In the closing moments of its iPhone 15 keynote, Apple quietly extended its iCloud+ storage offerings to include 6TB and 12TB tiers, signaling a deliberate reach toward professional creators who live and work within the Apple ecosystem. The move is less about raw capacity than about belonging — Apple is inviting photographers, filmmakers, and data-heavy households deeper into a walled garden where privacy features and device integration are the true currency. As cloud storage becomes an invisible but essential infrastructure of modern creative life, the question is not merely how much space on
Apple Expands iCloud+ With 6TB and 12TB Storage Tiers
Storage for professionals, bundled with privacy features Apple thinks justify the price.
Mark
Why bury this announcement at the end of an iPhone event? Seems like a significant product move.
Mimi
It does feel understated, but Apple may have calculated that storage tiers don't drive the same excitement as new hardware. The real story is who this targets—professionals with serious libraries.
Luke
Right, but let's be precise: we know Apple *said* it targets photographers and filmmakers. We don't have data on whether they actually will adopt these tiers at scale.
Mark
Fair point. So what makes these plans different from just buying more storage elsewhere?
Mimi
The bundled features matter—Private Relay, Hide My Email, HomeKit Secure Video. If you're already in Apple's ecosystem, you get those without paying extra.
Luke
Though we should note: Google offers comparable storage at the same price. The differentiation is really about ecosystem lock-in and privacy features, not price.
Mark
And Dropbox is cheaper per gigabyte. So Apple's betting on integration, not cost leadership.
Mimi
Exactly. The question is whether that's enough for professionals who might already use Dropbox or Google Drive for collaboration.
Luke
We also don't know adoption rates yet. These plans arrive next week, so we're looking at a forward-looking announcement without real-world uptake data.
Mark
So we're watching to see if this actually moves the needle for Apple's services revenue.
Mimi
And whether professionals see the premium features as worth the price premium over cheaper alternatives.
Luke
That's the real test.
Il Polso
- Apple used the final minutes of its 'Wonderlust' event to unveil 6TB and 12TB iCloud+ plans, a move that felt understated but carries real weight for professional users drowning in data.
- The announcement creates immediate tension in the cloud storage market, putting Apple in direct price competition with Google while leaving both vulnerable to Dropbox's significantly cheaper offerings.
- Bundled privacy tools — Private Relay, Hide My Email, and HomeKit Secure Video — reframe the new tiers not just as storage but as a premium, privacy-first lifestyle subscription.
- Family Sharing compatibility broadens the appeal beyond solo professionals, positioning the plans as household infrastructure rather than niche creative tools.
- The new plans were announced before they were even accessible in iOS 17 beta, leaving early adopters in a brief but telling limbo between promise and availability.
In the closing moments of its iPhone 15 keynote, Apple quietly extended its iCloud+ storage offerings to include 6TB and 12TB tiers, signaling a deliberate reach toward professional creators who live and work within the Apple ecosystem. The move is less about raw capacity than about belonging — Apple is inviting photographers, filmmakers, and data-heavy households deeper into a walled garden where privacy features and device integration are the true currency. As cloud storage becomes an invisible but essential infrastructure of modern creative life, the question is not merely how much space one needs, but whose hands one trusts to hold it.
Apple closed out its iPhone 15 'Wonderlust' event with a quiet but consequential announcement: two new iCloud+ storage tiers, offering 6TB for $30 a month and 12TB for $60 a month. The addition was almost an afterthought in the presentation, yet it marks a meaningful expansion of Apple's cloud ambitions.
The new tiers sit above an existing ladder that runs from a free 5GB plan up to a $9.99 monthly 2TB option. Greg Joswiak framed the higher-capacity plans as tools for professionals — photographers and filmmakers who need reliable, large-scale storage for their work. Both tiers come bundled with iCloud+'s premium feature set, including Private Relay for browsing privacy, Hide My Email for masked sign-ups, Custom Email Domains, and HomeKit Secure Video support that doesn't count against a user's storage quota. Family Sharing compatibility makes the plans viable for entire households pooling their data needs.
In the broader market, Apple's pricing lands close to Google's — $25 for 5TB and $50 for 10TB — but both companies face pressure from Dropbox, which offers 5TB for $15 and 15TB for $24. Apple appears to be wagering that deep ecosystem integration and privacy-forward features justify the premium. Whether professionals agree will become clear once the plans fully roll out.
Apple slipped a quiet expansion into its cloud storage lineup during the final stretch of its iPhone 15 event on Tuesday. The company introduced two new tiers for iCloud+: 6 terabytes for $30 a month and 12 terabytes for $60 a month. The announcement came near the end of the "Wonderlust" keynote, almost as an afterthought, though the move represents a significant widening of Apple's storage offerings for users with serious data needs.
These new plans sit atop the existing ladder of options: the free 5GB tier, the $0.99 monthly 50GB plan, the $2.99 monthly 200GB option, and the $9.99 monthly 2TB tier. With the additions, Apple is now serving a much broader range of storage appetites, from casual users to those managing extensive photo and video libraries. Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of marketing, positioned the higher-capacity tiers during the event as tools for professionals—specifically photographers and filmmakers—who need room to store and protect their work.
Beyond raw storage, the new plans come bundled with a suite of premium features that Apple has been layering into iCloud+ over time. Subscribers to the 6TB and 12TB tiers gain access to Private Relay, which masks a user's IP address and browsing activity; Hide My Email, which generates masked email addresses for sign-ups; Custom Email Domains, allowing users to set up personalized email addresses tied to their iCloud account; and HomeKit Secure Video support, which lets users store video from their home security cameras without eating into their storage quota. Apple emphasized that these plans work well for families using the Family Sharing feature, which allows multiple household members to pool their storage and share access to these premium services.
The timing of the announcement—buried in the tail end of an event focused on new iPhones—suggests Apple wanted to get the news out without making it the centerpiece of the presentation. The company said the plans would become available the following week, though they were not yet accessible through iOS 17 beta versions at the time of the announcement.
In the competitive landscape, Apple's pricing puts it in direct conversation with Google, whose cloud storage plans run $25 monthly for 5TB and $50 monthly for 10TB—essentially the same price point for comparable capacity. Dropbox, however, undercuts both companies with more aggressive pricing: $15 a month for 5TB and $24 a month for 15TB. That gap suggests Apple is betting that the integration of iCloud+ with its ecosystem of devices and services—and the privacy-focused features bundled into the higher tiers—justifies the premium over Dropbox's raw storage deals. Whether professionals and power users find that trade-off worthwhile will become clear as the new plans roll out.
Citazioni salienti
The new plans are great for users with large photo and video libraries or those using Family Sharing, and will provide access to premium features including Private Relay, Hide My Email, Custom Email Domains, and HomeKit Secure Video support.— Apple
Higher-capacity options will provide even more room to keep your photos and videos safe.— Greg Joswiak, Apple VP of Marketing
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