IDs, invoices, and personal records)
- Small media files (short videos or audio clips)
- Occasional backups from a phone or computer
If you do choose a free cloud storage plan, consider the confidentiality and privacy of these files, as not all free cloud plans offer zero-knowledge encryption, so the cloud provider can view the files you store in the cloud.
For example, Terabox offers 1TB of free storage, but includes ads that collect your data, download and upload limits, and a high risk of deleting your files without permission.
If you want enough cloud storage for documents, photos, or small media files, Internxt offers 1GB of zero-knowledge, post-quantum encryption for free forever, which is enough for:
- Photos: ~ 200–400 photos (depending on phone quality and compression)
- Documents: ~ 5,000–20,000 pages worth of text files or PDFs)
- Important files (contracts, IDs, invoices, personal records): usually hundreds to a few thousand documents, since these are generally small in size
- Small media files (short videos or audio clips): ~ 10–20 short videos (30–60 seconds) or ~ 100–300 audio files, depending on quality.
So if your cloud storage requirements focus on privacy for confidential documents, photos, or other important files, Internxt Drive is the best encrypted cloud storage to meet these needs.
Paid subscription vs lifetime accounts
If no free storage plan is enough, then you may want to consider a paid subscription or a lifetime plan if you have a fixed amount of storage you want to store for a lifetime without paying additional subscription charges.
Many paid cloud storage plans range from 200GB to 5TB monthly, annual, or lifetime plans.
For Internxt paid plans, it can meet your cloud storage requirements for photos, videos, and more with its 1TB, 3TB, and 5TB lifetime and annual plans. Annual plans are paid on a monthly basis, or you can avoid a subscription altogether with a one-time payment lifetime plan.
With these plans, it's enough to store on average the following amounts of files
| Plan | Storage | Features | Annual (Paid monthly) | Lifetime Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | 1TB |
|
€9.99/month | €380 |
| Premium | 3TB |
|
€19.99/month | €580 |
| Ultimate | 5TB |
|
€29.99/month | €780 |
| *Prices are correct at the time of writing and are subject to change. For latest prices, check https://internxt.com/pricing | ||||
Aside from post-quantum and zero-knowledge cloud storage, Internxt includes a full suite of privacy products and online security tools to ensure your data remains safe.
These include Antivirus, VPN, Cleaner, Meet, Mail, and more. A full breakdown of what’s included in Internxt’s pricing is below.
| Internxt Plan | Storage | Photos (2–5MB) | HD Video (1080p) | 4K Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | 1TB | ~200,000–400,000 photos | ~600 hours | ~140 hours |
| Premium | 3TB | ~600,000–1,200,000 photos | ~1,800 hours | ~420 hours |
| Ultimate | 5TB | ~1–2 million photos | ~3,000 hours | ~700 hours |
To get started with Internxt, visit our website, and you’ll get an 85% off our lifetime plans, and you will get all the cloud storage requirements you need for uploading, backing up, syncing, and sharing your videos, photos, or documents.
What types of files take up the most storage?
If your cloud storage requirements are for storing videos, applications, or cloud backups, then these types of files will generally take up the most storage as they contain large amounts of data per file.
4K videos, especially, can take up a lot of space in your cloud storage because they contain a large number of frames per second and retain high levels of detail and colour information. Even short video clips can quickly add up to several gigabytes depending on quality and length.
For these kinds of files, you will need 1 TB of storage at a minimum, or consider between 3 and 5 TB if you plan to store more videos in the future.
Device backups that include photos, videos, messages, and app data combined into a single file can also take up a lot of storage because they often grow over time as more data is added to the device.
Next are Photos and audio files. Depending on the format, these can also take up a lot of cloud storage space, especially RAW files used in photography.
While a single image won’t lead you to getting the cloud storage full notification, large photo libraries consisting of thousands of images can accumulate a substantial amount of storage over time, so you will likely need a 1TB plan at a minimum, especially for photographers or professional recorders.
Finally, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations usually take up very little storage in comparison and are rarely a major factor unless there are extremely large numbers of files or embedded media within them.
For these types of files, free cloud storage or subscriptions of 200 or 500 GB may be enough. Just be aware of the privacy of the platform if you’re storing confidential files, especially big tech companies like Google Drive or Dropbox.
How much cloud storage do I need for my files?
Personal or family
For personal or family use, cloud storage needs usually depend on how many devices and how much media you store. If you mainly save documents and occasional photos, a free or 500 GB plan should be enough.
Internxt offers cloud storage for personal use, with guaranteed security as the platform is fully open source, independently audited, and protects your privacy with post-quantum and zero-knowledge encryption.
Families often require larger storage because multiple users back up their devices, so a plan in the 1TB to 3TB range is typically suitable to keep everything secure and accessible without constantly managing space.
If you need cloud storage for a family plan, then Internxt has you covered.
We offer the same encrypted cloud storage and private products for families, with plans available for 1 and 2 TB for multiple users. You can add family members, assign storage, and more.
Prices start from just €6/month/user. For more information, visit our website below.
Cloud storage for business
Businesses typically require between 2TB and 10TB or more, depending on team size and the type of files they handle.
Small teams storing mainly documents may manage with a few terabytes, but companies working with media files, design assets, or regular backups will need higher capacities and the ability to scale storage as data grows.
For smaller teams and businesses, Internxt offers up to 2TB of cloud storage for teams to store, collaborate, and share files.
It offers the same privacy and security as our personal plans and offers multiple compliance to ensure the best data protection for health, finance, and other industries.
Enterprises
Enterprises require significantly larger and more flexible cloud storage solutions due to the need to store hundreds of terabytes or even petabytes of data across multiple departments for continuous operations.
Enterprise storage often includes large databases, system backups, internal communications, and media assets.
Due to the nature of enterprise data, the type of cloud storage requirements must include scalability, high availability, and strong security, as well as compliance with data regulations.
For this, Internxt offers S3 object storage, a cloud storage dedicated for enterprises or large businesses to access and store huge amounts of data and backup files securely.
Internxt S3 offers a flat pay-as-you-go payment model of €7/TB/month, with no additional data transfer fees, allowing your enterprise to manage, scale, and migrate to cloud storage efficiently.
To get started with Internxt S3, visit our website, fill out the contact form, and a member of our sales team will contact you as soon as possible.
How much cloud storage do I need in the future?
As cloud storage is now the most popular and secure way to store your files, it’s important to plan for your future cloud storage needs, as photos, videos, and backups can accumulate over time.
So, if you have 1TB of storage that you want to store in the cloud today, then you should consider purchasing a 3TB plan to estimate for current storage growth and to avoid constant upgrades and disruptions.
Businesses and teams often see even faster growth due to ongoing projects, shared files, and backups, so a cloud storage plan that allows for full scalability, such as Internxt S3, is the best option, as you can upgrade your plan as you wish easily from as little as 10 terabytes to 1o petabytes of data.
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