Device Fleet Storage Calculator

Work out device fleet storage instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Device Fleet Storage Calculator

Fleet storage is devices times records times record size times retention, with about 30% added for indexes, replication metadata and columnar padding. The retention period is the biggest lever: halving it halves the bill, which is why downsampling old data is standard practice.

Formula

Fleet storage

daily bytes = devices x records x size x overhead; total = daily x 30.44 x retention months

Worked example

With the default values below, Device Fleet Storage Calculator returns Storage required of 1.05. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Devices: 12,000 devices
Records per device per day: 1,440 records/day
Stored record size: 64 bytes
Retention period: 24 months

Results

Storage required: 1.05 TB
Daily ingest: 1.44 GB
Storage per device: 87.53 MB
Monthly growth: 43.76 GB

Step by step

1Values used
2Fleet storage
3Storage required= 1.05 TB
4Daily ingest= 1.44 GB
5Storage per device= 87.53 MB
6Monthly growth= 43.76 GB

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges 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

Why add 30% overhead?

Time-series databases store indexes, tags and replication copies alongside the values. Compression can offset this, often heavily for slowly changing sensor data.

How do I control growth?

Downsample: keep raw data for weeks, then roll up to minute and hour aggregates. That typically cuts long-term storage by 90% or more.