Workspace Size Calculator
Estimate disk space consumed by Jenkins job workspaces across concurrent builds.
About Workspace Size Calculator
Each Jenkins agent that checks out a job maintains its own workspace on local disk containing the repository, any build output left behind, and downloaded dependencies — and because workspaces aren't shared across agents by default, the same job's workspace footprint is effectively duplicated on every agent capable of running it. Total fleet-wide workspace storage is therefore the per-agent footprint multiplied by agent count, with dependency caches (node_modules, Maven .m2, pip/conda caches) very often the single largest contributor.
Formula
totalWorkspace = agents × (repoSize + buildOutput + depsCache)
- A
- Number of agents
- R
- Repository size in MB
- B
- Build output size in MB
- D
- Dependency cache size in MB
- W
- Total workspace storage in MB
Worked example
With the default values below, Workspace Size Calculator returns Total Workspace Storage of 9.766. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Number of Agentsaccepts 1–100,000 agents
- 10 agents
- Repository Sizeaccepts 0–1,000,000 MB
- 300 MB
- Build Output Sizeaccepts 0–1,000,000 MB
- 200 MB
- Dependency Cache Sizeaccepts 0–1,000,000 MB
- 500 MB
Results
- Total Workspace Storage
- 9.766 GB
- Per-Agent Workspace Size
- 1,000.0 MB
- Dependency Cache Share
- 50.0%
Step by step
- 1Per-agent workspace = repo + build output + deps= 1000.0MB
- 2Total across agents= 10000.0MB (9.77GB)
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 compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 3 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 do dependency caches dominate workspace size so often?
Package ecosystems like npm/Maven/pip resolve full transitive dependency trees onto disk, and unlike source code these caches often include many versions or unused transitive packages, routinely dwarfing the actual application source and build output.
Does 'Wipe out workspace' before each build help disk usage?
It frees disk between builds but increases build time, since dependency caches and incremental build state get discarded too — most teams instead clean build output between builds while persisting dependency caches to balance disk usage against speed.
How can I reduce per-agent workspace size?
Use shallow git clones instead of full history, route large dependency caches to a shared network cache or artifact proxy (e.g. a local npm/Maven mirror) instead of re-downloading per agent, and clean build output directories after archiving artifacts.