Tips to Manage Your Google Storage
Cloud storage is changing across the industry, and leaders like Google and Microsoft recently announced they are no longer offering free, unlimited storage to their higher education customers. Beginning in June 2025, Google will enforce a campus-wide, pooled storage maximum of 100 TB, which includes core services like Google Mail, Calendar, and Drive.
As part of this new model, faculty, staff, and students have received unique storage limits in Google Drive based on how much storage each community has used in the past:
- Faculty My Drive - 100 GB
- Staff My Drive - 50 GB
- Students My Drive - 25 GB
- Shared Drives - 25 GB
The good news? 86% of CMU community members are well below their new limit and will not notice an impact on their work.
Is that really enough Google storage for me?
Yes, these new limits should give you plenty of space to handle your needs. For context, one gigabyte can hold approximately 10,000 documents, 500-1,000 high-resolution photos, or nearly 2 hours of video.
But if you’re still concerned, don’t worry! Schedule a consultation with Computing Services to review your storage and find the best solution for you.
Tips to Manage Your Google Storage
Managing your storage is a breeze! Here are two quick tips to get you started:
- Avoid storing personal data, like photos or music, in your CMU Google Workspace Account.
- Use Shared Drives instead of My Drive for research, university business, or other work that individuals other than yourself may need to access if you leave the university.
Visit Google Drive Best Practices for more. We’ll continue to add guidance to this page over the next few months, including a short instructional video series.