In the weblog publish asserting Gmail, Google claimed that the brand new electronic mail service got here with 1 GB of storage. While this would possibly sound ridiculously low by right now’s requirements, it was fairly unimaginable again in 2004. To put issues into perspective, Gmail provided greater than 100x the area accessible on alternative email services from Yahoo and Hotmail, which provided a paltry 4 MB and a couple of MB of area, respectively, on their free tiers on the time.

These unimaginable claims (for the time) cemented hypothesis about Gmail being simply one other April Fools’ joke. After the preliminary hullabaloo, individuals (and opponents) rapidly famous that Gmail was, certainly, the true factor and that Google meant enterprise when it mentioned each Gmail account would get 1 GB of free storage. This finally led to rivals responding by rising their storage capacities by respectable quantities. For instance, Yahoo went from 4 MB to 100 MB, whereas Hotmail went from 2 MB to 250 MB inside the span of some months.

Google would go on to additional add storage capability at common intervals, with free storage rising to 2 GB in 2005. Another unimaginable announcement made in 2005 was the promise that Google would preserve including more room to Gmail perpetually. Gmail’s internet interface even confirmed a ticking counter of the perpetually rising storage capability. Google would finally break that promise and, as of 2024, all free Google accounts get 15 GB of area, with this capability being shared throughout a number of Google providers. So, in the event you barely use your Gmail however find yourself storing 15 GB of photos in your Google Drive, you will not be left with any area on your emails.