Is it normal for WhatsApp to use more iCloud storage than Google Drive?

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Level 1

4 points

Is it normal for WhatsApp to use more iCloud storage than Google Drive?

I've recently moved from Android device, and was able to transfer all of my application data, one of them was WhatApp chat history. The storage on Android phone was about 15Gb, chat history with multimedia included, backing up all of it on Google Drive took 8Gb, I assume there is some kind of compression. After the move the application data stayed more or less the same, but the backup on iCloud is using 45Gb. Is there a special way the files are stored, that is takes 3 time the actual size of the app or I'm missing some backup settings?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on May 31, 2025 12:39 AM

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Answer 1

May 31, 2025 1:02 AM in response to MajaLu

When transferring WhatsApp from Android to iPhone, the data stored in Google Drive is not transferred directly. WhatsApp on Android uses Google Drive for backups, while iOS uses iCloud. These systems are not compatible, and there's no automatic way to move the backup from Google Drive to iCloud.

Instead, WhatsApp provides a direct, one-time transfer process using the Move to iOS app. This method:

Transfers only the current WhatsApp chat history from your Android phone to your iPhone during setup.
Does not pull data from Google Drive.
Requires both phones to be connected to the same Wi-Fi and plugged into power.

What gets transferred:

Personal messages
Photos
Videos
Voice messages
Group chats
Account info (name, profile pic, settings)

What doesn’t get transferred:

WhatsApp call history
WhatsApp backup from Google Drive
Peer-to-peer payment history

Once on iPhone, your chats are stored in iCloud (if backup is enabled), and Google Drive is no longer used.

So, in short: Google Drive holds your old WhatsApp backup, but it's not involved in the migration to iOS—only the live chat data on the Android device itself is transferred.

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Answer 2

MajaLu Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 7, 2025 9:42 AM in response to SravanKrA

To clarify, I was able to transfer all the data, from Android to iPhone, the way You've described.

My question was only about the amount of storage taken by the iCloud backup, compared to the amount of data taken by the WhatsApp application on the phone itself.

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Answer 3

MajaLu Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 7, 2025 10:19 AM in response to MajaLu

Just to clarify, I managed to transfer all my data from Android to iPhone, I've method that you've described.

My question was only about the storage: specifically, how much space the iCloud backup takes up compared to the amount of data WhatsApp uses on the phone itself.

I think I’ve figured it out. On the phone, any duplicated data is only stored once. That’s why, in Settings → Storage Management, it shows just 14GB used at the top. But if I scroll down and add up the size of each individual chat, it comes out to around 44GB. So, it looks like each chat is backed up separately, which explains the difference.

Hope this helps anyone else wondering the same thing!

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Answer 4

WheelieNick

Level 8

44,245 points

May 31, 2025 1:00 AM in response to MajaLu

You might have the setting on in whatsapp to download all the media that is send to you to your device. You might want to turn that setting off

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