How Can I Get Google Drive 1TB for Free?

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage solution that lets users save files online and manage them from their smartphones, desktops, laptops, and tablets. It’s very convenient because of its cross-device availability, and it has a lot of unique advantages. For example, using Google Drive with the backup option, you can easily share any file from a remote location.

However, Google Drive only offers 15 GB of free storage to an individual account. With this limit, managing your personal and professional data can be quite hard. If you often use Google Drive, you may quickly fill up all of your free storage.

But what if you could upgrade your Google Drive storage to 1 TB? Yes, that’s possible! Then the next question is, how can I get Google Drive 1TB for free? Read on, because we’ve got answers for you.

How Can I Get Google Drive 1TB For Free?

A new feature by Google Maps will help you get 1 TB of Google Drive entirely for free. It’s called Google’s Local Guides program, and it’s an exclusive program by Google that focuses on improving Google Maps.

In order to get 1 TB of free storage, you first need to become a member. As a member of this program, you will contribute to Google Maps, and you can earn points and unlock various rewards, such as free storage. That said, you need to be patient, as you won’t get free 1 TB storage overnight. We’ll break down all of the details and steps below.

Google Maps Local Guides Program

The Local Guides Program by Google is a local search and discovery service, similar in many ways to Yelp and Foursquare. So, users can write reviews, add new places, upload photos, update outdated information, and answer simple questions. Furthermore, each successful contribution is worth 1 point. 

Overall, the program has a five-level scale. You can gradually accumulate points to climb the scale, and as you go, you will gain access to new products and events, including the 1 TB free Google Drive Storage. Here are the features of each level:

• Access to exclusive contests in their country are offered to users at Level 1 (0 – 4 points)  
• Users get early access to new Google products at Level 2 (5 – 49 points)
• Google Maps will show users with an official Local Guides badge at Level 3 (50 – 199 points)  
• Free 1 TB Google Drive storage is given to users at Level 4 (200 – 499 points)
• Finally, users will become eligible for the company’s yearly inaugural summit at Level 5 (500+ points)

How to Join the Program

Firstly, you need to log in to your Google Drive personal account.

Step #1.  Visit the Local Guides homepage and enter your address, including your city and country. Then, review the program terms and click Register. 

Step #2.  After clicking on Register, you will then be redirected to a new page. You need to click on Start contributing on the new page at level 1.

Step #3.  This last click will take you to the Google Map interface with the map where you live. At this point, you can contribute to Google Maps through different tasks. The tasks have three parts, including Reviews, Contributions, and Photos.

Note: For your contribution to be considered successful, turn on your Location History. You can do this from the Setting options. 

Step #4.  To write a review or add a photo of any location with Local Guides, click on the specific site. It can be a cafe, park, restaurant, gym, etc. Just below the location, you will find the options to Add Photo and Write Review. 

Step #5.   Apart from writing a review, you can click on Add Image to upload any photo of that place. Select an image or just drag and drop it into the frame. The image will then be automatically uploaded to Google Maps. 

After successful uploading, you will receive a notification from Google Maps. Your photos and reviews will help users judge the quality of that location. However, make sure you upload accurate photos as users can report false information. 

As soon as you contribute to the local guide and reach level 4, you will instantly receive the offer for free 1 TB Google Storage. You will receive an activation email from Google. Open it, then click on Activate your free storage to get free 1 TB storage. 

How Do I Get More Google Drive Space for Free?

As we mentioned above, Google Drive only offers you 15 GB of free storage. This 15 GB free storage is divided between three Google tools: Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.

Therefore, your mail, files, and photos chip away at your overall 15 GB of space. Hence, you may run out of 15 GB of storage quickly.

In such a case, people may join the Local Guides program to get their free storage as we just described, or perhaps look up paid additional storage. Fortunately, Google offers extra storage through Google One subscription-based service. But there are also ways through which you can free up some of your Google Drive space. 

Below are detailed tips to optimize and free up space in your Google Drive without paying a single penny. However, an important note is that these suggestions are only applicable if you are willing and able to delete files from your Google Drive. 

Free Up Google Photos Storage

Each photo and video backed up in its original size will eat up a lot of space. However, you will get free storage if you back up photos and videos in High-Quality mode. This means you need to compress images to 16 MP and videos to 1080p. By doing so, you can easily access as much space as you want. 

• Visit the photo settings page and select High quality (free unlimited storage).
• Now, click on the Recover storage option. It will compress your existing media files (photos & videos) and will no longer count against your Google storage limit. 

Use Google’s Default File Formats

It’s recommended to upload files to the original format without converting them to any other form. Uploading files in the default format will help you to efficiently use your Google Drive space for free.

Try uploading google files in a format such as Docs, Drawings, Sheets, Slides, etc. Google will store only files uploaded in these formats for free, meaning, without counting against your quota. 

Avoid Adding Shared Files to Google Drive

The files shared with you by another person do not occupy any space unless you add the file to your Google Drive. To keep your space free, never download shared files to your Google Drive unless required. 

Clean Your Google Drive Trash Frequently

Whenever you delete any file in Google Drive, it still remains in the trash folder. Therefore, that particular file still uses some of your Drive space.

Gradually, the trash folder increases its size and consumes your Drive storage. To keep this from happening, you must frequently delete your trash. That way, you will never end up with full storage. To delete your trash, you should: 

• Open Google Drive and click on the Trash option.
• After, click on Empty Trash.

Clean Up Your Gmail

Fortunately, emails do not take up much of your Drive space. However, the attachments do. Cleaning up your spam, inbox, and Gmail Bin is a great way to free up space. To remove unnecessary attachments: 

• Search “has:attachment larger:10M” in your Gmail search bar.
• Select and delete unnecessary emails
• On the left sidebar of your Gmail homepage, click on More and select Bin.
• After going to the Bin page, click on Empty Bin now. 

Note: Only store necessary attachments in your Google Drive. 

Eliminate Duplicate Files

While saving files to your Google Drive, you may accidentally create duplicates. As you can imagine, these duplicate files will hamper your storage saving efforts.

Therefore, the best solution is to look through your Google Drive storage and delete the duplicate files. By deleting these files, you can free up a large amount of your Drive space. 

To delete duplicates:

• Go to your Google Drive account and click on List View on the upper right side. 
• Now, you will get a list of all your files. To delete duplicate files, long-press the Ctrl key and select replicas that start with “Copy of…” or files that have the same name. 
• After selecting all the unnecessary duplicates, right-click on any single file and click on Remove to delete all duplicate files.

Note: Always empty your trash after deleting the duplicate files. 

Try Deleting Large Files 

After using Google Drive for a while, your Drive can store large outdated files. For example, these large files can be any video or apps linked to your Google Drive. To free up space, you can delete these unwanted large files. Luckily, it will just take a couple of minutes to remove these. 

• Visit https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/quota through your browser. You will see the list of large files in your Drive. 
• Browse these large files and delete any unnecessary ones. 
• For apps, click on the gear-shaped icon in the upper right corner of your Google Drive. Select Settings and then select Manage Apps. 
• If you find apps with hidden data, just click on the right in the gray Options box and select Delete hidden app data.
• Once done with this, empty your trash.

Hopefully, you can quickly free up some space at your Google Drive with the above steps. You don’t have to pay any money, and all you need is to optimize your Google Drive and free up some space accordingly. 

How Much Does 1 TB Cost on Google Drive?

Let us firstly clarify the difference between Google Drive and Google One. To start, Google Drive is the storage service that offers users 15 GB of free storage.

On the other hand, Google One is an alternative to Google Drive to upgrade your storage. Upon subscribing to Google One, you can add more storage to your Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail. 

The consumer version of Google Drive has now got a new name with new benefits at a lower price. So now, Google Drive is Google One.

The signup for Google One starts at just $2 a month, and this membership offers access to Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, and various other features. Moreover, if you are an Android user, you get an automatic backup for your contacts, photos, and messages.

As mentioned, the introductory pricing of Google One starts with 100 GB for $2 per month. Other storage options include 200GB for $2.99 per month, or for 1 TB storage, you can buy the plan at $9.99 per month.

Since people have high technology smartphones, they require more space for photos, videos, and other files. Seeing this revolution, Google came out with extra-paid storage and a family plan. Therefore, you can also buy a family plan with access to five family members, where each member will get their own storage and benefits.

Here is the complete list of different plans with their prices:

• 100 GB at $2 a month and $20 per year
• 200 GB at $3 a month and $30 per year
• 1 Tb at $9.99 a month
• 2 TB at $10 a month
• 10 TB at $100 a month
• 20 TB at $200 a month
• 30 TB at $300 a month

Conclusion

If you were asking yourself, “How can I get Google Drive 1TB for free?” we hope you’ve found the answer in this article. You may find various cloud storage solutions across the web, but Google is known for its quality at a low price.

We hope you now have a clear idea about how to get Google Drive 1 TB, as well as more Google Drive space, for free. By following the given steps above you’ll be able to optimize your online storage with ease.