Download icloud photo library without paying? I wanted to disable the iCloud photo library and the information said that I could still download my photos for 30 days, so I did. After disabling the library I got an email with the instructions to download the photos to the Photos app on my Mac. 

However, it seems that the only way to download the backup of my photos is to reactivate the iCloud photo library for which now I have to upgrade my iCloud plan and pay. I just want to download a backup of my photos and be done with iCloud. 

I wasn't told upfront that if I wanted to download a backup of the photos during those 30 days I would have to pay for an upgrade plan I don't want. 

How do I do this without having to pay/upgrade to a plan that I don't want?
Go to www.icloud.com, select the iPhoto library, and on the top right corner there is an option to mark photos you want to download and download them through the browser. Then you can read them to your photo library on your mac. 

I could not find an option to download all the photos as a "Photos library file" so that one can switch the Photos library directly to it on the mac. But it's at least something.