Free plan retention

Goal: understand how long galleries and video collections are kept on the Free plan, what changes as a gallery ages, and the three ways to keep your galleries permanently.

Who this applies to

Retention only affects an account when all of the following are true:

• The account is on the Free plan.
• It has no storage add-on block (not even one 5 GB block).
• It has not been marked unlimited by support.
• It has no current or past paid subscription — active, past due, canceled, or unpaid.

Paid plans, any account with a storage add-on block, and any account support has marked unlimited are never subject to retention.

Canceled and lapsed accounts are not exempt — they are handled separately. An account whose paid subscription ended falls under our storage-reclaim policy instead, which is shorter and stricter (a 60-day grace period, after which stored files are removed). It is excluded from the retention timeline on this page only because that other policy already applies to it, not because its galleries are kept permanently. See Storage full / quota if your subscription has lapsed.

The timeline

Each gallery and video collection moves through these stages, measured from its own upload date:

What "read-only" means

From day 60 to day 120, your studio can still view the gallery and delete it, but cannot:

• add photos, videos, or new versions;
• create shortlinks;
• build slideshows or ZIP downloads.

Your clients are not affected by read-only. They keep full view and download access right up until day 90, when the gallery is hidden from them.

How to keep your galleries

Any one of these removes the retention limit and, instantly, restores everything that has not yet been permanently deleted:

• Upgrade to any paid plan — see Plans & storage quota.
• Add a 5 GB storage block ($5/mo) from Billing.
• Ask support to mark the account unlimited — for internal or comped accounts. Submit a support ticket.

As long as you act before day 120, nothing is lost: read-only galleries become editable again and hidden galleries reappear for your clients.

Timing is per gallery

The clock is measured from each gallery's or video collection's own upload date, not from when your account was created. A gallery you upload today starts its 90-day window today, no matter how old your account is. Older galleries can be hidden or deleted while newer ones are still fully live.

What is never removed

Retention only touches galleries and video collections. It never removes:

• model releases;
• signed contracts;
• project briefs, updates, and comments.

Related

• Plans & storage quota
• Plan limits
• Storage full / quota
• Disk usage & storage