Database Growth Calculator
Project compound plus flat database growth, find the doubling time and the month the allocated storage runs out.
About Database Growth Calculator
Real databases grow two ways at once, so the projection combines a geometric term for size-proportional growth with an annuity term for the fixed monthly feed. Doubling time comes from the compound rate alone and is the figure worth remembering: 6% a month doubles the database in under a year, which is why linear extrapolation from a single month always under-predicts. The storage rate is an editable input with a realistic us-east-1 default, so confirm the current price with AWS for your region. Storage runway is the input to the only two decisions that matter here — when to grow the volume and when to start archiving — and both need lead time measured in months, not the week before the volume fills.
Formula
Database Growth
size after m months = current × (1 + r)^m + flat × ((1 + r)^m − 1) ÷ r; doubling time = ln(2) ÷ ln(1 + r).
- 600
- Month horizon the runway search stops at, about fifty years
- r
- Compound monthly growth rate as a fraction
- flat
- Fixed GB added each month regardless of current size
- doubling time
- Months for the compound component alone to double the data
Worked example
With the default values below, Database Growth Calculator returns Projected Size of 1,873.7. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Current database sizeaccepts 0.001–1,000,000 GB
- 400 GB
- Compound monthly growthaccepts 0–100 %
- 6 %
- Flat monthly additionsaccepts 0–100,000 GB/month
- 5 GB/month
- Allocated storageaccepts 1–1,000,000 GB
- 1,000 GB
- Project aheadaccepts 1–120 months
- 24 months
- Storage priceminimum 0 $/GB-month
- 0.115 $/GB-month
Results
- Projected Size
- 1,873.7 GB
- Months Until Storage Is FullReported as 0 when the volume never fills inside a 600-month horizon.
- 14 months
- Doubling Time
- 11.9 months
- Allocated Storage Used
- 187.4%
- Projected Size
- 2 TiB
- Projected Monthly Storage Cost
- $215.47
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Database Growth
- 3Projected Size= 1,873.7 GB
- 4Months Until Storage Is Full= 14 months
- 5Doubling Time= 11.9 months
- 6Allocated Storage Used= 187.4
- 7Projected Size= 2,011,818,240,369
- 8Projected Monthly Storage Cost= 215.47
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation or tax into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Database Growth calculated?
size after m months = current × (1 + r)^m + flat × ((1 + r)^m − 1) ÷ r; doubling time = ln(2) ÷ ln(1 + r). Real databases grow two ways at once, so the projection combines a geometric term for size-proportional growth with an annuity term for the fixed monthly feed. Doubling time comes from the compound rate alone and is the figure worth remembering: 6% a month doubles the database in under a year, which is why linear extrapolation from a single month always under-predicts. The storage rate is an editable input with a realistic us-east-1 default, so confirm the current price with AWS for your region.
Why does Database Growth matter?
Storage runway is the input to the only two decisions that matter here — when to grow the volume and when to start archiving — and both need lead time measured in months, not the week before the volume fills.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 6 inputs: Current database size, Compound monthly growth, Flat monthly additions, Allocated storage, Project ahead, Storage price. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.
Why does the flat component need a different formula?
A fixed monthly addition also compounds once it lands, because next month's percentage growth applies to it too. The annuity term ((1 + r)^m − 1) ÷ r accumulates each deposit with the growth it earns after arriving, which simple multiplication misses.