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Capacity planning

Annual Storage Growth Calculator

Forecast the usable capacity you should have ready at a chosen year, including a transparent reserve for expansion.

Growth assumptions

Use decimal TB, the unit used on drive labels. Choose percentage growth when growth compounds from the library you already have.

Current data and horizon
TB

years

%

Leave this as 0 when using a fixed annual amount.

TB

%

When this calculator is useful

Use it before buying a larger drive, selecting a NAS capacity, or deciding whether an existing backup target has enough runway. It models capacity, not protection: array overhead and independent copies are separate decisions.

Method and limits

Percentage growth compounds each year. Fixed annual additions are useful when an archive receives a predictable amount of material. Results are planning estimates; compression, deletion, and vendor-specific array behavior can alter actual space use.

Next steps

For an end-to-end household recommendation, use the Home Storage & Backup Planner. For a capacity-sizing method and examples, read How Much NAS Storage Do I Need?.