The deadline
Is Snapchat deleting your memories in September 2026?
No. Snapchat’s own support page answers it directly: nothing over the 5GB limit is deleted. What happens instead starts in January 2027 at the earliest: Memories more than a year old that aren’t part of your oldest 5GB get archived, which means they stay in the app as thumbnails you have to pay to open, edit or share. The 26 September 2026 date everyone repeats is when the 12 months of temporary storage runs out, not when anything is removed.
Snapchat can start locking old memories in
What Snapchat actually said
“No. Snapchat will not automatically delete your Memories because you do not upgrade.”
“No Memories will be archived before January 2027, and we will provide advance notice in the app before anything changes for you.”
“Archived Memories will appear as thumbnails in the app, but you will need to upgrade your storage to open, edit, or share them.”
From Snapchat Support, checked 13 September 2026.
26 September 2025
The 5GB limit is announced
Snapchat caps free Memories storage at 5GB and launches paid storage plans above it. Accounts already over the line are promised 12 months of temporary storage before anything changes.
The 12 months after
Temporary storage
Everything over 5GB stays exactly where it is and fully usable. The end of this window, in late September 2026, is the date most countdowns point at, but it's when the grace period runs out, not when anything happens to your Memories.
January 2027, at the earliest
Archiving can begin
Memories that are more than a year old and aren't part of your oldest 5GB get archived. Snapchat says nothing is archived before January 2027, and that it will warn you in the app before anything changes on your account. So there is no single day everyone's library flips.
Once archived
Thumbnails, not files
Archived Memories stay on Snapchat and still show up in the app, but only as thumbnails. Opening, editing or sharing one needs a paid storage plan. They aren't deleted: asked whether it deletes Memories if you don't upgrade, Snapchat's support page says "No. Snapchat will not automatically delete your Memories because you do not upgrade."
What “archived” means for you
It’s more specific than it sounds. An archived memory isn’t gone and isn’t hidden (you’ll still see it in the app), but only as a thumbnail. The full photo or video is behind a storage plan for as long as you want to look at it.
Two parts of your library stay fully usable for free: everything saved in the last year, and your oldest 5GB. What gets archived is everything in between. For anyone who has used Snapchat for a few years, that is usually most of it.
You can check where you stand in the app under Settings → Manage → Memories, which shows what you’re using against the 5GB you get free.
So why does everyone say September?
When Snapchat announced storage plans on 26 September 2025, it promised affected accounts 12 months of temporary storage. Twelve months from then is 26 September 2026, and a great deal of coverage (and most of the tools selling a fix, including an earlier version of this page) read the end of that window as the start of deletion. Snapchat’s announcement never said that.
Its support page now says the opposite, and it’s the one source that gets to decide. If you’re looking at a countdown to 26 September somewhere, it’s counting down to the end of a grace period, not the loss of anything.
The three things you can do
Pay Snapchat
$1.99/month or $20/year for 100GB
Everything stays openable exactly where it is, in the app, resurfacing the way it always has. No files to move, no export to wait for.
The catch. It is rent, not ownership: you pay for as long as you want to see them, and the terms are Snapchat's to change. Snapchat+ includes 250GB and Platinum includes 5TB, so check what you're already paying for before adding a plan.
Do nothing
Free
Nothing is deleted. Everything from the last year, and your oldest 5GB, stays fully usable.
The catch. Everything in between becomes a thumbnail from January 2027: still there, but locked until you pay. For most long-time users, the in-between is most of the library.
Export and keep them
Free from Snapchat
The full-quality files are yours, on your machine, in a folder nobody can lock or bill you for.
The catch. The archive takes days to arrive and lands with the capture dates, GPS and captions stripped out. That last part is the problem this site exists to fix.
Paying is the right answer for some people, and it’s worth saying so plainly: if what you want is your Memories inside Snapchat, where the app shows them back to you, a storage plan buys exactly that and no export replaces it. Exporting is the right answer if you want the files to be yours, or if you’re paying now and suspect you won’t want to forever.
Why it’s still worth exporting soon
None of this is an emergency, but the export is the slow part. Snapchat builds the archive on its own schedule and emails a link when it’s done. Snapchat aims for within 7 days, and a large library can take longer, especially when a lot of people ask at once. A lot of people are about to, because they believe the September date.
The download links in that email expire, too. Reports of the window range from about 72 hours to seven days and Snapchat doesn’t document it, so download the ZIP the day the email lands.
Request it now, even if you’ve decided to pay. The export costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and gets you the full-quality files while every one of them is still openable.
Then the part nobody warns you about
The archive arrives with the capture dates, GPS coordinates and captions stripped out. Every photo is stamped with the day the export was built, so years of Memories land in your photo library on a single date, in no order, with the text, stickers and location filters sitting in separate files. The real dates and coordinates are in a JSON file right next to the media. Snapchat just doesn’t put them back into the photos.
That is what this site does, in your browser, without uploading anything. The first 500 files are free, so you can check the dates landed before deciding whether it was worth $5.