Microsoft is shrinking its storage plans for its OneDrive cloud service and is ending unlimited OneDrive storage plans, citing user abuse. Microsoft promised unlimited storage a year ago to subscribers of Office 365 Home, Personal and University. But the company on Monday said that current unlimited users will be capped at 1 TB. The company also plans to eliminate 100GB and 200GB plans, and offer a reduced 50GB plan for $1.99 per month instead, starting from early 2016. Its free offering will be cut from 15GB down to just 5GB. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued.

"Since starting to roll out unlimited cloud storage to Office 365 consumer subscribers, a small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average. Instead of focusing on extreme backup scenarios, we want to remain focused on delivering high-value productivity and collaboration experiences that benefit the majority of OneDrive users," Microsoft explained.

Microsoft says that it will allow 12 months for people using more than the allotted amounts to clear out their files. Current subscribers to the 100GB and 200GB plans will be able to keep their existing plans.

The changes come as competitors such as Google, Apple nd Amazon.com make their cloud storage offerings more attractive to users. Apple offers 5GB for free, and has a $1-per-month 50GB plan. Google continues to offer 15GB of free storage, and sells 1TB for $10 per month. Amazon offers unlimited photo storage for $12 per year, or free with the $100-per-year Prime membership.