Dropbox, home to over 18 million paying users worldwide, is putting a stop to unlimited storage for its Advanced plan, citing misuse of the service by a growing number of customers. The file hosting giant observed that many users have been purchasing Advanced subscriptions for purposes such as crypto and Chia mining, pooling storage for personal use, and even reselling the storage, rather than for running businesses or organizations as initially intended. The situation has been exacerbated in recent months, with a surge in such behavior following similar policy changes by rival services.

The company has been grappling with the challenge of constantly monitoring and distinguishing between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” use cases, a task which it has deemed unviable. Consequently, Dropbox has decided to abandon its “as much space as you need” policy and switch to a metered model. Under the new policy, starting this week, customers who purchase a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will receive 15TB of storage space, shareable by a team. The company clarifies that each additional active license will offer an extra 5TB of storage, a move that will significantly alter how its customers interact with the platform.

Dropbox to End Unlimited Storage for Business Advanced Plan

Dropbox, a popular cloud storage service with over 18 million paying users worldwide, has announced that it will cease to offer unlimited storage for its Advanced plan designed for business customers. The decision comes in response to an increasing number of users exploiting the service for non-business related purposes, such as cryptocurrency mining, pooling storage for personal use, or reselling storage.

Overcoming Storage Abuse

In recent months, the company has observed a surge in such behavior, as competitors have begun implementing similar changes in their storage policies. Users exploiting the service consume considerably higher storage amounts compared to genuine business users, which could potentially jeopardize the reliability of the platform for all customers.

Dropbox’s policy for the Advanced plan has always been to offer as much storage as necessary for legitimate business operations, not unlimited storage for any use case. The company found that continuously monitoring for "acceptable" and "unacceptable" use was not a sustainable solution. Consequently, Dropbox has decided to terminate the "as much space as you need" policy and transition to a metered model.

The New Metered Model

Under the new system, customers purchasing a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will receive a shareable 15TB of storage space. This is described by Dropbox as sufficient to store approximately 100 million documents, 4 million photos, or 7500 hours of HD video. Each additional active license will provide an additional 5TB of storage.

Dropbox assures that over 99% of Advanced customers currently using less than 35TB of storage per license will be able to maintain their team’s total storage amount at the time of notification of the changes, plus an additional 5TB credit of pooled storage for five years without any extra fees added to their current plan.

Customers using 35TB or more of storage per license can continue to use their current storage amount, up to a total of 1,000TB, at no additional cost. Dropbox will contact these customers to discuss suitable limited-storage plan options.

Storage Add-Ons and Migration

Beginning September 18, new customers requiring more storage space will be able to purchase storage add-ons. Existing customers will have this option from November 1, priced at 1TB for $10 per month or $96 per year.

Dropbox has stated it will gradually transition existing customers to the new policy on November 1 and will notify everyone at least 30 days before their planned migration date.

Final Thoughts

This is not the first time a cloud storage service has ended its unlimited storage offering. Google ended unlimited storage for its highest-tier Workspace plan in May. Users who migrated to Dropbox for its more generous storage offering will now need to reconsider their options. While this might be a minor inconvenience to some, it’s a necessary step for Dropbox to ensure a reliable and fair experience for all its users.