Storage Requirement Calculator

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1Choose a Calculation Mode: Select File Storage, Backup Storage, or Video / CCTV Storage depending on what you're planning capacity for.
2. 2Enter Your Storage Details: Type your file size and count, daily backup size and retention, or video bitrate and recording schedule.
3. 3Adjust Growth, Compression, and Redundancy: Set annual growth, compression ratio, backup copies, RAID redundancy, and a safety margin.
4. 4Review the Live Results: See the final required storage, a breakdown donut chart, a 5-year growth forecast, and step-by-step calculation math.
5. 5Get Recommendations and Export: Check the recommended disk size and cloud plan, then copy, print, or export the report.

Key Features

• ✓3 calculation modes — File Storage, Backup Storage, and Video/CCTV Storage
• ✓5 file scenario presets — Basic, Database, Website, Cloud, and Custom
• ✓Real-time calculation with a 150ms debounced update
• ✓Automatic binary unit conversion from Bytes up to Exabytes
• ✓Compression, backup copies, and RAID redundancy modeling
• ✓Annual growth projection with a 5-year forecast chart
• ✓Interactive donut chart showing the storage breakdown
• ✓Automatic disk size and cloud plan recommendations
• ✓Cost estimation across 8 currencies
• ✓Shareable calculation URL using query parameters
• ✓Export report as CSV or JSON
• ✓Print-ready report and full-text copy
• ✓Calculation history — save and reload past results
• ✓Auto-saves your last session and restores it on return
• ✓Keyboard shortcut — Esc to reset
• ✓Inline validation with friendly, realistic-value warnings
• ✓No signup required — 100% free to use
• ✓All processing runs locally — no data leaves your browser

Pro Tips

• 💡Always include a safety margin of at least 15-20% — real-world storage fills up faster than raw calculations suggest due to temporary files and OS overhead.
• 💡Use the growth projection period on file storage only when you have a genuine multi-year horizon in mind — leave it at 0 for a snapshot of current needs.
• 💡Compare RAID options side by side before buying hardware — RAID 6 roughly doubles the effective cost per usable terabyte compared to no redundancy.
• 💡For CCTV planning, remember that variable bitrate cameras with motion-triggered recording use significantly less storage than constant 24/7 recording at a fixed bitrate.
• 💡Save calculations to history when comparing multiple storage vendor quotes, so you can quickly reload the baseline requirement for each conversation.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• ✕Don't forget backup copies when sizing primary storage — 3 backup copies of your data effectively quadruples your total required capacity.
• ✕Don't assume RAID is a substitute for backups — RAID protects against drive failure, not accidental deletion, ransomware, or fire and theft.
• ✕Don't apply compression ratios optimistically — already-compressed formats like JPEG, MP4, and ZIP see little to no benefit from additional compression.
• ✕Don't ignore unit differences — mixing decimal (1000-based) marketing capacities with binary (1024-based) actual usable capacity is a common source of confusion when buying drives.
• ✕Don't size CCTV storage using average bitrate alone if your cameras use motion-triggered recording — actual usage will typically be lower than a constant-bitrate estimate.