But since there are no good free alternatives – at least we’re yet to find one with the same search power and editing tools – there’s a good argument for accepting that you’ll have to pay to use it once you’ve used up the storage space Google gives you for free.

In any case, you’re here because you want to download your Google Photos, and that’s precisely what we’re going to show you how to do.

Of course, it isn’t entirely obvious how to do this, which is also why you’re here. We’ll explain how to download just some photos and videos or absolutely everything you’ve got on there.

How to download some photos from Google Photos

This is the simpler task of the two, which is why we’re explaining this first. The process is the same whether you’re downloading photos or videos from Google Photos.

First head to Google Photos. You’ll need to do this on a laptop or PC (or Mac), as there’s no option in the mobile version to download (you can share, but not download). Hover your cursor over a photo and a circle will appear at the top-left corner. Click on this for each photo and video you want to download. You can hold down Shift and click further down the page to select multiple photos at once, or hover over a date and click the tick that appears to select all photos and videos from that day. Click on the three dots at the top right and click Download (or press Shift + D). Your download should begin.

How to download all Google Photos (and videos)

Downloading everything photos from Google Drive is quite simple, but the option isn’t in Google Photos.

Instead, you’ll need to use the amusingly titled Google Takeout service.

Google Takeout lets you download data from any of Google’s service, including your Chrome history, Google Play activity, Google Play Books, Hangouts history and much more, such as Photos. 

You can do this in a web browser on a phone as well as on a desktop computer.

How to stop automatically backing up photos to Google PhotosHow to clear out Google Drive and free up space for new filesWhat to do with Google Photos now that free storage has endedHow to upload your entire photo collection to Google Photos

But if you want to download specific albums, or everything from specific years, click “All photo albums included”.

Now you will see a list of all your albums. If you haven’t separated all your pictures into albums (because who has time for that?), Google will automatically separate them by year. You might see albums and years.

Once you’re happy with your selections click OK.

You can also add them to Google Drive, but this seems like a strange choice when the photos are effectively already stored in your Google account.

Here, we’re using the email option.

Click Create Export when you’re ready.

Also note, you should get a security authorisation email from Google to confirm it’s you requesting to export your photos and not someone else. You may need to authorise it before you’re able to download your photos and videos

Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.