Google Drive alternative for sending a big file
15 GB shared with Gmail, access requests to approve, and a download quota that locks the file.
The heart of the problem. Google Drive is a place to store things. Sending is only a side effect: you share a folder from your own space. Hence the three blockages everyone hits when they use it to deliver a large file: the quota, the permissions, and the famous “download quota exceeded”.
Google Drive's three blockages
1. The 15 GB is shared with your mailbox
The free storage on a Google account is 15 GB, but it is shared between Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. Two or three videos are enough to fill it — and when it is full, you stop receiving email. The only remedy is to clear things out or take a monthly subscription.
2. Access permissions
The link points to your space. If sharing was not opened at the right level, the recipient sees an access request, you get a notification, and the file waits for your approval. Many “sent” deliveries are asleep right there.
3. “Download quota exceeded”
Google caps the number of downloads of the same file over a rolling period. A file in high demand — a video sent to a whole team — becomes temporarily undownloadable for everyone at once, usually for a full day. There is nothing you can do, and you only find out from the recipient.
What you gain by separating storage from sending
| Google Drive | toobigtoshare | |
|---|---|---|
| Account to send | Google account | None |
| Account to receive | Often needed | None |
| Space | 15 GB shared with Gmail | 2 TB per send |
| Model | Monthly subscription beyond that | $5.49 per send |
| Access permission | To set, and sometimes to approve | The link is enough |
| Download quota | Yes | None |
| After sending | The file stays, and uses your quota | Deleted after 3 days |
No sign-up, no subscription: why it changes everything
Two points of friction explain most transfers that never arrive.
Creating an account. It costs you three minutes, but above all it costs the recipient: a link that asks them to sign in, create an ID or install an app meets someone who has neither the time nor the inclination — and who writes to tell you “it doesn't work”. With toobigtoshare nobody signs up: not you, not them. They click, they download.
The subscription. A subscription makes sense when you send large files every week. If you send three a year, you pay for twelve months to use it three times, and you forget to cancel. Here you pay $5.49 per send, once, and nothing renews: there is no account, so no subscription to keep an eye on.
Drive keeps its uses
For storing documents, finding them again, working on the same file with several people and keeping it for years, Drive does its job very well and toobigtoshare has nothing to say against it: here the file is erased after three days, and that is deliberate. The two are not for the same thing. For delivering a large file to someone, once, without imposing a Google account on them: that calls for the other tool.
Send a file with toobigtoshare — up to 2 TB, no sign-up, no subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Why can my recipient not open my Google Drive link?
Because sharing is not open: the link points to your Drive, and if permission has not been granted, the recipient lands on an access request that you have to approve by hand.
What does “Download quota exceeded” mean on Google Drive?
Google limits the number of downloads of the same file over a rolling period. When a file is in high demand it becomes temporarily undownloadable for everyone, usually for twenty-four hours.
Is Google Drive's free storage really 15 GB?
Yes, but that 15 GB is shared between Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. When it is full, you stop receiving email.
What is the alternative to Google Drive for sending a large file?
toobigtoshare: up to 2 TB per send, no Google account, no access permission to approve, no download quota, $5.49 per send.
Got a file of several gigabytes to send?
toobigtoshare carries up to 2 TB. No account to create, neither for you nor for the person receiving: you get a link, you paste it into your email. $5.49 per send, file deleted after 3 days.