Why does WhatsApp require so much space for iCloud backup? When backing up Whatsapp History to iCloud, Whatsapp required nearly the same amount of free space as the total backup. i.e If Whatsapp need to back up 1.8 GB of data to iCloud it will need 1.8GB of free space on the iPhone.

Is there anyway to get around that? I simply dont constantly have 1.8GB of free space.
I would be more worried if the backup of my data takes less space than the data itself. If you want to reduce the size of the backup (and the data), start with deleting videos and pictures contained in WhatsApp conversations.