[capableweb]

Not sure what you or Verge is talking about. You don't NEED double storage space to get your original photos.

1. Go to google.com/takeout

2. Select "Google Photos"

3. Select "Email download link" (which should be pre-selected)

4. Click "Create archive" or whatever it says

Now you just wait for the email to arrive, then click the link. No storage space needed anywhere, just click the link and download like any other HTTP transfer.

I've been doing this once every 6 months or so for years, have been the same way always. Probably the reason no one is raising hell about this is because you seem misinformed.

[babycake]

My confusion is that if I have 10 GB of photos in my Google Photos, that counts towards the Google cloud storage. Gmail contents also contribute to the total cloud storage. So if Google Takeout is taking my 10 GB photos and creating 10 GB zip files for download, where is it gonna store those zip files? If I sent it to my gmail, doesn't that mean I'll get 10 GB of new zip files that takes up my gmail storage space?

If I send it to my Google Drive, then those 10 GB zip files take up my drive storage space... So Google Photos + zip files... that's 20 GB. Double the storage right? And if I don't have enough space to store those zip files, then I'll have to upgrade my storage space and pay more money...?

Where is Google Takeout storing those zip files if not on my storage space?

[capableweb]

What you receive in your email is not email attachments with the backup, but links that starts the download. So no additional storage is being used.

Maybe they should make it clearer, but for me "Email download link" is already pretty clear.

FWIW: The download link ends up being something like https://takeout.google.com/takeout/download?j=X&i=0&user=X&r... and doesn't count to any of your storage quotas.