Free Android photo backup — cost comparison (2026)
You can back up your first 30 GB completely free, forever — no credit card, no trial — by using Backblaze B2 (10 GB free), Cloudflare R2 (10 GB free), and iDrive e2 (10 GB free, no card required) as three separate Breazzy destinations. Above the free tier, 100 GB costs about $0.60/month on B2. Google One charges $1.99 for the same amount; iCloud+ charges $2.99.
30 GB free forever — stack provider free tiers
Because Breazzy supports multiple destinations simultaneously, you can spread photos across providers and use each one's permanent free tier. Three providers offer free storage with no time limit:
| Provider | Free storage | Credit card needed? | Setup guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze B2 | 10 GB forever | Yes (not charged until over free tier) | B2 guide → |
| Cloudflare R2 | 10 GB forever | Yes (not charged until over free tier) | R2 guide → |
| iDrive e2 | 10 GB forever | No | iDrive e2 guide → |
Combined: 30 GB free forever. A photo library under 30 GB — roughly 8,000–15,000 photos depending on your camera — costs nothing, ever. Set up all three buckets, add each as a destination in Breazzy, assign different albums to each, and your total monthly bill is $0.
This is unique to Breazzy's bring-your-own-bucket model. No other photo backup app lets you split across multiple providers.
How does splitting across providers work in practice?
In Breazzy, each destination gets assigned albums. For example: Camera → iDrive e2 (free), Screenshots → Cloudflare R2 (free), WhatsApp → Backblaze B2 (free). Each bucket stays under its free tier independently. If any album grows beyond the provider's free limit, only that album's cost rises — the others stay free.
What happens when I exceed the free tier on one provider?
Only the storage above the free limit is billed, at that provider's per-TB rate. B2 charges $6/TB/month, R2 charges $15/TB/month, iDrive e2 charges $2.49/TB/month. You can move albums to the cheapest provider once they grow.
Is there a completely free option for larger libraries?
Not permanently. The 30 GB combined free tier is the ceiling. Above that, iDrive e2 at $2.49/TB is the cheapest paid option — about $0.25/month per 100 GB, less than a cup of coffee per year.
Cost per 100 GB per month (May 2026)
| Service | Storage | Egress | App / subscription | Total / mo | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breazzy + Backblaze B2 | $0.60 | Free up to 3× stored | $0 | ~$0.60 | Cheapest mainstream option. 10 GB free forever. |
| Breazzy + Cloudflare R2 | $1.50 | $0 (free) | $0 | $1.50 | Best if you re-download often. 10 GB free forever. |
| Breazzy + Amazon S3 Standard | $2.30 | $0.09/GB out | $0 | $2.30+ | Most reliable; most expensive. |
| Breazzy + S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | $0.40 | $0.03/GB retrieval | $0 | ~$0.40 | Cheapest if you rarely view originals. |
| Breazzy + Wasabi | $0.69 | Free (fair-use cap) | $0 | ~$0.69 | 90-day minimum storage charge. |
| Google One (100 GB) | — | included | $1.99/mo or $19.99/yr | $1.99 | Photos compressed unless "original quality" selected. |
| Google One (200 GB) | — | included | $2.99/mo or $29.99/yr | $2.99 | For 200 GB. |
| iCloud+ 50 GB | — | included | $0.99/mo | $0.99 | 50 GB only; Android support is read-only via iCloud.com. |
| iCloud+ 200 GB | — | included | $2.99/mo | $2.99 | For 200 GB. |
| iCloud+ 2 TB | — | included | $9.99/mo | $9.99 | For 2 TB. |
| Amazon Photos (Prime) | — | included | $14.99/mo (Prime, bundled) | $0 incremental | Unlimited photos at original quality if you already pay Prime; 5 GB video. |
| Amazon Photos (standalone) | — | included | $1.99/mo | $1.99 | 100 GB standalone tier. |
All numbers verified 2026-05-20. Sources: Backblaze, Cloudflare, AWS, Wasabi, Google One, iCloud+, Amazon Photos.
What does that mean for a real library?
The median Breazzy user has between 30 and 200 GB of photos. Here is what an actual annual bill looks like at each library size, on Backblaze B2:
| Library size | Storage cost / mo | Storage cost / year |
|---|---|---|
| 30 GB | $0.18 | $2.16 |
| 100 GB | $0.60 | $7.20 |
| 250 GB | $1.50 | $18.00 |
| 500 GB | $3.00 | $36.00 |
| 1 TB | $6.00 | $72.00 |
| 2 TB | $12.00 | $144.00 |
Breazzy + Backblaze B2 at $6/TB/month, May 2026 prices.
When Google One / iCloud / Amazon Photos still wins
If you have an active Amazon Prime subscription you are already paying $179/year for, Amazon Photos costs you nothing extra — and it is the cheapest "managed" option in this list. Google One bundles 100 GB with shared Google services (Drive, Gmail), so if you are buying it for those anyway, the photo storage is essentially free. iCloud+ makes sense for iPhone households where the Apple integration matters more than the price-per-GB.
Breazzy wins on price-per-GB above 200 GB, on portability (you can leave any time without losing access), and on privacy (no provider has read access to your library).
How prices update
This table is refreshed on a quarterly cron in February, May, August, and November. The "verified" date above is the last full pass. If a provider's listed price has moved since, treat that source as authoritative and let us know so we can refresh.