Why Permanent?

Examples of snapshots saved to an archive. Permanent supports many file types including PDF, TIFF, MP3, MP4, MOV, EML, PPT, HEIC, and XLS

Digital Archives

You’ve created memories that should last longer than your lifetime. That’s why we’ve built a permanent home you can trust. We preserve data for the next generation, not for profit.

We're offering more than just another cloud storage service, we're creating digital archives. We care deeply about maintaining accessibility to digital materials for all time and the archival integrity of our platform.

We use readily available commercial and open source technology to achieve our ambitious mission and promise to you. You can rest assured that we're not taking any risks by re-inventing the wheel or making any outlandish new technology bets. We're making the most safe and conservative design choices and doing what makes plain sense.

With a Permanent digital archive, you’re not just saving files, you’re protecting a digital legacy with family, friends, and your whole community.

Redundant Backups

What's the best way to keep something around for all time? Make multiple copies of it and store those copies in different places. We create multiple, redundant copies of every file in our system to mitigate against file degradation. Not only that, but we also make sure we're not keeping those files all in the same place:

Multi-provider

We use multiple cloud storage providers; if one provider fails to live up to its promise, we can walk away.

Multi-region

We duplicate files across multiple geographic regions; If a server in one part of the country experiences difficulties, we have another in an unaffected part of the country that can be used to access your files.

Multi-tier

We maintain accessibility, but also duplicate files into more stable cold storage systems.

We run regular file integrity checks on your data. If a file in one server appears to be damaged or corrupted, we use its copy on the other server to repair it.

Nonprofit Organization badge with Permanent logo

Nonprofit Status

A sustainable organization that gives people complete control over their digital legacy and the peace of mind that it will be preserved for future generations.

A new paradigm for a truly inclusive and diverse, universally accessible, people’s history assembled from countless individual perspectives, existing in endless permutations.

A trusted platform for individuals, families, and small organizations that provides a secure and private environment to build and share archival-quality history with family, friends, colleagues, and the public, at their complete discretion.

One time fee badge

No subscriptions. One-time payment.

On Permanent.org, you only pay once. There are no recurring costs. Purchase only what you need and pay only once, not every month. Your storage is yours and we'll never delete your stuff. Add more storage when you need it, anytime. All accounts start with one free gigabyte to get you started.


Benefits of Permanent Storage

  • Permanently Stored
  • Automated File Conversion
  • Redundant Backup
  • Continuous File Migration

How much Storage do I need?

1 Gigabyte

588 Compressed Photos
146 DSLR Photos
3.6 Minutes of 4k Video
10,000 PDF Documents
12 Hours, 8 Minutes of MP3 Audio

10 Gigabytes

5,880 Compressed Photos
1,460 DSLR Photos
36 Minutes of 4k Video
100,000 PDF Documents
121 Hours, 20 Minutes of MP3 Audio

100 Gigabytes

58,800 Compressed Photos
14,600 DSLR Photos
360 Minutes of 4k Video
100,000 PDF Documents
1213 Hours, 33 Minutes of MP3 Audio