Cloud storage · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Google One?

NOT REALLY· don't bother

Google One sells room on your Google account, not software. The extra 100 GB is what keeps Gmail, Drive and Photos working past the free 15 GB, and Google enforces that limit on its own services, so no code replaces it. What an agent can build in a weekend is the way out: a Takeout archiver that unpacks your export, merges Photos metadata, de-duplicates, backs everything up encrypted to a bucket you own and tells you what to delete to get back under 15 GB.

$1.99/moprice

$24it costs you a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend; the Takeout download is the slow part

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Python 3.12 and uvHandy for the pyrage and boto3 dependencies.
exiftoolInstalled from your package manager; it writes the Photos metadata.
A Google Takeout exportRequest it at takeout.google.com; big accounts arrive as many archives.
A bucket or a spare diskIdeally in a different place from your computer.

Before you buildGoogle's free 15 GB may be enough once old mail and photos are archived elsewhere, which is the point of this build.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a Google Takeout archiver to replace the storage part of Google One. Requirements:

- Python 3.12 managed with uv: a CLI named `vault` with the commands import, report, backup,
verify and search. SQLite from the standard library at ./data/vault.db.
- `vault import <dir>` unpacks Takeout .zip and .tgz archives into ./library/ split by product
(Drive, Photos, Mail), keeps original folder names and logs every file with its SHA-256;
files already seen in another archive are skipped.
- Photos: each photo sits next to a JSON sidecar. Write the sidecar's timestamp and GPS into
EXIF with exiftool, then name files YYYY/MM/<date>_<hash8>.<ext>.
- Mail: read the .mbox files with the `mailbox` module, split them by year and index sender,
subject, date and body in SQLite FTS5; `vault search <words>` prints matches with the file.
- `vault report` prints the size of every product and the 20 largest files so I can decide what
to delete at Google. It never deletes anything there and never calls a Google API.
- `vault backup` encrypts each year's folder with `pyrage` (age) to a recipient in .env and
uploads it with `boto3` to S3_ENDPOINT/S3_BUCKET; `vault verify` fetches 2% at random,
decrypts them and compares hashes.
- No accounts, no telemetry, local-first: the only outbound calls go to my bucket.
- Out of scope: Google APIs, live sync, album sharing, deleting from Google, a web interface.
- README: how to request a Takeout export (50 GB archives, links expire after about 7 days and
allow 5 downloads), and a warning to restore one file from the bucket before deleting
anything at Google.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Google One.

Add a search page to the Takeout archiver in this folder. Requirements:

- A local Fastify page on http://127.0.0.1:4955 over the existing SQLite FTS5 mail index.
- Search box, filters for sender, year and has-attachment, results with highlighted snippets.
- Open a message with its headers and plain-text body; render HTML bodies sandboxed in an
  iframe with scripts and remote images blocked.
- Escape everything shown and bind to 127.0.0.1 only.
- Update the README.

Add a photo timeline to the Takeout archiver in this folder. Requirements:

- Generate 400 px thumbnails with `sharp` into ./data/thumbs on import, and a static
  ./timeline/index.html grouped by year and month, loading thumbnails lazily.
- Clicking a thumbnail opens the original from ./library; videos open in the browser player.
- Rebuild only changed months on later imports.
- Update the README.

Extend `vault report` in the Takeout archiver in this folder. Requirements:

- Group the library by product and year, and list the 50 largest attachments in mail with
  sender and date; export the same tables as CSV.
- A `--duplicates` flag listing files with the same SHA-256 in several places.
- Print a plain summary: size per product and how much remains of a 15 GB target.
- Read-only: it must not write to ./library.
- Update the README.

What you lose

Gmail, Drive and Photos all staying usable past 15 GB on one account
Phone backup into Google Photos with Google's search and editing tools
Sharing the storage with up to five family members
The Gemini benefits bundled into the higher plans
One bill that keeps the whole account alive instead of a pile of exported archives

Why people still pay

For $1.99 a month the one hard limit on an account people have used for twenty years goes away. Their mail address, phone backups and shared albums all hang off it, so paying beats migrating.

Moatinfrastructure scale switching costs integrations

Do the math

Google One or your own copy?

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Google One, 1 yr$24

Your own copy, 1 yr$24running + build session

Paying is cheaper by$0pays for itself in 13 months

Estimate · A bucket holding 100 GB costs a dollar or two a month at typical rates, and nothing if you use a disk you own. The build is token usage on your agent plan.

Leaving Google One

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Google One

1Go to takeout.google.com while signed in; the products you use are preselected, so untick what you do not want.
2Choose Next step, then a delivery method: an emailed link, or saving to Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.
3Pick a one-time export or one every 2 months for a year, then zip or tgz and a maximum archive size.
4Choose Create export and download the archives from the link; Photos arrive with a JSON sidecar next to each file.

2 · Cancel Google One

1On the web: go to one.google.com, open Settings, choose Cancel membership, then Cancel.
2Subscribed in the App Store or through a carrier: cancel there, since Google cannot do it for you.
3A downgrade keeps the current plan until the end of the billing cycle, then the lower plan starts.

After cancelling you keep up to 15 GB free. Over that, nothing is deleted straight away, but you cannot add files, Gmail cannot send or receive, Drive stops syncing and Photos stops backing up.
Google's 2021 storage policy says an account over its limit for two years may have content deleted across Gmail, Drive and Photos; check its current wording before leaving things over the limit.
Takeout archives expire after about 7 days and can be downloaded 5 times, and time-range exports are not offered.
Downloading does not delete anything at Google, so verify the copy before you free space.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Google One's docs: 1, 2, 3, 4

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

NextcloudOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 self-hosted files, calendar and contacts with sync clients; the closest to a Google Drive replacement.★ 37k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, iOS, Android, desktopVisit ↗ImmichOpen sourceAGPL-3.0 self-hosted photo library with phone backup; replaces the Google Photos part of the storage.★ 117k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
Web, iOS, AndroidVisit ↗SyncthingOpen sourceMPL-2.0 continuous file sync between your own devices with no server in the middle.★ 90k · active Oct 2026 · one-click install
desktop, AndroidVisit ↗

All 4 free alternatives to Google One ›

The numbers

Google One pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Free	$0	$0	15 GB shared across Gmail, Drive and Google Photos.
Basic	$1.99	—	100 GB of total storage, shareable with up to 5 others.
Google AI Plus	$9.99	—	2 TB total storage, sharing with up to 5 others, Gemini app with double the usage limits of no AI plan, Gemini in Gmail, Flow and Notebook access.
Google AI Pro	$19.99	—	5 TB total storage, sharing with up to 5 others, Gemini with four times the usage limits, Deep Research, Gemini in Gmail, Docs and Vids, YouTube Premium Lite (Individual) and Google Home Premium (Standard).

Free tier: 15 GB for the whole account; at the limit Gmail stops receiving, Drive stops syncing and Photos stops backing up.
Billing: Monthly or annual; the page says annual saves up to 16%. Subscriptions bought in the App Store or through a carrier are managed there, not at one.google.com. Prices are for the US; the same page in Poland lists złoty prices.
Hidden costs: If you cancel while using more than 15 GB, the account stops accepting new data: no incoming mail, no Drive sync, no Photos backup until you delete files or pay again.
Source: one.google.com

Also on the list

iCloud+$0.99/mo · Cloud storageNOT REALLY

Ente Photos$2.99/mo · Cloud storageNOT REALLY

Google AI Pro$19.99/mo · AI assistantsKINDA

Questions

Google One, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Every Google account includes 15 GB shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos.

Not really. For $1.99 a month the one hard limit on an account people have used for twenty years goes away. Their mail address, phone backups and shared albums all hang off it, so paying beats migrating. The prompt on this page builds the closest honest substitute.

About $1.99 a month on the Basic (100 GB) plan, $23.88 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

Gmail, Drive and Photos all staying usable past 15 GB on one account; Phone backup into Google Photos with Google's search and editing tools; Sharing the storage with up to five family members; The Gemini benefits bundled into the higher plans; One bill that keeps the whole account alive instead of a pile of exported archives. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.