Find out how much iCloud storage you need for your Photos Library on your Mac
Your iCloud Photos count against your iCloud storage. Follow these steps to find out how much storage you need to keep your entire Mac Photos Library in iCloud.
Check the size of your Photos Library
Open Photos and choose Photos > Preferences > General. Click the Show in Finder button to go to your Photos Library. After Finder opens, select your Photos Library, then choose File > Get Info. Look under General to find the size.
The size of your Photos Library on your Mac will usually be slightly larger than the amount of space that you need to store your photos and videos in iCloud.*
See how much iCloud storage you're using
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences. Then select iCloud to view your total and available storage.
Add the size of your Photos Library to the amount of iCloud storage you're using
To store your current iCloud content and your Photos Library, you need an iCloud storage plan with enough space for both.
When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you use all of your iCloud storage, you can buy more starting at 50GB for $0.99 a month. Learn more about prices in your country or region.
You can also reduce the size of your Photos Library.
*There are several reasons the size of your Mac Photos Library might be larger than the amount of space that you need to store your photos and videos:
Your Photos Library might contain photos or videos that have already been added to iCloud Photos from another device.
Part of your Photos Library size includes small system files. These files aren't uploaded when you turn on iCloud Photos.
Your Mac and iCloud count the size of a GB differently. Your Mac displays storage representation in decimal, base 10 where 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. iCloud storage tiers are counted in binary, base 2 where 1 GB = 1, 073,741,824 bytes.
