UniFi Cloud Storage Adds $5/TB Off-Site Backup

Ubiquiti has launched UniFi Cloud Storage, a paid off-site storage service for homes and small businesses already running its UniFi hardware. Priced at $5 per terabyte per month and powered by Backblaze, it gives UniFi Drive and UniFi Protect users a cloud copy of their files and camera events without leaving the UniFi platform. For households that rely on local UniFi cameras and network storage, it fills an obvious gap: until now, keeping a copy somewhere else usually meant setting up a second site or a separate third-party backup service.

The launch matters because UniFi systems are often chosen precisely for local control. Cameras record to a local console, files live on a local NAS, and nothing has to pass through a vendor cloud. That independence is a selling point, but it has a weakness. A fire, flood, break-in, or a failed drive can take the only copy with it. UniFi Cloud Storage adds the off-site half of the equation while keeping day-to-day recording and storage local.

What UniFi Cloud Storage is

UniFi Cloud Storage is a subscription service managed through a Ubiquiti UI account. Once activated, it becomes an online storage option for every site in that account’s UniFi Fabrics, the grouping Ubiquiti uses to tie multiple sites together. It serves two applications: UniFi Drive, which controls Ubiquiti’s UNAS network storage servers, and UniFi Protect, which manages its cameras and network video recorders.

Activation starts in UniFi Site Manager. With a UI account signed in, users go to Settings and then Cloud Storage to set the service up. It is also reachable from inside the backup and archiving functions of Drive and Protect.

Ubiquiti says users can switch between Drive and Protect tabs to see how much storage each side is using and adjust the subscription accordingly. That shared pool means a household does not have to guess in advance how to split capacity between files and footage.

Price and how it scales

The pricing is deliberately simple. UniFi Cloud Storage costs $5 per month per terabyte, on a single tier, and capacity can be increased one terabyte at a time as needs grow. Early coverage notes that the rate is almost $2 per terabyte below buying comparable storage directly from Backblaze, the provider behind the service, and that there are no egress fees for pulling data back out.

That flat, per-terabyte structure makes the cost easy to predict. A household backing up a modest photo and document library, or archiving events from two or three cameras, can start small and add capacity rather than committing to a large plan up front. Larger camera systems can scale in the same increments, though the monthly total will climb with retention and camera count.

Compared with running a second NAS elsewhere or a separate backup plan, a native option competes on convenience: it is already inside the system owners use.

How it works with UniFi Drive

For UniFi Drive, UniFi Cloud Storage is a destination for off-site backup tasks. The setup follows three steps: open UniFi Drive, go to Backup Tasks, create a new off-site backup task for the chosen drives or folders, and select UniFi Cloud Storage as the destination. From then on, the selected content is synced automatically.

The point of that off-site copy is the 3-2-1 backup rule, a widely used minimum for important data: keep at least three copies, on at least two types of storage, with at least one copy off site. A UNAS server with its own drive redundancy covers the first two parts, but a house fire or theft can still defeat it. A cloud copy stored elsewhere closes that gap, and because the sync is automatic, it does not depend on anyone remembering to run a backup.

As with any online backup, a fast internet connection matters: the first upload of a large library takes time, and the service works best with enough upstream bandwidth to stay current. Once a backup job has completed, the content remains accessible even if the local console is offline.

How it works with UniFi Protect

The Protect side is arguably the more interesting use case, because camera footage has different needs from ordinary files. Footage is bulky, it is generated continuously, and its value is often highest exactly when something has gone wrong at the property.

To use the service with Protect, owners open the Protect interface, go to Settings, then Off-Site Archiving, select UniFi Cloud Storage as the archive destination, and enable event archiving. They then choose which cameras and which detection types to include. From that point, recordings from the selected cameras and detection types are uploaded to the cloud.

The key detail is retention. Archived recordings stay in UniFi Cloud Storage even after they are removed from the local recorder’s drive as part of normal retention rotation. In practice, that means a recorder with limited internal storage no longer sets a hard limit on how long important events are kept. A household could therefore run a modest internal drive and hold selected events longer in the cloud.

Being selective matters here. Archiving every minute of footage from every camera would consume storage quickly. Limiting the archive to chosen cameras and detection types, such as person or vehicle events at entry points, keeps the subscription proportionate to what is actually worth keeping.

Viewing archived recordings

Ubiquiti has also built cloud playback into the service rather than treating the archive as a cold vault. Users can open Site Manager, go to Settings, then Cloud Storage, pick Protect Recordings, and browse in list or grid view with filters for time range, camera, and detection type.

Time filters cover one day, three days, one week, two weeks, one month, or all recordings, with a calendar control for specific dates. Detection filters include person, vehicle, package, license plate, animal, and face, alongside audio detection filters and a filter for archived recordings specifically. Browsing the cloud archive thus works much like browsing in the Protect app itself.

That playback experience is part of the pitch. A backup that is awkward to search is of limited use in the moment when someone needs a clip, whether for a package that went missing or an incident at the door. Keeping the same filtering and views in the cloud makes the archive usable, not just safe.

Why it matters for smart homes

For the wider smart home market, UniFi Cloud Storage is a sign of how local-first systems are evolving. UniFi Protect’s early appeal was freedom from mandatory cloud subscriptions: buy the hardware and record locally. That model still holds for basic recording. What Ubiquiti is now selling is an optional layer on top, aimed at owners who want insurance against loss without giving up local recording.

It also sharpens the contrast with mainstream camera brands, where cloud storage is often the only way to keep footage beyond a short window and is typically priced per camera. UniFi’s per-terabyte pricing, shared across Drive and Protect, suits households that already think in terms of storage capacity rather than camera count. Owners with many cameras may still find the total adds up, but the pricing model at least scales with data rather than with each device.

There are limits worth noting. The service is an add-on to hardware owners already have; it does not replace a recorder or a NAS, and it is only as good as the broadband connection uploading to it. Households should also decide what to archive before subscribing, since indiscriminate archiving of continuous footage will inflate the bill.

What to check before subscribing

Owners considering the service should start by auditing what they actually need to protect. For Drive, that means identifying the folders that would be painful to lose, such as photos and documents, rather than backing up everything indiscriminately. For Protect, it means choosing the cameras and detection types that cover entrances, driveways, and other high-value views, and deciding how long those events need to be kept.

Next, estimate the storage. A small Drive backup plus event clips from a couple of cameras may fit comfortably in a terabyte or two, while continuous archiving from many cameras will not. Starting at one terabyte and scaling in single-terabyte steps makes it possible to test the service against real usage before committing to more.

Finally, check the upload side. The first backup or archive sync is the heaviest lift, and a slow upstream connection will stretch it out. Once the initial sync is done, ongoing event uploads are far lighter, which is where the service settles into a routine.

UniFi Cloud Storage will not change how most UniFi owners record day to day, and that is the point. Local recording stays local, while a cloud copy quietly covers the scenario local storage cannot: the loss of the hardware itself. For camera and NAS owners who have been putting off an off-site backup because it meant a second system to maintain, a native $5-per-terabyte option removes most of the friction.