China s answer to Google is offering 2TB cloud storage for free but there s a catch TechRadar Skip to main content TechRadar is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's why you can trust us. China s answer to Google is offering 2TB cloud storage for free but there s a catch By Desire Athow last updated 20 June 2022 This free 2TB cloud storage is very tempting, but we'd still stay away from it (Image credit: TeraBox) Audio player loading… Ed: Terabox reached out to us after the publication of the article to clarify the followingUsers can continue to upload/download/move their files after the 180 days if their files don't exceed 1TB of space. If files exceed the 1TB they would need to upgrade to become a Premium member to continue accessing the files.The referral program and check in program can run concurrentlyThe servers are in Japan, rather than China Baidu, one of China's biggest tech companies, introduced a 2TB free cloud storage plan for domestic users nearly a decade ago, and is now looking to do the same for the rest of the world with its Terabox brand. The company recently announced it is rolling out a referral program which extends its already humongous 1TB (1024GB) free cloud storage offer to a maximum of 3TB. How useful this freebie might be is debatable given that the extra 2TB free cloud storage is only valid for 180 days. Although there's no fixed expiration date, we'd expect the data to be purged once the 181st day is reached. Every activated referral brings in 200GB data and each existing Terabox user can add up to 10 users. A decent performer Such schemes have been around for cloud storage for years especially at the very beginning when cloud storage was nascent. Box, Dropbox and Onedrive have recruited millions of active users using this tried and tested method. Also available is a check-in program which gives 293GB of data after a week; Terabox didn't say whether both programs can run concurrently to boost cloud storage capacity. We reviewed Terabox recently and found that while there are tradeoffs to be had in terms of bandwidth throttling and file size limits, these are all reasonable compromises to make, so we gave it an honorable 3.5/5 stars. There's no native MacOS client and the fact that the servers are located in mainland China may make some potential users uneasy. Read more> The inside story of the browser wars (opens in new tab) > The challenger search engine trying to break the monopoly (opens in new tab) > ProtonMail creator says attempts to rein in Big Tech 'only tackle 5% of the problem' (opens in new tab) Terabox has been a roaring success outside of China though with more than 35 million downloads on PC, iOS and Android. The firm has confirmed that it reserves the right to deny the referral program reward(s) in the event of fraud or other excluded circumstances. As a comparison, our current best cloud storage provider, iDrive (opens in new tab), charges only $3.98 for the first year and delivers 10TB online cloud storage with support for unlimited devices and extensive file versioning. After the first year though, you will be charged nearly $80.Shield your personal information from prying eyes with the best privacy apps for Android Desire AthowManaging Editor, TechRadar ProDésiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium. See more Software news Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Thank you for signing up to TechRadar. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. MOST POPULARMOST SHARED1PC gamers are shunning high-end GPUs – spelling trouble for the Nvidia RTX 40902Canceled by Netflix: it's the end of the road for Firefly Lane3It looks like Fallout's spiritual successor is getting a PS5 remaster4Beg all you want - these beer game devs will not break the laws of physics for you 51000TB SSDs could become mainstream by 2030 as Samsung plans 1000-layer NAND1We finally know what 'Wi-Fi' stands for - and it's not what you think2Brave is about to solve one of the most frustrating problems with browsing the web3A whole new breed of SSDs is about to break through4Logitech's latest webcam and headset want to relieve your work day frustrations5Qualcomm explains why phones will soon kill off DSLRs – and it has a point Technology Magazines (opens in new tab)● (opens in new tab)The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviewsFrom$12.99 (opens in new tab)View (opens in new tab)