Recently, Discord implemented an update that reduced the upload file limit for free users from 25MB to 10MB. Their justification for this decision was twofold:

Claim 1 : "99% of users exchange files smaller than 10MB."
Claim 2: "We lowered the file size limit for free users to maintain the service without compromising the quality of storage."

However, there are significant issues with these justifications that warrant reconsideration of this change.

Regarding Claim 1:

Many Discord communities, especially meme servers, frequently share files larger than 10MB. Additionally, modern photo files and game clips often exceed this size. Reducing the limit impacts a considerable portion of users.
Even if only 1% of users send files larger than 10MB, Discord reported over 614 million registered users in 2024. This means that 1% equates to over 6 million users. By lowering the limit, Discord is effectively inconveniencing millions of people.

Regarding Claim 2:

The claim about maintaining "quality of storage" is questionable, as there has never been a clear metric of storage quality provided by Discord. This reduction appears more like an attempt to push users towards Nitro subscriptions rather than a genuine effort to preserve storage quality.

Proposed Solutions:

- Implement a file retention policy where files uploaded by free users remain on Discord's servers for a limited period (e.g., one year) before being deleted.

- When Discord deletes inactive or banned users, ensure that their chat history and uploaded files are also deleted. This would help reduce storage strain without impacting active users.

We urge Discord to reconsider this change and explore more user-friendly solutions that don't alienate a significant portion of its community.


Please share this petition to get more signatures to, hopefully, revert this change.