What is the difference between Google Cloud Storage API and Google Drive API?

Question

I want to make an app that allow users to upload photos and their friends can access these photos.

Google Cloud Storage API is better documented but, drive API is free unlike Cloud API.

So, I want to understand when to use this and when to use this? What is the core difference between both and what is more flexible?

Answer 1

Both storage solutions have similarities but Cloud Storage expands a lot of features by giving you more control and flexibility (in both API and pricing). You can say that Drive is user-oriented while Cloud Storage is dev-oriented.

Google Drive has 15GB of free storage while Cloud Storage has free 5GB that's on Free Tier or Spark Plan . While you may find it cheaper to store data in Google Drive, once you start having more than 15GB of data, you will have to pay for additional storage and its pricing is fixed. Meaning, you pay full price even on unused storage.

One advantage of using Cloud Storage is that you only pay for what you use . Meaning, you are billed depending on total amount of data you stored + operations cost. You can also easily calculate these monthly estimates through GCP Calculator .

Here's a link that describes different use case scenarios depending on storage products. Since you're developing a mobile app (Android), I suggest that you take a look into Cloud Storage for Firebase as it suits well with the requirements you've provided.