File size and storage
How large one Drive file may be on each plan, how Drive counts against your single account storage meter, and what happens when that meter is full.
Two separate numbers govern Drive: how large one file may be, and how much the whole account may hold. They are not the same limit and they fail in different ways.
How large one file may be
| Plan | One Drive file |
|---|---|
| Free | up to 100 MB |
| Private.Ki Plus | up to 2 GB |
Drive shows your own ceiling under the storage meter as Up to 100 MB per file or Up to 2 GB per file.
The check happens before anything is encrypted, so an over-sized file costs you a message rather than several minutes of encryption:
- At or under your plan's ceiling — it uploads.
- Over your plan's ceiling, but within what Private.Ki Plus stores — the upload is not started and you are shown what Plus would allow. On a free account that is any file between 100 MB and 2 GB.
- Over 2 GB — refused outright, with Files up to 2 GB in this version. There is no plan that takes a larger single file today.
An email attachment is a different path with a different number: ten files of 25 MB each, because the mail has to survive ordinary mail servers. See Attachments. Drive files never leave Private.Ki, so they can be much larger — but you cannot attach one to a mail in this version.
One storage meter for the whole account
Drive does not have a quota of its own. Everything you hold counts against a single figure:
| Plan | Total storage |
|---|---|
| Free | 5 GB |
| Private.Ki Plus | 50 GB |
What counts, in the words of the Storage screen: the encrypted size of everything stored for this account — mail bodies, files, Drive, notes. Settings → Storage splits it into three parts with a bar and a legend:
- Mail — your mail and chat messages
- Files in mail and chat — attachments
- Drive — everything here
The same figure appears in two more places, so they always agree: the Drive row in the drawer, and the meter at the top of Drive — 3.8 GB of 5 GB used.
Sizes are what we hold, not what your computer shows. The figures are the encrypted size, which is a little above the original — the Storage screen says so in as many words.
Everything in a bin still counts. Mail in Trash and files in Recently deleted are still stored, so they are still in the meter. The Storage screen has a line for it: In Trash and Recently deleted — 420 MB that emptying them would free.
A single file's size is given in ordinary decimal megabytes, the way your operating system does. Plan figures — 5 GB, 50 GB, 100 MB per file — are the binary units the plans are actually sized in, written the short way. It is the same convention used throughout the app, and it means the two kinds of number are a few per cent apart. Nothing is being rounded in our favour.
When storage is full
There is no warning before it is full — no banner at 90 %, no badge, no colour change. The meter simply reaches the end, and then:
- Mail keeps arriving. Incoming mail is never refused for storage, and neither is a message sent to you inside Private.Ki.
- Uploads wait. A Drive upload and an attachment you are sending are refused until there is room.
- Nothing is ever deleted to make room. Not by us, not automatically, not the oldest anything.
Drive says it plainly: the meter turns red, the line reads Your storage is full. Delete files to upload more., and an upload you try shows Your storage is full with 3.8 GB of 5 GB used. Delete files to upload more.
Settings → Storage shows a Full pill and the same fact at more length: Mail keeps arriving. Sending files and Drive uploads wait until you free some room — on a free account it adds — or until there is more of it., with a More room row that explains what Plus holds.
How to free room
- Delete files you no longer need in Drive.
- Open Recently deleted and empty it — until you do, those files are still counted. See Delete and restore files.
- Empty the mail Trash as well; it is the same meter. See Delete and restore mail.
- The figure updates as the deletions complete.
On a free account there is also the option of more room: Private.Ki Plus raises the account from 5 GB to 50 GB and the per-file ceiling from 100 MB to 2 GB.
Drive itself never advertises that. The meter inside Drive is a statement of fact with no price next to it; when it is full it tells you to delete files, and the offer lives in Settings → Storage and in the Plus pages.
Common questions
Will a big upload stop my mail arriving?
No. Incoming mail is never refused because your storage is full; only things you send or upload wait.
I deleted files but the figure has not moved.
They are in Recently deleted and still count. Empty it, or delete those items forever.
Can I buy only more Drive space?
No. There is one meter for the account, and one plan that raises it.
Why is the size here bigger than on my computer?
Because the stored copy is encrypted, which adds a little to every file. The meter counts what we actually hold.
Is there any limit on how many files or folders I can have?
There is no published count limit — the limits are the per-file ceiling and the total storage above.
What happens to my files if Plus runs out?
Nothing is deleted. Files already stored stay, and stay readable; you simply cannot upload more while you are over the free figure, and the per-file ceiling returns to 100 MB.