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Cloud Backup Pricing, Real Cost per TB

Advertised prices hide the real question: what does it cost to back up your data? Set how much you back up and rank every service by its true annual cost and effective cost per terabyte.

1.0 TB
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Cost / year ▲ServiceTypePlanEffective $/TB/yrNotes

Indicative annual pricing as last reviewed 11 July 2026. Plans change and promotional first-year rates are common, confirm on the provider before buying.

How the ranking works. For your data size we pick each service's cheapest plan that fits (or its unlimited plan) and show the real yearly cost plus the effective cost per terabyte at that size. Slide the amount you back up: small data favours cheap capped plans (pCloud, Icedrive, IDrive), while large data favours flat unlimited backup (Backblaze, Carbonite) because the per-TB cost keeps falling. Backup services copy your whole computer for disaster recovery; storage services sync selected files, both are shown with a type label.
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What is the cheapest cloud backup?

It depends on your data size. Above ~2TB, unlimited plans (Backblaze, Carbonite) win on cost per terabyte. For a few hundred GB, a small capped plan (pCloud, Icedrive, IDrive) is cheaper. Slide your size above to see the winner.

Backup vs storage, what is the difference?

Backup (Backblaze, Carbonite, IDrive, Acronis) auto-copies your whole machine for recovery, often unlimited for one device. Storage (Google One, OneDrive, Dropbox, pCloud) syncs selected files and is capped. Many use storage for backup, so both are listed with a type label.

Are unlimited plans truly unlimited?

Mostly, but they usually cover one computer, back up only internal and attached drives, and may purge files a while after you delete them locally. They shine once you store more than about 2TB.