Apple's new iCloud+ big data plans start at $30 per month for 6TB

AppleInsider · September 13, 2023 5:12PM

Apple has at long last increased the maximum storage available on iCloud+ with new tiers at 6TB and 12TB -- and it comes at a steep but proportionate cost.

Starting with the release of iOS 17, iCloud+ will add a 6TB tier for $30 per month, and a 12TB tier for $60 per month. There's no detail yet of any discount for paying annually.

Nor has there been any confirmation about how this affects users on the Apple One bundle. Each tier of that includes some iCloud storage space, but the maximum is 2TB.

Currently Apple One costs $32.95 per month for the Premier tier which is the one with 2TB of iCloud storage.

At present, buying iCloud storage on its own per month costs $0.99 for 50GB, $2.99 for 200GB, and $9.99 for 2TB.

Apple's new pricing tiers, then, are simply multiples of the current 2TB cost.

Read on AppleInsider

glenncharles · September 13, 2023 6:02PM

The 2nd paragraph has a typo…I hope the 2TB tier won’t cost $30. Should this be the 6TB plan?

NEO_STEPHENS · September 13, 2023 6:39PM

Dang! That's quite expensive, I just use iDrive to back up my contacts, photos, videos, calendar. It doesn't back up the apps, but I just back the entire iPhone up to my computer.

imat · September 13, 2023 7:20PM

If only Apple would discount the prices when part of an Apple one subscription… please…

FileMakerFeller · September 14, 2023 7:33AM

12TB of cloud storage, fully backed up, is NOT CHEAP.

I compare it to a 12TB WD desktop drive which Amazon is selling for US$229 - you'd want two of them so that you have a local backup, so that's US$458, plus for an off-site backup I think Backblaze is the best value at US$130 for two years (unlimited data, but you can't connect a huge number of external drives to your computer, so there's a practical limit). Electricity costs for the drives is a maximum US$4 per year each (as estimated here) but more likely to be negligible because they spin down while not in use.

Over the estimated 5 year lifespan of the drives, you'd pay a total of US$783 but you wouldn't have the ease of access that the iCloud storage provides. Backblaze has a web administration interface that's workable, plus iOS and Android apps for direct download to a smartphone or tablet, but it doesn't really have the integration of iCloud.

Five years of 12TB storage on iCloud is 60 months x US$60 pm for a total of US$3600. Interestingly, Backblaze has another product for storing data ("B2") that is priced at US$5 per TB per month, with an extra fee for downloading the data. It's designed for storage where you don't want to reserve any space up front, so you're charged only for what you use, but it's noteworthy that the pricing per TB is the same as iCloud (which doesn't charge for downloads).

For that amount of money it could well be worth building your own SSD-based NAS (Jeff Geerling has a great post here for a 40TB, dual 10Gbps networking NAS with a materials cost of US$4330; you can RAID that for 24TB of storage with 16TB of redundancy plus back up the NAS to Backblaze for the US$130/2yr mentioned above). 8TB SSDs are around US$400 for SATA drives and around US$750 for NVMe drives on Amazon, so you can modify the build cost according to your needs since the drives are the most expensive part.

NYC362 · September 14, 2023 9:33AM

What I really wish they did as well, was to have a 1TB plan for let's say, $4.99 or $5.99. Going from 200GB to 2TB is quite a leap.

LeoMC · September 14, 2023 12:32PM

6T from another company only costs 9€/mo (that's 3 times less).
I know there are differences but they are definitely not worth an extra 19€/mo...

chasm · September 15, 2023 4:11AM

LeoMC said:

6T from another company only costs 9€/mo (that's 3 times less).
I know there are differences but they are definitely not worth an extra 19€/mo...

I beg to differ, though you didn't name the other company.

I don't know that the other company encrypts everything end-to-end so they have no idea (and can't find out) what that data contains.

I don't know that the other company does not collect AND SELL data about my usage and/or the contents of uploaded data.

I don't know that the other company wouldn't turn my data over to law enforcement if asked, rather than tell them that "we don't have the keys to that data, sorry."

Only once I know those things could I say whether your other company's storage is worth the money.

LeoMC · September 15, 2023 8:22AM

@chasm ;
I won't promote other companies on an Apple forum, suffice to say I'm talking about M.
Apple is able to know what is in your cloud (think about the children sexual abuse scanner - if they wouldn't been able to see your data, how could they scan it? and if you're telling me it's automated, I have a bridge to sell you).
M doesn't collect and sell my data (I'm talking about the business service, because I have read thoroughly the rules for the EU).
Apple turns over the data to law enforcement agencies, don't be a child.

But I am not here to advertise or diss one service or another - I use them both, I think they are both great and both serve their purpose - I am just here to give a thought.

spheric · September 15, 2023 11:54AM

LeoMC said:

@chasm ;
think about the children sexual abuse scanner - if they wouldn't been able to see your data, how could they scan it?

You're misinformed. It was well documented that the scanning would be done LOCALLY, ON-DEVICE, and compared against image hashes from a centralised database on your machine. It would NOT be scanned in the cloud.

As it is, the tech has been cancelled due to all the legitimate concerns uttered by privacy advocates, so it's moot at this point.
But your mention of the planned CSAM scanning does not support your point.

LeoMC · September 15, 2023 12:16PM

Now I am certain some of you have not and will not read the terms of the services; here's a direct quote from iCloud legal agreement:

You acknowledge and agree that Apple may, without liability to you, access, use, preserve and/or disclose your Account information and any Content to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or a third party, as Apple believes is reasonably necessary or appropriate, if legally required to do so or if Apple has a good faith belief that such access, use, disclosure, or preservation is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process or request; (b) enforce this Agreement, including investigation of any potential violation thereof; (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address security, fraud or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property or safety of Apple, its users, a third party, or the public as required or permitted by law. You acknowledge that Apple is not responsible or liable in any way for any Content provided by others and has no duty to screen such Content. However, consistent with Apple's privacy policy, Apple reserves the right at all times to determine whether Content is appropriate and in compliance with this Agreement, and may prescreen, move, refuse, modify and/or remove Content at any time, without prior notice and in its sole discretion, if such Content is found to be in violation of this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable.

So: Apple is given the right to access, use or disclose (even to 3rd parties) every bit of iCloud content and is free to prescreen or modify it as it sees fit.
It's not me saying that but Apple, so stop showing unconditional support and start being a little more critical, if you want better services and/or products.

I repeat: iCloud+ is a great service - I use it, because 5 Gb is a joke - but I will never be dumb enough as to pay 30€ when I could pay 11€ for the same - more or less - service.

spheric · September 15, 2023 12:33PM

I'm disappointed that pricing has not been at all adjusted.

It's been unchanged since 2017.

Apple's new iCloud+ big data plans start at $30 per month for 6TB

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