The decision
Pay Snapchat for storage, or export your memories?
Updated
It depends on whether you want your memories in Snapchat or on your own disk, and both are legitimate answers. Paying keeps everything exactly where it is, browsable in the app, with nothing to do, for $1.99 a month, forever. Exporting is free, gives you files nobody can bill you for, and costs you an afternoon plus the fact that they stop living in Snapchat.
| Pay Snapchat | Export | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $1.99/month or $20/year for 100GB, ongoing. Snapchat+ includes 250GB; Platinum includes 5TB. | Free from Snapchat. This site is $5 once if you want the metadata put back. |
| Effort | None. Nothing moves. | A day or two of waiting, then an hour of work. |
| Where they live | In Snapchat, browsable in the app, resurfacing as On This Day. | Wherever you put them. Photos, Drive, an external drive in a drawer. |
| If you stop paying | Memories over 5GB that are more than a year old get archived from January 2027: still there, but thumbnails until you pay again. | Nothing happens. They're your files. |
| If Snapchat changes the rules | You find out when they tell you. | Doesn't affect you. |
| Quality | Originals, untouched. | Originals for photos. Videos are re-encoded if they carry a caption. |
When paying is the right call
If what you actually value is the Snapchat experience (memories resurfacing on their own, the app's timeline, sending an old snap to whoever was in it), then export it and you've lost the thing you wanted. A folder of correctly dated JPEGs is not that. $1.99 a month buys exactly what you're after, and no export replaces it.
It's also the easy call if you're short on time. Paying takes thirty seconds; an export takes days. Nothing is deleted either way, so paying for a month and exporting at your own pace costs about two dollars.
When exporting is the right call
If you want to own them. Twenty-four dollars a year, indefinitely, for storage you don't control adds up, and the risk isn't really the money, it's that the terms are Snapchat's to change. Exported files are yours in a way rented ones aren't.
There's a middle path nobody mentions: pay for one month, export everything while it's all still openable, then cancel. About two dollars to remove the time pressure entirely.
Doing nothing
Also a choice, and fine if your Memories fit inside the free 5GB. The cap only bites above the line. If you're over it, nothing is deleted: from January 2027, Memories more than a year old that fall outside your oldest 5GB are archived, which means they stay in the app as thumbnails you'd have to pay to open, edit or share. Export them before then and the full files are yours regardless.
If you're exporting
The archive arrives with the dates, locations and captions stripped out. That's normal, and it's what this site puts back, in your browser, without uploading anything. The first 500 files are free.