File Size Calculator - Compute Storage Needs

Calculate file sizes, storage capacity, and transfer times. Convert between KB, MB, GB, TB. Plan backups and estimate bandwidth needs.

Size Converter

Enter Size

Use binary (KiB, MiB, GiB)

Transfer Time Calculator

File Size

Connection Speed

Estimated Transfer Time

At 90% efficiency

Backup Storage Calculator

Data Size

Backup Frequency

Retention (backups)

Daily Change %

Full Backup Size

Incremental Size

Total Storage Needed

RAID Calculator - Capacity, Redundancy &…

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Frequently Asked Questions

KB (kilobyte) uses decimal (1000 bytes), while KiB (kibibyte) uses binary (1024 bytes). Storage manufacturers use decimal, but operating systems often use binary.

Transfer time = file size / bandwidth. We account for protocol overhead by assuming ~90% efficiency for real-world estimates.

Yes. Enter total data size and backup frequency to estimate monthly/yearly storage requirements including retention.

Manufacturers use decimal (1TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes). Windows uses binary (1TB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes). So a 1TB drive shows as 931GB in Windows.

File systems use 1-5% for metadata. NTFS uses ~1.5%, ext4 ~1%. Subtract this from usable capacity. A 1TB drive has ~985GB after formatting (1.5% overhead).

Protocol overhead (10-30%), network congestion, drive speed, CPU load, and distance. Real speeds are typically 70-90% of theoretical bandwidth. USB has higher overhead than Ethernet.

Calculate total storage needed (including retention and growth). Multiply by price per GB/month. Add egress fees if downloading data. Most providers charge $0.02-0.10/GB/month.

Full backups copy everything. Incremental only copies changes since last backup. Incrementals save space (5-20% of full) but need the full backup to restore. Use both in rotation.

Calculate: bitrate × cameras × hours × retention days ÷ 8 ÷ 1024 ÷ 1024 for GB. A 4Mbps camera recording 24/7 for 30 days needs ~1,296GB (1.3TB).

No, RAID trades space for redundancy. RAID 0 gives more usable space but no protection—any drive failure loses all data. RAID 5/6 reduce capacity but protect against failures.

Size Converter

Transfer Time Calculator

Backup Storage Calculator

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