How Much Does Client Gallery Storage Cost? A GB-by-GB Breakdown

Most photographers pick a gallery plan the way they pick a phone plan: guess high, pay for the headroom, and never look at it again. That works, but it is also how a photographer storing 30 GB of client work ends up paying for 100 GB every single month.

This guide walks through what client gallery storage actually costs in October 2026, how much space a typical photography business really uses, and how to stop paying for storage you are not using.

How much storage does a photographer actually need?

Gallery storage is driven by delivered JPEGs, not RAW files. Your RAWs live on your own drives and backups. Clients get edited, exported images, and those are much smaller. Rough numbers for full-resolution JPEG exports from a modern 24 to 45 megapixel camera:

A portrait photographer doing 60 sessions a year and keeping galleries online for a year lands around 60 to 120 GB. A wedding photographer shooting 25 weddings plus engagements usually sits between 150 and 350 GB, with a big swing between peak season and winter.

That swing matters. Storage is not a fixed number. It climbs through wedding season and falls when galleries expire or move to archive, but a tiered plan bills you for the peak all year.

What gallery storage costs on Pic-Time, Pixieset and Terracotta

Here is what you would pay per month at common storage levels, using the smallest published plan that fits on month-to-month billing. Pic-Time and Pixieset prices are their published rates as of October 2026. Terracotta is billed by the GB, with the first 3 GB free.

All three have a free tier for very small accounts: Pixieset includes 3 GB, Terracotta 3 GB, and Pic-Time 10 GB that drops to 3 GB after a few months (Pic-Time's free and Beginner plans also take a 15% commission on print sales). Once you are past about 20 GB, you are on a paid plan everywhere, which is where the numbers below start.

Why tiered gallery plans cost more than they look

A tier is a bet. If you need 30 GB, the next tier up might give you 100 GB, so you pay for 70 GB you will not use. As you grow you jump to the next tier and the gap opens again. Two other things push the real cost up:

• Feature gating. Print stores, custom domains, removing the platform's branding and marketing tools are often locked to higher plans, so you may upgrade for a feature, not for storage.
• Peak-season billing. If your storage peaks in October and drops in January, a tier sized for October bills you October prices in January too.

How usage-based gallery pricing works

Usage pricing works like a utility bill. Terracotta records each upload and deletion and bills for the storage you kept, prorated to the day, with lower rates as you grow. Upload a wedding on the 20th and you pay for the last 11 days of it, not the whole month. Delete or archive a gallery and the charges stop that day.

Every feature, including the print store, favorites, branding and custom domains, is on every account, so there is no reason to upgrade for a feature. You can run your own numbers on the pricing calculator.

Five ways to lower your gallery storage bill

1. Export smarter. A JPEG at quality 85 to 90 is visually identical to 100 for print and screen, and often 30 to 50% smaller.
2. Set expiration dates. Most clients download within weeks. A 6 to 12 month expiration with reminder emails clears space without surprising anyone.
3. Archive instead of deleting. Cold storage, like Terracotta's Cellar, keeps old galleries safe at a lower rate so you can restore them when a client asks.
4. Do not deliver every frame. Culling to your best work makes galleries smaller and clients happier.
5. Pay for what you keep. If your storage swings with the seasons, usage pricing will beat a fixed tier sized for your busiest month.