Snapchat's 5GB cap on free Memories is about to stop being hypothetical. The company announced it in late September 2025 and gave people over the limit a twelve-month grace period. That grace period is running out right about now.
If your Memories are over 5GB and you're not paying for storage, the overflow can be permanently deleted. Exporting takes maybe ten minutes of real effort, and honestly, having the archive is worth it no matter what Snapchat does.
What's actually at risk
Per Snapchat Support, the oldest Memories that fit inside your 5GB allowance stay. What's exposed is the newer stuff that pushes you over — so for most people, the recent years, not the ancient ones.
The date isn't the same for everyone either. In-app notices didn't land for all users at once when the policy rolled out, so the twelve-month clock most likely runs per account from whenever it reached you. Which is a good argument for doing this now instead of working out your personal deadline.
Route one: the app
Open Snapchat, go to your Profile, tap the Settings icon top right, scroll to My Data under Account Actions. Tick "Export Your Memories," set the range to All Time, hit Submit Request.
Snapchat builds the archive and emails you a download link when it's ready — usually a few hours, longer if you've got a lot. Grab it quickly, because those links expire.
Route two: the website
This one has an advantage. Go to accounts.snapchat.com, sign in, open My Data, and tick both "Export your Memories" and "Export JSON Files."
Take the JSON. Media files on their own lose almost all their context; the JSON is what carries the original capture dates and the rest of the metadata. If you ever want to put this archive back in chronological order, that file is the only thing that makes it possible.
The bit nobody warns you about
Your downloaded Memories carry the date you downloaded them. Not the date you took them. Dump seven years of photos into your phone gallery and the whole lot looks like it happened this morning — the timeline flattened, nothing where it should be.
That's why the JSON matters, and why the right destination is a folder on a computer or in cloud storage, not a straight import into your photo library. Fix the dates later if you care. Don't let an auto-import bury seven years under a single afternoon.
Route three: just pay
Snapchat's storage tiers have been reported at $1.99 a month for 100GB, $3.99 for 250GB, and $15.99 for 5TB. Fine choice if you actually use Memories as a living archive.
Bad choice as a way to make a deadline go away. You'd be converting a one-time export into a subscription that never ends, for photos you already own, kept somewhere the storage terms have already changed once.
Export first, then decide. Once the archive is sitting on a drive you control, the subscription becomes a convenience instead of a ransom.
Image: Atahan Demir, via Pexels
