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8 Easy Ways to Get Free Dropbox Space

The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes

“I don’t know what I would do without Dropbox!”

said one of my best friends last week who woke up to a dead laptop. Dead, as in kaput, a/k/a not coming back to life.

While that predicament would be a nightmare for anyone, my friend was almost finished with a months-long project that was due to her employer later in the week. All would have been lost, except for Dropbox. Because she saves all of her content to Dropbox, her worries were limited to fixing her computer, not recreating her project from scratch.

dropbox

Don’t Miss: How to Get a Whopping 1 GB of Free Dropbox Space

What Is Dropbox

I first wrote about Dropbox a year ago in Dropbox: The Cloud + Local in Harmony. Dropbox is a free Cloud storage service that will store your documents, photos, videos, music and other digital files in the Cloud and on your computer. You can access these files from any computer and from your smartphone or tablet.

Here’s a quick video showing you how Dropbox works:

How to Get Free Dropbox Space

Since I wrote about Dropbox, readers have told me that they like Dropbox but they wish that it gave them more free space. While there are other cloud services that start you off with more free space, Dropbox is integrated with Facebook, and lots of apps and devices, making it my choice for the most useful Cloud based storage service.

See:

Good news! While Dropbox starts you off with only 2 GB of space, there are plenty of easy ways to earn more space. With a little effort you should be able to earn much more Dropbox space without spending a dime.

Here are some ways to increase your Dropbox space for free:

Signing Up for Dropbox

When you first sign up for Dropbox, DON’T just go to dropbox.com and sign up. Signing up for Dropbox gets you 2 GB of space for free, but you can do better. Sign up through a referral link from a friend who uses Dropbox so you and your friend can each get an extra 0.25 GB of free space.

You can use my referral link, but I have much more free space than I can use. Instead, use a link from a friend or a fellow Wonder of Tech reader who has included a link in the Comments section below.

Share Your Dropbox Link

After you sign up for Dropbox, you can get a link to share with others. When they sign up for Dropbox, each of you can get an extra 0.25 GB of free space. You can get a total of 18 GB of free space from your friends signing up through your link. Once you get your link you can share your link on Facebook and Twitter and put your link on the signature to your email, on your website, or anywhere else that people might see it.

To get your link, go to the Referrals page of Dropbox. You will see a link at the bottom that is your very own referral link. When your friends click on that link to sign up for Dropbox, you and your friends each get an extra 0.25 GB of free Dropbox space.

Free Dropbox Space for Inviting Friends

Leave Your Dropbox Referral Link in the Comments Section Below

You can start getting free space right now. Leave your Dropbox referral link in the Comments section below. Hint: add a helpful hint or a creative way you’ve used Dropbox to increase the chances that someone will click on your referral link. Or tell us how you use Dropbox and why extra space will come in handy for you.

Take the Dropbox Tour

Dropbox helps you get started by giving you a quick tour of Dropbox features. Even if you pride yourself in never reading instruction manuals, you should take the Dropbox tour. Dropbox will give you free space just for taking the tour. Hey, you might even learn something!

Free Dropbox Space for taking the Dropbox Tour

Upload Your Smartphone Photos Directly to Dropbox

When you sign into the Dropbox app on your smartphone or tablet, you’re given the option of automatically sending your photos to Dropbox. Not only can this help you share and preserve your photos, this option can get you up to 3 GB of extra Dropbox space.

Link an .EDU Email Address

Sorry but this method of obtaining free Dropbox space is currently unavailable.

If you have an .edu email address from a university and you link that email address to Dropbox, you can double the amount of space that you get for referring friends, from 0.25 GB to 0.5 GB per referral. The bonus works retroactively – any referrals that you got before you linked your .edu email address will be increased to 0.5 GB.

Simple Tasks

Dropbox wants you to show them a little love and is willing to reward you with free space. Tweet about joining Dropbox and Like them on Facebook to get 0.125 GB of extra free space for each task.

Getting a New Phone or Tablet

Thinking about getting a new smartphone or tablet? Some come with free Dropbox space. Dropbox is offering free Dropbox space on some new HTC and Samsung phones and tablets. You can find out more information at the Dropbox website.

Paid Dropbox Space

If you become a big fan of Dropbox and need more space after you max out on your free space, you can buy additional Dropbox space. Dropbox offers:

  • 1000 GB for $9.99/month or $99/year

I wish there were an option for less space for less money, for example 50 GB of space for $4.99/month or $49.99/year. But since Dropbox doesn’t offer a paid option for less than 100 GB of space, your best bet is to load up on as much free space as possible.

Bottom Line

Dropbox is an extremely useful tool to save your files and have them accessible from multiple devices. Make the most of Dropbox by maximizing your free space.

Have you signed up for Dropbox yet? Have you earned free space? Tell us about how you use Dropbox and share your referral link in the Comments section below!

Also see, The Wonder of Tech: How to Get a Whopping 1 GB of Free Dropbox Space and Business Insider: 15 Things You Never Knew You Could Do On Dropbox

 

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Comments

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Lee, Carbonite is an excellent solution for backing up your entire computer. Dropbox backs up specific files so you can access them from anywhere. If you don’t need Facebook integration and you’re willing to pay the fee, Carbonite is a good choice for online backup and Cloud storage.

  2. Harleena Singh says

    Just what I wanted to read Carolyn!

    I’ve been very bad and didn’t do what you mentioned in that earlier post you had written about Dropbox. Yes, I understood everything and even went ahead and signed up. But I got a little scared because of the space it was taking on my laptop as it started loading a little slow. The problem was at my end because of the up-gradation it needed.

    Thereafter, I let it go and forgot about it, even though I’m still signed up for it. I know I loved it the moment I saw the video last time and even now. Ah yes…the referral system seems to be a nice way to get more space. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing this with us, and for reminding me to get back to it too. 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Harleena, I signed up for Dropbox and then didn’t use it for a while. But once you get in the habit of saving everything to Dropbox, well you just can’t imagine how you existed without it.

      Harleena, I humbly suggest you head over to Dropbox and get your link and leave it here so you have a chance for more free Dropbox space! 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by today, Harleena!

  3. Praveen Rajarao says

    Carolyn – When I had my HTC, i got a free 3 GB when i synced it up. I have done all those promotions and steps to get the max free space possible 🙂

    Also, dropbox was offering 50GB for Samsung S3 for a while, I missed getting that. All this free space is valid for one year and after that, they want you to upgrade or go back to 2GB. The idea behind that is, you would have already used up most of your space, and when your 1 year is done, you will have to move your files around or upgrade. That is sad 🙁

    There is one more similar service which gives you a free 50GB space upon signup, no need to do any such promotions for them. You can sign up for http://www.box.com if you are not already on it.

  4. rich says

    Very good idea; but a reason I never buy a laptop again, the power connector failed on my last one, and I was not able to use it for a month while it was mended by the manufacturer. While hard disks on pc can fail as well, so drop box is prolly very useful. I tend to backup on a memory stick, but I guess drop box is just as handy for most people. My upload speed is too slow for it though.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Rich, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, some people are not fans of laptops. Desktops can die too, as my husband’s desktop is about to prove any day now…

      Yes, if your Internet speed is slooooow, the Dropbox may not be the best solution for you. Thanks for joining in the conversation today, Rich.

  5. JM Wright says

    I need the space…LOL. Actually, Dropbox is great for Backing up important files & wonderful for sharing files with clients & team members. Currently only have 6GB but would LOVE to max it out!

    My link is: http://db.tt/H1PYDAne

    Thank you in advance if you use my link!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi JM, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, I hope you are able to max out your Dropbox space. Thanks so much for adding your link that helps Wonder of Tech readers get more space when they sign up for Dropbox. Win/win! :-bd

  6. Nora says

    I didn’t know about the tour or the social media mentions as a way to get extra space – cool! I LOVE Dropbox as a way to have everything backed up – up to the minute….so if my computer goes bust I can access all my writing and working files from anywhere.

    Here\’s my referral link (great idea!) http://db.tt/3jTCnpL5

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Nora, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, those simple tasks take just a few minutes but the benefit of free space lasts forever.

      Thanks for sharing your referral link here, Nora. I hope you get plenty of new free space from Wonder of Tech readers!

  7. Ludwig Ericsson says

    I already signed up for Dropbox a while ago, and I think 2 GB for free is good for sharing documents and photos. I never thought about tweeting and liking Dropbox for more space but I will do it now.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Ludwig, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, there are some very easy way to get more Dropbox space for free. Would you care to add your Dropbox referral link here to get even more free space?

  8. Barak says

    I love Dropbox! I just used it for a project with an assistant. She uploaded all the files she was working on in a folder and then shared it with me so I could review what she was doing. My only complaint is that i need more space 🙂
    Here’s my referral link: http://db.tt/DW4lcm7D
    Thanks for helping me get more Dropbox space! I promise to use it wisely 🙂

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Barak, A warm welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great point, sharing Dropbox files is an excellent way to work on a collaborative project. But those shared files count against your Dropbox space so I can see how you would need more space.

      Good luck Barak. I hope you get plenty of free space from Wonder of Tech readers!

  9. Steve says

    I can honestly say I use dropbox on a daily basis; I’m self employed but go into a shared office every day and to be able to have all my documents both there and on my home machine is great because I can now work whenever I want without the hassle of carrying a USB stick everywhere (which I probably lose or forget anyway).

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Steve, Wow, that’s great that you use Dropbox so effectively to manage your files at home and at your office. You’re right, it’s difficult to keep track of those USB sticks!

      Would you like to leave your referral link here to perhaps get some more free Dropbox space?

  10. Mike Maynard says

    Hi Carolyn,

    I use dropbox, but not much. I also get 7Gb of space with Skydrive. I think this could be useful for students though. I did advise one student to get a flash drive to back up her work, but this is a free solution.

    I’ve used two of your snow photos on today’s post. I’m not sure if my comment luv is working. I have disabled some plug ins and my site is faster now. The server was slow, so I’ll enable them one by one. I think today’s pictures are interesting. I pinned some, but left you pictures for you to pin!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Mike, Yes, I have used Skydrive but I prefer Dropbox because it’s available with so many different devices and apps. When I want to share items from an app, chances are that “Share to Dropbox” will be an option.

      Thank you for using my snow photos on your blog. I am glad I sent you those because it hasn’t snowed here since I took those photos!

      I haven’t been able to use CommentLuv at your blog for some reason. Perhaps it is broken there. But thanks for leaving your CommentLuv link to your blog here, Mike, so people can check out your amazing blog! (*)

  11. bonooobong says

    Indeed, I’ve just doubled my free storage when I’ve heard I should register my university email address as well. At the University of Technology in Vienna we also use some other professional dropbox services for internal use as well, so I have a feeling that I really deserved this 🙂 Thanks for sharing some other cool ways to get some more storage, cloud services offer some more free space every day, it’s the result of the big competition! (and I really enjoy it:))

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Bonoobong, I’m so glad you were able to use your .edu email address to double the referral space you receive from Dropbox. That is a huge benefit and I love that it’s retroactive!

      Would you like to leave your referral link here to perhaps get more free Dropbox space?

  12. Aaron Brinker says

    Carolyn,

    I love Dropbox! It’s one of my favorite programs for my phone! It makes things so easy to move pictures and files back and forth between my computer and the phone. I just had to replace my phone actually through Sprint because it had a defect and they asked if i had dropbox so they could my files. It was sprints choices of programs to use for managing files now. They thought it was pretty cool because I was already suing the program and had been for well over a year.

    Aaron Brinker aka DadBlunders

  13. Carol B says

    Hi Carolyn,
    I love DropBox! I use it for saving photos I use in both my personal blog and a blog I manage for a non-profit. DropBox makes it so easy to add and organize photos for my blogs. My favorite tip is to create a yearly folder with subfolders for each month – Example: we are in 2013, February. So I have a Folder titled 2013BlogPhotos. Within that folder I have January and February. I place photos from February in the February subfolder of the 2013 folder. Very easy to go back and find my photos.

    My own Drop Box link is http://db.tt/6OjqIuea
    Just in case anyone wants to share some new space with me! I could use more!

    Have a great day!

  14. Thomas says

    Hi Carolyn
    I am a big fan of Dropbox and a big fan of extra free space 🙂 I have done most of the tips you share in this post and so far I am on 10.8 GB free space. The tip with the .edu mail is new to me, but unfortunately I don’t have an .edu e-mail address.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Thomas, Yes, I remember your excellent article from last year about how to get more free Dropbox space. I didn’t have an .edu email address until Dropbox had this offer, then I signed up for one with my undergraduate university. Some universities allow alumni to get .edu email addresses while others don’t. For those who can get one, the benefit of doubling referral space on Dropbox can be quite valuable!

  16. Ashleen Moreen says

    “I don’t know what I would do without Dropbox!”
    Oh, it’s quite surprising to see this same words here, this also resides in my head.
    I’m a dropbox user as well but not the Paid Dropbox Space but I am still happy with it, I still have so much space in there.
    I consider it my savior too.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Ashleen, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, I feel the same way as you and my friend. Have you maximized your space yet, Ashleen? If not, feel free to leave your referral link in a comment here. 🙂

  17. Edward Harrington says

    I love Dropbox, I think this is the best cloud service today even if it gives to yopun only 2 GBs free space.

  18. PJ says

    Great article and I love Dropbox! Never thought about liking Dropbox for more space. I wish I had discovered it earlier.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi PJ, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Good news, there is no deadline for getting extra Dropbox space. Just get started now and enjoy the extra space forever. Please feel free to leave your referral code here to try to get even more free space!

  19. Aasma says

    Hey Carolyn,

    I have been using DropBox for quite a long time and whenever I need more space I generally send a invitation to my friends and I get additional 250 MB.

  21. Adrienne says

    Hey Carolyn,

    I remember when you wrote about this last year and I wasn’t familiar with it then. Since that time I had a friend send me some audio files that of course were way too big to email so that’s when I signed up.

    I downloaded them to my computer but have not done anything else with it. I just don’t really use this service but I don’t have a lot of large files to share either. I think for the time being since I don’t really use it I’d be good for now. I appreciate you sharing with us though how to get more space. I mean that’s pretty important before people have to dive in and start paying for their service.

    Thanks for the scoop.

    ~Adrienne

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Adrienne, Excellent point. I have also used Dropbox to share audio files that were too big to email.

      I thought you might like Dropbox to share files between your desktop computer and your laptop. If you save your files to Dropbox, you can have them accessible on both of your computers, not to mention on your iPod Touch. 🙂

  23. Jessica says

    I love Dropbox! It’s one of my favorite programs for my phone! It makes things so easy to move pictures and files back and forth between my computer and the phone.Thank you so much for the information,,,,Thanks!!!!!!

  26. Paul says

    Dropbox was very helpful in syncing my photos from my camera! My Nexus 4 does not have that great of a storage space, but with dropbox it covers for this
    little issue! Very simple and easy to use.

    My link – http://db.tt/cCX5UWK

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Paul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great idea to use Dropbox to store photos from your phone, freeing up space on your phone as you transfer them to your computer. I hope you get lots of free space from your link!

  27. iRewardChart says

    From the day 1 I got introduced to Dropbox, there hasn’t been a single day, when I haven’t thanked the service. Well, almost – but you get the point.
    Its so bloody brilliant, anyone gets a new smartphone or so I ask them to install Dropbox first (maybe Dropbox should set me up with some more free space just for that) 😉
    I am working my way upwards, and have reached upto 6GB so far. Our little startup, as you may wonder, have had people working in US, Denmark, London, India, Vietnam and Mexico city. Dropbox has totally empowered us.
    I am looking fwd to the day, when I upgrade my service to a business service, as our needs grow.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi iRewardChart, Thanks for your ringing endorsement of Dropbox. I can see how valuable the service is to you, with employees around the globe.

      Would you care to leave your Dropbox referral link here?

      Best wishes for rising to the level of business account with Dropbox soon! (*)

  28. Lorenzo Caum says

    Another idea is to place a Dropbox image with your referral link in the widgets area of your blog. You could even use a free plugin like Widget Logic to show it on a certain post or specific pages.

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Lorenzo, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great idea to add the referral link to the sidebar of your website. Please feel free to come back here and leave your Dropbox referral link. Comments are open for a few more days!

  29. hey says

    I think if we work together we can get a lot of space.
    I have an .edu e-mail, and I want to share my link here:

    http://db.tt/ZqLU5dIB

    And thanks for posting this, Carolyn.
    Have a great day!!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hey, hey! Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you’re able to make use of these tips to get more free Dropbox space. I hope you get some free space with your link here, hey!

  30. Rachel says

    This is very helpful! I’m going to download the dropbox app and use it on my iPad! Sounds like a good way to get space!

    • Carolyn Nicander Mohr says

      Hi Rachel, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you’re going to give Dropbox a try. I hope you use one of the referral links in the Comments and then return and leave your link!

  31. Jayson Kurt says

    I received the referral from my friend and it is good to know that I’ve helped him get more space. Now I sending mine to other friends. hehehe
    Thanks!

  32. Heru Prasetyono says

    A very good posting. Dropbox is something new for me. This article adds value for me. Thank you very much for sharing.

  33. Kara says

    I just started using Dropbox, but I have a feeling it’s going to become incredibly useful for me – rather than toting around these memory cards everywhere. I would love some free space!

    http://db.tt/m6BLDMRQ