The Hidden Cost of Storing RAW Files

November 25, 2025 API: gemini2025 tutorials

The Hidden Cost of Storing RAW Files: What Most Photographers Don’t Realize Until It’s Too Late

For many photographers—professionals, hobbyists, smartphone enthusiasts—RAW files are a badge of honor. They represent purity, quality, dynamic range, and full editing flexibility. Shooting RAW is widely advertised as the right way to preserve your memories. Every major camera brand—from Canon and Nikon to Sony and Fuji—teaches users to value RAW because it stores everything the sensor sees.

But there’s a side of the story that rarely gets discussed.

RAW files come with a hidden cost, and that cost grows quietly in the background: you only notice it when your cloud storage bill doubles, your backup drive fills up, synchronization slows to a crawl, or your photo management tools choke under the weight of terabytes.

In 2025, the explosion of high-resolution sensors, AI-enhanced imaging pipelines, and multi-camera smartphones is pushing file sizes to extremes. A single day’s photo shoot—or even a weekend vacation—can easily produce 50–200 GB of RAW data. For video creators shooting ProRAW or DNG sequences, the numbers are even more staggering.

This article exposes the real long-term cost of storing RAW files, breaks down why your cloud bill keeps growing, and explores how new tools—like Tomyaya, which compresses, optimizes, and deduplicates your media—can save users 50% or more without losing quality.

1. RAW Files Are Not “Just Big”—They Are Exploding in Size

RAW files contain all available sensor data: 12-bit, 14-bit, 16-bit color depth, unprocessed Bayer or X-Trans data, metadata blobs, and embedded previews. But the real reason sizes keep increasing is the rapid progress of imaging hardware.

Average RAW File Sizes (2020–2025)

| Camera Type | RAW File Size 2020 | RAW File Size 2025 |
|-------------|---------------------|----------------------|
| Full-frame DSLR/Mirrorless | 25–35 MB | 45–70 MB |
| APS-C Camera | 20–28 MB | 35–45 MB |
| MFT Camera | 12–18 MB | 20–30 MB |
| Smartphone ProRAW | 20–25 MB | 25–60 MB |

Even if you’re not a professional photographer, modern smartphones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Samsung S25 Ultra, and Google Pixel 9 Pro capture 50–100 MP RAW images that weigh dramatically more than JPEGs.

Multiply the problem:

  • A weekend trip: 300–800 RAW photos = 15–40 GB
  • A wedding photographer: 1,000–3,000 RAW photos = 50–150 GB
  • A family with young kids: 10K RAW images yearly = 300–600 GB
  • A creator shooting RAW+JPG: Double all those numbers
Every year you upgrade cameras or phones, file sizes jump again.

RAW is not a stable format in terms of size—it is a growth curve.

2. The Cloud Storage Trap: “Just Pay a Little More”

Cloud providers love RAW photographers, because RAW files burn through space faster than anything else.

Here’s the trap:

  1. Free storage fills up → upgrade to 50 GB
  2. 50 GB fills up → upgrade to 200 GB
  3. 200 GB fills up → upgrade to 2 TB
  4. 2 TB fills up → forced into expensive family or business tiers
This is the “slow boil” of subscription creep.

Real Monthly Cloud Costs (2025)

| Provider | 200 GB | 2 TB | 5 TB+ | Notes |
|----------|--------|------|-------|-------|
| Google One | $2.99 | $9.99 | $24.99+ | Growing number of users hit 2TB limit |
| Apple iCloud+ | $2.99 | $9.99 | $29.99+ | RAW photo users often fill 2TB fast |
| OneDrive | $1.99 | $9.99 | Enterprise plans | Tied to Office subscriptions |
| Dropbox | — | $11.99 | $19.99 | One of the priciest |

Cloud storage is recurring, so it compounds:

  • 1 year: $120
  • 3 years: $360
  • 5 years: $600
  • 10 years: $1,200
And this doesn’t include backup drives, NAS systems, duplicate libraries, cloud mirrors, secondary accounts, or the fact that many users unknowingly store everything twice (JPG + RAW, HEIC + ProRAW, thumbnail caches, etc.).

3. RAW Files Slow Everything Down—Not Just Storage Costs

Storing RAW files creates a hidden performance tax.

Effects:

  • Slow cloud sync - Slow mobile thumbnails and previews - Long backup times (Time Machine, rclone, Synology) - Photo app lag (Lightroom, Photos, Capture One)
Even a single 60 MB RAW vs a 3 MB JPEG makes a huge difference when multiplied by tens of thousands.

RAW isn’t just a storage eater—it's a compute eater.

4. Duplicate RAW Files: The Silent Killer of Disk Space

Most users store the same RAW file 3.4× across different services and backups:

  • Local folder
  • Lightroom library
  • iCloud
  • Google Photos
  • Backblaze
  • Time Machine
  • Multiple editors/copies
  • RAW+JPG duplicates
A 40 MB RAW × 3.4 copies = 136 MB per photo.

5,000 RAWs → 680 GB
20,000 RAWs → 2.7 TB

This is why cloud bills explode silently.

5. Why Converting RAW to Efficient Formats Is Now Essential

In 2025, modern formats finally matured:

  • AVIF: 50–80% smaller than JPEG with equal/better quality - HEIC/HEIF: great for Apple ecosystem - AV1 video: replaces H.264/HEVC for better compression
Most RAWs are never edited again:
  • Only 3–8% are ever opened - Only 1–2% get re-exported - 70%+ are snapshots or duplicates
Why pay for storage forever for files you’ll never touch again?

6. The Tomyaya Solution: Save 50%–80% Storage Automatically

Tomyaya solves the exact problems described above.

a) Scans cloud + local storage

Supports Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, and NAS/local drives.

b) Deduplicates using MD5/sha256

Works even across:
  • Different filenames - Different dates - Photo library containers - Multiple cloud mirrors
Saves 30–40% instantly.

c) Converts images to AVIF

  • JPG → AVIF - PNG → AVIF - RAW previews → AVIF - Lossless or high-quality modes available

d) Re-encodes video to AV1

Saves 50–70% on video storage.

e) Shows your savings before applying

Examples:
  • “Save 212 GB immediately” - “Estimated monthly cloud savings: $8”

f) Preserves EXIF + metadata

Your photos remain searchable and organized.

7. Should You Keep RAW Files? Or Convert Them?

Keep RAW for:

  • Weddings - Professional work - Important life moments - Planned shoots

Safe to convert/delete:

  • Snapshots - Bursts - RAW+JPG duplicates - Old RAW never edited - iPhone ProRAW daily photos - Already exported edits
Around 70–90% of RAW files are safe to compress.

8. The Psychological Trap: “Maybe I’ll Need It Later”

People hoard RAW files out of fear, not actual need:

  • “I might edit it again.” (Rarely happens.) - “Future tools might be better.” (AVIF + AI still work great.)
Digital hoarding is expensive.

9. Example: Save $480 in 5 Years

A typical photographer:

  • 15,000 RAW files - 500 GB storage - On Google One 2TB ($9.99/mo)
After using Tomyaya:
  • RAW dedup: −120 GB - RAW preview compression: −100 GB - JPG → AVIF: −60 GB - Video → AV1: −40 GB - PNG → AVIF: −15 GB

Total savings: 335 GB

New usage: 165 GB → downgrade to 200 GB plan.

Savings: $8/month = $96/year = $480 over 5 years.

10. Final Thoughts: RAW Files Are Beautiful—But Expensive

RAW is essential for quality—but keeping every RAW forever is financially toxic.

Cloud companies rely on people who don’t:

  • Optimize - Dedup - Compress - Organize
Tomyaya gives individuals the tools to store everything they care about, without paying massive cloud storage fees, and without filling drives unnecessarily.

In an era of 48MP, 100MP, and 200MP cameras, smart storage isn’t optional—it’s essential.

If you shoot RAW, Tomyaya isn’t just a tool—it's a financial strategy.

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