Snapchat announced Friday, Sept. 26 its plans to start charging users who have more than 5GB of "Memories."

Some Snapchatters will have to pay up to keep their thousands of Snaps stored on the app.

On Friday, Sept. 26, Snapchat announced plans to start charging users who have more than 5 gigabytes (GB) of "Memories," photos and videos taken and stored on the app.

"When we first launched Memories, we never expected it to grow to what it has become today," Snapchat said in a statement. "We want to make sure that our community can continue to store all of their Memories over the long term, so we are introducing new Memories Storage Plans to support Snapchatters with more than 5GB of Memories."

According to Team Snapchat, users from all over the world have saved more than 1 trillion "Memories" since the feature was launched in 2016, about five years after the social media and instant messaging app was first made available for download.

"Unlike the camera roll full of duplicates and screenshots, Memories on Snapchat are special because Snapchatters choose to save the moments that really matter," Snapchat said.

Here's what we know, including how to download your Snapchat "Memories" so you don't have to pay.

Snapchat offers users 'Memories Storage Plans'

Snapchat's introductory "Memories Storage Plans" offers 100GB and 250GB of storage with the app's monthly subscription service Snapchat+, or 5 terabytes (TB) of storage with the Snapchat Platinum subscription plan.

"For the vast majority of Snapchatters, who have less than 5GB of Memories, nothing will change," according to Team Snapchat. "For Snapchatters with more than 5GB of Memories, meaning thousands of Snaps, we are rolling out new options to upgrade and increase storage."

Snapchat will also be providing 12 months of temporary Memories storage for any Memories that exceed the 5GB storage limit. Snapchatters can choose to upgrade to a "Memories Storage Plan" at any time.

It is unclear what the pricing for the plans is, or when the app will begin billing users. USA TODAY contacted Snapchat on Thursday, Oct. 2, but has not received a response.

How to download your Snapchat 'Memories'

Don't want to pay for a Snapchat storage plan? Here's how to download your "Memories" directly onto your device or devices:

  • Open Snapchat
  • Click the photo icon to access "Memories"
  • Press and hold on the Snap, or Snaps you'd like to download and tap "Export"
  • Select where you’d like to download your Snap

According to Snapchat Support, users can select multiple Snaps stored in Memories at once. Another option is to download your data, which includes "Memories," from Snapchat.

Here's how to download your data from Snapchat:

  • Open Snapchat (or log into your account on accounts.snapchat.com)
  • Go to the app's settings and look for "My Data"
  • Select what data you want to download by selecting the date range of the data
  • Confirm your email address
  • Hit "Submit"

Snapchat will then send you an email with a link once your data is ready to download. Users can view recent exports here. Any data downloaded from "My Data" will be sent in a zip file.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Snapchat to charge users to store 'Memories.' Here's how to download them for free.

Reporting by Amaris Encinas, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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