PCLOUD / STORAGE DECISIONS
pCloud 500GB or 2TB for a growing photo and video archive
Choose with a storage growth budget and a separate transfer budget rather than a price-per-terabyte headline.
Size the archive you will keep
Use the size of the files you intend to store, not the capacity printed on your existing plan. Measure representative months of new material, then decide how many months of headroom you need. This is a planning exercise, not a measurement of your particular library.
A transparent capacity worksheet
Target space = retained files + expected new files + chosen safety reserve. Hypothetical example A: 300GB retained + 8GB per month for 12 months + 50GB reserve = 446GB. That fits nominal 500GB capacity with 54GB left. Example B: 450GB + 15GB per month for 12 months + 50GB = 680GB. It does not fit 500GB. The same example with 30GB monthly growth reaches 860GB. All growth rates and reserves here are assumptions, not product recommendations.
Do not confuse stored data with transferred data
Official plan details distinguish capacity, upload allowance and shared-link traffic. Premium stores 500GB and allows up to 1TB uploaded within 30 days; Premium Plus stores 2TB and allows up to 4TB uploaded within 30 days. Shared-link traffic is a separate allowance. None of these figures measures upload speed. [L]
Budget for a migration attempt
A hypothetical 450GB initial upload followed by a complete 450GB retry already transfers 900GB. Adding 150GB of new uploads within the same period would total 1,050GB under a decimal-unit planning assumption, above 1TB. Actual accounting and units should be checked in the account. Plan a small test before the full transfer; do not delete originals to make an unverified move fit.
Choose the smallest plan that meets the requirement
More capacity has no value if you will not use it, while a cheap plan that cannot hold your archive fails the job. Record present size, growth, reserve, initial transfer and retry allowance separately. If neither plan fits confidently, pause the purchase and verify the requirement instead of assuming future upgrade pricing or available combinations. Check the current plan and offer before buying. [L, P]
Next step
If the requirements fit your needs, check the current offer and conditions. Do not buy solely on an illustrative calculation.
Check current pCloud offers (affiliate link)