Is Snapchat deleting your Memories unless you pay?

What's circulating

Posts and videos say Snapchat is deleting everyone's Memories, or will wipe them unless you pay for storage. Some add a countdown and a link to pay.

This page checks that claim against the help page Snapchat publishes on Memories storage and against press reports. It does not rate the company or its paid plans.

What Snapchat says happens if you do not pay

The help page Snapchat publishes on Memories storage answers the question in one line: "No. Snapchat will not automatically delete your Memories because you do not upgrade."

The same page says that starting in January 2027, Memories that are more than one year old and are not part of your oldest 5GB of Memories will be archived and remain stored on Snapchat.

You keep access to Memories saved within the last year, it adds, as well as your oldest 5GB of Memories.

Archived Memories appear as thumbnails in the app, the page says, but you need to upgrade your storage to open, edit or share them.

The page says no Memories will be archived before January 2027, and that Snapchat will give advance notice in the app before anything changes.

The free allowance and the paid plans

Every account has up to 5GB of complimentary Memories storage, according to the help page; if you save more than 5GB, you can upgrade to one of its Memories storage plans.

In the US, the page prices the 100GB Memories-only plan at $1.99 a month or $20 a year, and says Snapchat+ includes 250GB of Memories storage and Snapchat+ Platinum includes 5TB.

When the plans were announced, Snapchat told TechCrunch in an email that the introductory storage plan offers up to 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month.

In its announcement, Snapchat said that for the vast majority of Snapchatters, who have less than 5GB of Memories, nothing would change, and that it was rolling out the new options for Snapchatters with more than 5GB of Memories, "meaning thousands of Snaps."

The same post promised 12 months of temporary Memories storage for any Memories that exceed the 5GB storage limit.

Where the deletion story comes from

The first press reports went further than the help page does now.

One report on the plans said that if you are over the limit but do not sign up for a plan, your oldest Snaps will be saved, while the most recent ones that are over the storage limit will be deleted.

That is the sentence the posts repeat. The help page Snapchat publishes today says nothing is deleted for not upgrading: older Memories past the free allowance are archived and remain stored.

The signs of a scam riding on it

A post that only repeats the deletion story costs you nothing. The risk is the message that asks you to act on it.

• The sign-in help page says Snapchat will never email or text you to ask for your password or 2FA verification codes, or ask you to click on a login link.
• The same page warns that hackers use urgency, like telling you your account is hacked, to trick you.
• A real Snapchat email, it says, can be verified by the accounts.snapchat.com domain, or by checking your push notifications and session management settings in the app.
• The reporting page adds that Snapchat employees will never contact you via Snap or Chat to assist you, and that if you are encouraged to reach out to a specific Snapchat account for support, you should report the account.
• The help page says that to upgrade you open Memories, tap Upgrade Storage and choose your plan. A link in a post or a text that asks you to pay somewhere else is not that.

What to do

• Check the app, not the post: the help page says that if you have more than 5GB of Memories saved, you see a notice in the Memories section of the app showing how much storage you have used.
• For archived Memories, the page says the options are subscribing or downloading them to access them outside the app.
• To download everything at once, the data-download help page says to log in at accounts.snapchat.com, or to get to the page from the app by going to Settings and selecting My Data.
• Under Select data to include, it says, you toggle Export your Memories to on and click Request Only Memories.
• The page says it strives to deliver the data within 7 days, but large downloads can take longer.
• Exporting from the app to your camera roll works too, but a how-to on saving your Memories notes you are limited to batches of 100 at a time.
• Do not pay through a link in a post, a text or a chat to "keep" your Memories. If you want a plan, buy it inside the app.
• Got a message like that? Paste it into VOM before you tap anything.

Where to report

• In the app: the reporting page says that to report a Chat message you press and hold on the message, then tap Report.
• To report the account that sent it, the page says to open the Chat screen, press and hold on the name, tap Manage Friendship and tap Report; it notes there that no Snapchat employee will ever contact you via Snap or Chat to assist you.
• If you cannot use the app, the same page says to report your safety concerns on the web.
• If you paid, contact your bank or card issuer at once and ask to dispute the charge.

Frequently asked questions

Will Snapchat delete your Memories if you do not pay?

The help page answers no: Snapchat will not automatically delete your Memories because you do not upgrade. What it says about archiving older Memories is above.

How do you save your Memories without paying?

The data-download page says the download arrives in the form of a zip file; the steps to request only your Memories are above.