Dropbox Basic (free tier)

Dropbox quietly restricted free Basic accounts to three linked devices in March 2019, a change discovered through updated help docs rather than an announcement, narrowing an already-thin 2GB free tier to push users toward paid plans.

In March 2019 Dropbox quietly capped free Basic accounts at three linked devices, a downgrade to a long-standing free tier designed to push users onto the $9.99-a-month Plus plan.

The referral program that powered Dropbox's early viral growth — once worth substantial free storage — was steadily devalued, and some long-time users reported referral-earned space being clawed back to the bare 2GB minimum.

Dropbox has kept its free Basic plan at just 2GB since its early days, even as Google Drive offered 15GB, OneDrive 5GB, and rivals like Mega offered 20GB — leaving Dropbox with the stingiest free allowance among the major cloud providers.