Google Drive is undoubtedly one of the most used cloud storage services at present. There are plenty of cloud storage services available which are also provided by the biggest tech giants. But google drive is more popular among them and the reason is what we all may know.
Google is the leading tech giant dominating through its search engine, android operating system for mobile devices, and some all the modern aspects. Initially, wherever you go, you find google and more important is, you need google to make your everyday life easier.
For example, every online platform, website, ecommerce business, gaming platform prefers a google account to connect you with it and notify you through Gmail.
In this regard, google drive is a cloud storage service offered by Google to help its users to keep backup of their important files, photos, videos, presentations, and so on.
Google drive provides all sorts of cloud storage advantages like synchronization, access from anywhere and any device. Besides, it has some unique features also, with google drive, you can easily handle any of your written projects through Microsoft word like word processor google docs, spreadsheet-like integration called google sheets, slides, and so on.
However, if you are an android user but you are not still concern about google drive features, then you are far behind in this techy world. In this article, we will disclose all the aspects of google drive. So let’s drive into the deep discussion here below,
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Features of google drive: why should you use google drive?
We have already known that google drive is a feature rich cloud storage solution that can make you feel extreme while keeping you organized with all of your work. Google drive has so many interesting features that you should know.
Whether you are a hardcore online activist or a general person who uses the internet just for making your days, you must need an online cloud storage service. Because you can’t always bear a hard drive/flash drive when you have to work remotely and it is not a way to take at present.
But when you have cloud storage like google drive, you don’t even worry about such facts, because you can easily store anything on the drive and can access through anywhere you want, download and edit it with an internet connection.
So, what is special about google drive that you should know? Here we are showing you the main features of google drive so that you can use all of them and take the highest benefit of it.
- easy to use interface for all types of device
- Sync all your files, google drive is the best option to keep track of all of your work while you are using different devices in your workplace and home. Google has made it compatible with android, desktop, and other available versions. therefore, no matter what you are using, just sign in with your Google account and backup and sync everything that you think is important
- Save directly to google drive, when you have installed and set up google drive on your desktop, you can directly save anything like images, documents, and PDF files to your google drive while surfing on the internet. even it will allow you to save Gmail attachments directly to your google accounts
- You can download specific files to work offline or can make them available in the same regard. But google drive isn’t completely supported offline activities. files you have made available for offline if you have done any changes to that file, it must be required an internet connection to update that alter parts in your drive
- Need to convert any PDF files to editable text documents? Google drive has the easiest solution for this. you don’t have to install any software or plugins, just upload the file to your drive and when you will open it, you can see it turns to editable text document
- Share documents, google drive made it super easy to share documents with your friends or anyone else. When you thin to share files from your google drive, just click on that and you will get options like ‘share’ and ‘get link’. you can choose either of them to send the files to receivers Gmail or through link
- google drive features all the office software that you may need, that means whether you are a Microsoft word, excel, PowerPoint user or not, you can do all these things with google drive. Because it has Microsoft-like integration of google docs as a word processor, sheets as excel, and slides as PowerPoint. so, you can manage documents, huge data analysis, and also create presentations with google drive easily
- You can collaborate with your team members to accomplish work without worrying about version control issues. while collaborating, you can leave messages to your offline team members and can purview what has been changed when you aren’t there
- google drive has a customized search option through which you can easily find any specific file from the mass of documents and folders
- google drive offers 15 GB free storage to individuals when they first time create a google account, you can use this free storage to any of your need
- google drive support encryption to keep protected users information, so you can protect your files from prying eyes by encrypting them with a strong password
So, it seems that google drive is like an umbrella covering a lot of things. From the features discussed above, which one you find most important to you?
Google drive storage pricing: everything about google drive storage
Almost all the cloud storage comes with different storage planning to make it adjustable for all types of usage such as individuals and also for businesses. Actually, the importance of cloud storage in our lives cannot be overstated.
We need it for so many reasons that we have seen above, but google drive is distinct and places it at a distinguished level from others in all aspects. Since Microsoft and its services are quite pricey for small business and solo workers, Google offers a completely similar platform to work at a price rate cheaper than Microsoft.
Besides, there is no trouble with installation and periodical updates. Once you have purchased it, you can use it from anywhere and any device just connecting with your google account.
Most people don’t know about the journey of google drive as it was first started as G Suite, then named as workspace. Because at that time it was just a cloud based office productivity tool offered by Gmail, Docs, and Sheets to support businesses.
And in recent years, google includes services like drive, hangout, zoom, and so on.
Google workspace was considered as the great alternative to Microsoft 365 among the small and medium businesses. But it is not completely free although. It offers different business support plans featuring different affordable options.
How much does Google Drive storage cost?
As a starter, you don’t need to buy google drive storage or maybe you need (depending on your purposes), it is because google drive offers free 15 GB storage to all its new users who just open a google account. With that free offering, you can store anything you want like images, videos, documents, etc. besides, you also get a workable office suite to manage your bulk documents work, spreadsheets, and presentation with google drive.
But what if you need more google drive storage? Not to worry, google drive lets its user upgrade their account to engage with more storage. Here is a clear visualization of google drive extra storages with the price. That means you can understand how much it costs to increase your google drive storage.
| storage | Price US $ |
| 15 GB | free |
| 100 GB | $1.99/month ($19.99/year) |
| 200 GB | $2.99/month ($19.99/year) |
| 2 TB | $9.99/month ($99.99/year) |
| 10 TB | $49.99/month |
| 20 TB | $99.99/month |
| 30 TB | $149.99/month |
Google workspace pricing plan
However, google drive is limited in so many aspects and the free version is more restricted than the paid plans. On the other hand, google workspace is more flexible, offers a lot more options especially for businesses to stay organized by providing a hip of workable options in a single platform.
You may be wondering what more that comes with google workspace. Well, we are showing you a list of probable options that come with google workspace. They are,
- Gmail – electronic mailing service
- drive – cloud storage service
- meet – secure video meetings for teams and businesses
- calendar – integrated online calendars
- chat – simplify 1:1 and group chatting
- currents – engage employees, have meaningful discussions, stay current together
- Jamboard – helps to visualize business ideas on a whiteboard style while benefitting from the access and connectivity of an interactive canvas, on mobile or web browser
- Docs – Microsoft like a word processor
- Sheets – Collaborative, smart, secure spreadsheets for fast-moving organizations
- Slides – for creating presentations
- Keep – Keep organized. Capture inspiration and to-dos effortlessly. Collaborate on notes with teammates and set reminders to stay on track
- Sites – Collaboratively create engaging, high-quality sites for your team, project, or event
- Forms – Create custom forms for surveys and questionnaires at no extra cost
All these integrations come along with google workspace. If you take closer you can see these options are highly required for businesses especially for the small and medium business who don’t want to spend a lot of money by hiring extra man force, and want to keep their extra costs lower.
The good news is, Google offers four separate planning which is so affordable. Once you choose any of these, you can enjoy all of these integrations for a limited time. However, Google also offers a 14-day free trial for the entire workspace.
If you are interested to know about the pricing issue of google workspace, we are including that here below.
| Workspace plan | Price/per month |
| Business starter | $6 |
| Business standard | $12 |
| Business plus | $18 |
| Standard | Contact sales for pricing |
From the above discussion, it is clear that google drive can be the best option to use for long term business and personal for a variety of purposes. Unless you have not no business requirement, you don’t need to purchase any business plan for google drive. For your convenience, here we also add some questions that are frequently asked by the common people.
Frequently asked question about google drive
How do I access my drive?
Google makes it super easy for both web and smartphone users to access google drive. Since Google always prioritizes its user experience and intends to provide the best in this regard. Accessing and using google drive is not as complicated as some other cloud storage service.
If you are first time using this integration, you will find it easy to use also. If still, you aren’t finding how to access google drive from your device, here is the access showing to make you understand.
For PC users
If you are a PC/web user, then you should follow this way to access your google drive storage,
- Open your browser
- Sign in with your Google account, if previously signed in, you will find the dotted icon in the bottom right corner of the window. Click on that and you can see all the offered services that google let you use
- From that, you should choose google drive to direct access your drive and do whatever you want then
For mobile users
Mobile users don’t have to open their browsers to access google drive. If you are an android user, then you are getting it as a built in application. You can see the google drive icon in your apps list and can access it through that in your google drive.
And if you are not an android user or whatever system you are using, you can easily download the google drive application from Playstore, or your system supported app store.
How to upload/save files in google drive?
Uploading and saving files in google drive are easy if you know how to do that. It’s as easy as the regular work you are accustomed to doing. Whatever, if you are using the web to access your google drive, then open the drive window, click and drag the file, image, or video from its place to google drive. And you will see it uploading on the drive automatically.
Besides, PC users have a more flexible option to save anything directly onto their drive while surfing on the internet. If any image, the PDF file will find them helpful and think to save for further usage, they can easily click on them and save.
For this, you have to install a chrome extension that says, ‘Save to google drive.
By installing the extension, you can save anything in your drive while you are on the web.
How to get unlimited google drive storage?
At the present time, when google drive is one of the most popular online cloud storage, people find it so helpful because of its engaging interface and features. In the twenty-first century, you can’t avoid the importance of online cloud storage as they help us to backup files, keep them updated by syncing and allow us to use them from anywhere in the world.
Most of the cloud storage offers free storage whether more or less. But in the modern world, when a short 4K video burns large storage, that free storage isn’t enough for those who have a lot of high quality videos and images to backup.
It makes the sense of unlimited google drive storage. To understand such a situation, Google also lessens the price range of its paid drive storage planning so that people can do more with that. If you are also one of them, who wants to get unlimited google drive storage, then you need a Google G Suite account.
It is a tricky option but almost legal to get unlimited google drive storage in this way. Mainly, there are four individual storage plans that come with Google G Suite, among them the basic one that costs $6 per month for 30 GB storage and the business standard one that costs $12 per month gives 1 TB of storage. The trick is, if you add 6 users to your google business standard G Suite account, Google will increase the storage for each user from 1 TB to unlimited.
Unlimited Google Drive storage will cost $60/month with a Business G Suite account with 5 users, making it$40/month cheaper than the 10 TB basic Google Drive plan, saving you $500/year or $2,500 over the course of 5 years.
Google also clearly states that Business G Suite accounts come with “Unlimited cloud storage (or 1TB per user if fewer than 5 users)” Google doesn’t seem to actively limit storage for accounts that have less than 5 users.
Students can get unlimited google drive storage for free
You may have heard it, Google offers unlimited google drive storage for students. If you are wondering is it true or not, interestingly it is true. But here you should know that Google doesn’t provide unlimited storage directly to students, rather you have to use it through the G Suite account which has signed with education to schools and institutions. And it is completely free.
G Suite offers google for education which is a free service that school administrators can sign up for and offer their staff and students. You can find a lot of colleges and universities have taken advantage of this free storage service to stay organized with the help of google’s outstanding G Suite integrations.
“We want educators and students who use Google Apps for Education to be able to focus on the learning experience — not the technology that supports it,” Schrom wrote. “With Drive for Education, users can put an end to worries about storage limits and more easily maintain a safe, effective and compliant learning environment.”
Finally, hope this article will help you even a little to take the full advantages of your google drive storage.