The deadline
How much is 5 GB in photos and videos?
Roughly a thousand photos, according to the estimate from Swedish broadcaster TV4. But video weighs many times more, so a couple of hundred clips can fill the same space. The only thing that gives a certain answer is the number in the app.
The honest version is that there is no exact answer, and that every page giving you a definite number has guessed. Swedish broadcaster TV4 estimated the 5 GB limit at roughly a thousand photos, and that is the best supported figure we know of.
But it applies to photos. A Snapchat photo weighs a few megabytes; a video clip weighs many times more. An archive that is mostly video can hit the ceiling at a couple of hundred clips, while an archive of almost nothing but photos can hold several thousand. Same limit, ten times as many memories.
That is why the question "how many snaps do I have?" does not help. The number says nothing about the space. It is the gigabytes that count, and that is the figure Snapchat measures against.
You do not have to guess. Open your profile in the app, tap the gold box for Snapchat+ and scroll to the row with the cloud icon. It shows how much of your storage you are using, and if the number is red you are over the limit. We have made a guide with screenshots, and although the page is in Swedish the pictures show it tap by tap: sparaminamemories.se/kolla-snapchat-lagring
Once you have your number, there is a worked answer for that exact figure: how much sits above the limit, which of Snapchat's tiers it would require, how many ZIP files the export will arrive in and where the archive will fit. sparaminamemories.se/en/snapchat-lagring
A rule of thumb in the meantime: if you have used Snapchat actively for several years and saved a fair amount of video, you are almost certainly over 5 GB. If you have used the app now and then, or mostly sent things without saving them, you probably are not.