iCloud & iCloud Photos · Sharing folders and photo libraries
Do Shared Albums count against my iCloud storage?
Short answer: No — Shared Albums don't count toward your iCloud storage, but they store reduced-size copies, so they're for sharing, not archiving. The iCloud Shared Photo Library is different: full originals, counted against its creator's storage.
No. Shared Albums don't count toward your iCloud storage. They're designed for sharing a set of photos with others, and Apple stores them at a reduced size rather than as full originals — so they're great for sharing, not as an archive.
That's different from iCloud Shared Photo Library, which holds full originals and counts toward its creator's storage — see what the Shared Photo Library is. Keep your originals in your own library or on a drive you trust.