# Data Storage Calculator (GB/TB/photos/videos) Calculate total storage needed for photos, videos and documents in GB and TB, plus an estimated monthly cloud storage cost. --- - **Canonical URL:** https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/data-storage-calculator - **Category:** AI & Tech Development - **Publisher:** Do The Calculation (https://dothecalculation.com) - **Cost:** Free, no account or sign-up required - **Privacy:** Runs entirely in the browser; inputs are never sent to a server - **Methodology:** https://dothecalculation.com/methodology --- ## Data Storage Calculator Estimate exactly how much storage your photos, videos and documents need — in GB and TB — plus a monthly cloud storage cost estimate at your own rate. - Storage breakdown by photos, videos and documents - GB and TB totals with clear unit conversion - Estimated monthly cloud storage cost ## Quick Answer — How Much Storage Do I Need? **The core formula:** Photos (GB) = Photo count × MB per photo ÷ 1,024. Videos (GB) = Video count × Minutes per video × MB per minute ÷ 1,024. Documents (GB) = Document count × KB per document ÷ 1,048,576. Total = the sum of all three. **Quick reference:** • 2,000 phone photos (4 MB each), 50 short 1080p videos (3 min, ~130 MB/min), 500 documents (200 KB each) → **26.95 GB total** • 5,000 RAW photos (25 MB each), 20 short 4K videos (5 min, ~350 MB/min), 1,000 documents (200 KB each) → **156.44 GB total** **Worked example:** 2,000 photos at 4 MB each is 2,000 × 4 ÷ 1,024 = **7.81 GB**. 50 videos averaging 3 minutes at a 1080p-typical 130 MB/min is 50 × 3 × 130 ÷ 1,024 = **19.04 GB**. 500 documents at 200 KB each is 500 × 200 ÷ 1,048,576 = **0.10 GB**. Total: **26.95 GB** — at a typical cloud rate of $0.023/GB/month, that's about **62 cents a month**. Video is almost always the dominant factor once resolution climbs — the second example's 20 four-K videos alone use more storage (34.18 GB) than all 5,000 RAW photos combined would at a lower resolution, which is why resolution choice matters more than file *count* for total storage. ## How to Use This Calculator Enter your **photo count** and **average photo size** in megabytes — a typical modern phone photo runs 3-5 MB; a RAW file from a dedicated camera often runs 20-45 MB. Enter your **video count**, **average length** in minutes, and a **size-per-minute** figure matching your resolution — roughly 40 MB/min for SD, 130 MB/min for 1080p, and 350 MB/min for 4K are reasonable planning defaults, though actual size depends heavily on your specific codec and bitrate settings. Enter your **document count** and **average size** in kilobytes — most text documents, PDFs and spreadsheets fall in the 50 KB to 2 MB range depending on embedded images. Optionally enter a **cost per GB per month** to estimate a monthly cloud storage bill at your calculated total. **Example input:** 5,000 RAW photos at 25 MB • 20 four-K videos at 5 minutes, 350 MB/min • 1,000 documents at 200 KB. **Output:** Photos = 122.07 GB • Videos = 34.18 GB • Documents = 0.19 GB • **Total = 156.44 GB (0.153 TB)**, about $3.60/month at $0.023/GB. If you're specifically sizing cloud egress (data transfer out) rather than storage, the [cloud storage & egress cost calculator](/calculators/cloud-egress-cost-calculator) compares that cost across major providers. ## The Formula This Calculator Uses Every conversion here uses the standard binary units storage systems actually use, not a rounded marketing figure. **Photos:** Count × MB per photo, divided by 1,024 to convert MB to GB. **Videos:** Count × Minutes × MB per minute, divided by 1,024. The MB-per-minute figure is a function of resolution and codec efficiency — modern efficient codecs (like H.265/HEVC) can produce meaningfully smaller files than older codecs (like H.264) at the same visual quality, so the 'typical' figures here are planning defaults, not universal constants. **Documents:** Count × KB per document, divided by 1,048,576 (1,024²) to convert KB directly to GB. **GB to TB:** divide the GB total by 1,024. **Why 1,024, not 1,000:** storage systems and operating systems commonly use binary (1,024-based) units internally, even though drive manufacturers often market capacity using decimal (1,000-based) units — this is the single most common source of a drive 'shrinking' when you plug it in (a marketed '1 TB' drive shows roughly 931 GiB in a binary-unit file browser). This calculator uses the binary convention throughout for internal consistency. **Monthly cost:** Total GB × your entered cost-per-GB-per-month rate — a simple linear model that matches how most cloud storage tiers price standard, frequently-accessed storage. ## Step-by-Step Worked Derivation Take the 2,000-photo, 50-video, 500-document example and do it by hand. **Step 1 — Photos.** 2,000 × 4 MB = 8,000 MB. 8,000 ÷ 1,024 = **7.8125 GB**. **Step 2 — Videos.** 50 × 3 min = 150 minutes. 150 × 130 MB/min = 19,500 MB. 19,500 ÷ 1,024 = **19.04 GB**. **Step 3 — Documents.** 500 × 200 KB = 100,000 KB. 100,000 ÷ 1,048,576 = **0.0954 GB**. **Step 4 — Total.** 7.8125 + 19.04 + 0.0954 = **26.95 GB**. **Step 5 — In terabytes.** 26.95 ÷ 1,024 = **0.0263 TB**. **Step 6 — Monthly cost.** 26.95 × $0.023 = **$0.62/month**. **Answer:** about 27 GB of total storage, costing roughly 62 cents a month at a standard cloud storage rate. ## Why Video Dominates Storage Planning File count is a poor predictor of storage need once video is involved, because a single minute of video contains far more data than a single photo. **A single 4K video minute (~350 MB) equals roughly 87 typical phone photos (~4 MB each)** in storage terms. A modest library of a few dozen 4K clips can easily out-consume a photo library thousands of images deep. **Resolution choice compounds across your entire library, not just one file.** Choosing 1080p instead of 4K for casual recording can cut video storage by roughly 60-65% with a proportionally smaller quality difference for most viewing contexts — a meaningful lever if storage cost or capacity is a real constraint. **Documents are almost always a rounding error** by comparison, unless they contain many embedded high-resolution images or are specialized formats like CAD files, which can run into hundreds of megabytes each. If your storage question is really about network bandwidth to move or stream this data rather than where to keep it at rest, the [bandwidth calculator](/calculators/bandwidth-calculator) handles that side of the planning. ## Realistic Scenarios **Scenario 1 — A typical phone photo and video library.** 2,000 photos at 4 MB, 50 short 1080p videos at 3 minutes, 500 documents: **26.95 GB total** (0.026 TB), about $0.62/month in cloud storage. **Scenario 2 — A photography and 4K video hobbyist.** 5,000 RAW photos at 25 MB, 20 four-K videos at 5 minutes, 1,000 documents: **156.44 GB total** (0.153 TB), about $3.60/month — nearly six times Scenario 1's total despite having only 2.5x the photos and less than half the videos, driven almost entirely by RAW file size and 4K resolution. **What changes the total fastest:** switching Scenario 2's videos from 4K (350 MB/min) down to 1080p (130 MB/min) alone would cut the video component from 34.18 GB to about 12.7 GB — a meaningfully larger single-lever saving than reducing photo count by the same percentage. ## Common Storage Estimation Mistakes • **Assuming all photos or videos are the same size.** RAW files can be 5-10x larger than compressed JPEGs from the same camera; 4K video can be 2-3x larger than 1080p for the same length. Use an average that reflects your actual mix. • **Confusing decimal and binary units.** A '1 TB' drive as marketed (1,000 GB) shows as roughly 931 GiB in an operating system using binary units — not a manufacturing error, just two different unit conventions. • **Forgetting that video length matters as much as resolution.** A short high-resolution clip can be smaller than a long lower-resolution one — both length and per-minute size need including. • **Ignoring growth over time.** A snapshot calculation is a starting point; photo and video libraries typically grow continuously, so plan storage (and budget) with headroom rather than an exact-fit number. • **Not accounting for backups or redundant copies.** If you keep a local copy and a cloud copy, or multiple cloud regions, your total storage footprint (and cost) is a multiple of this calculator's single-copy figure. ## What This Calculator Can and Cannot Do **It can:** • Calculate total storage needed across photos, videos and documents from count and average size • Convert cleanly between GB and TB using the binary (1,024-based) convention • Estimate a monthly cloud storage cost at a rate you specify • Show how the total shifts if video resolution changes **It cannot:** • Know your actual average file sizes — these vary by device, camera, codec and compression settings, so use your own library's real averages when possible for an accurate figure • Account for multiple backup copies, versioning, or redundancy overhead • Estimate data-transfer (egress) cost — use the [cloud egress cost calculator](/calculators/cloud-egress-cost-calculator) for that **The honest summary:** this calculator gets the arithmetic exactly right. The accuracy of the total depends entirely on how closely your entered averages match your real files — check a sample of your own library's actual file sizes for the most reliable estimate. ## Final Summary **The formula worth remembering:** Total (GB) = [Photos × MB/photo + Videos × Minutes × MB/min] ÷ 1,024 + [Documents × KB/doc ÷ 1,048,576]. **Quick reference:** a modest photo-and-video library (2,000 photos, 50 short 1080p videos) runs about 27 GB; a RAW-photo, 4K-video hobbyist library can easily run 150+ GB for a similar file count. **The one thing to actually do:** check a sample of your own files' real sizes rather than relying purely on the presets here — actual codec, compression and camera settings vary enough to shift the total meaningfully. Related tools worth a look: the [cloud storage & egress cost calculator](/calculators/cloud-egress-cost-calculator) and [CDN edge caching calculator](/calculators/cdn-edge-caching-cost-calculator) for data-transfer cost planning, and the [Redis cluster memory planner](/calculators/redis-cluster-memory-calculator) or [vector DB storage estimator](/calculators/vector-db-storage-calculator) for in-memory and embedding-specific storage sizing. For current 2026 Google One, iCloud+, and Dropbox pricing, see our [cloud storage planning guide](/blog/tech/cloud-storage-planning-guide). ## Frequently asked questions ### How much storage do I need for my photos and videos? Add up photo count × average MB per photo, plus video count × minutes × MB per minute, then divide by 1,024 for GB. A library of 2,000 phone photos and 50 short 1080p videos needs roughly 27 GB total. ### How many GB is a typical photo? A modern phone photo is typically 3-5 MB (about 0.003-0.005 GB). A RAW file from a dedicated camera can run 20-45 MB, roughly 5-10 times larger, because it stores uncompressed sensor data rather than a compressed JPEG. ### How much storage does 4K video use compared to 1080p? 4K video typically runs around 350 MB per minute versus roughly 130 MB per minute for 1080p — about 2.7 times more data for the same length of footage, due to the higher pixel count and resulting bitrate. ### Why does my '1 TB' drive show less than 1,000 GB? Drive manufacturers market capacity in decimal units (1 TB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes), while operating systems typically display capacity in binary units (1,024-based). The same physical capacity shows as roughly 931 GiB under the binary convention — not a manufacturing shortfall, just two different unit systems. ### How do I convert GB to TB? Divide by 1,024 using the binary convention that most operating systems and storage systems use internally: 1 TB = 1,024 GB. Some marketing materials use the decimal convention instead (1 TB = 1,000 GB). ### How much does cloud storage cost per GB? It varies by provider and storage tier, but roughly $0.02-0.025 per GB per month is a common range for standard, frequently-accessed cloud object storage as of 2026. Colder, less-frequently-accessed tiers are typically cheaper but have retrieval costs and delays. ### Does document storage matter compared to photos and videos? Usually not much — typical text documents, PDFs and spreadsheets run tens of kilobytes to a few megabytes each, dwarfed by photo and especially video storage. Specialized formats like CAD files or documents with many embedded high-resolution images are the exception. ### Is this data storage calculator free? Yes — completely free, no registration, and no data leaves your browser. Every figure recalculates instantly as you change an input. ## Related concepts - **Binary vs. decimal storage units** — Operating systems typically use binary units (1 GB = 1,024 MB, 1 TB = 1,024 GB) while drive manufacturers often market capacity in decimal units (1 GB = 1,000 MB) — the source of a drive appearing smaller than its marketed size. - **Bitrate** — The amount of data used per unit of time in a video or audio file, typically measured in Mbps. Higher resolution and lower compression both increase bitrate, which directly drives file size per minute. - **Storage at rest vs. egress** — Storage at rest is the cost of keeping data saved; egress is the cost of transferring data out of a system. Cloud providers typically price these separately, and egress cost can exceed storage cost for frequently-accessed content. ## Related guides - [How Much Cloud Storage Do You Actually Need?](https://dothecalculation.com/blog/tech/cloud-storage-planning-guide) — Why video dominates storage far more than photo count suggests, and how to compare Google One, iCloud+, and Dropbox pricing honestly using official 2026 rates. ## Related calculators - [Cloud Storage & Egress Cost Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/cloud-egress-cost-calculator) — Compare bandwidth transfer and data egress costs across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Cloudflare R2 storage providers instantly. - [Serverless Compute & Cost Estimator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/serverless-cost-calculator) — Estimate monthly cloud function costs, billable GB-seconds, and evaluate cold start latency overhead for serverless applications. - [Vector DB Storage & RAM Estimator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/vector-db-storage-calculator) — Estimate the RAM and disk storage capacity needed for vector databases based on embedding dimensions and total vector count. - [Bandwidth Requirement Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/bandwidth-calculator) — Calculate the internet speed you need for streaming, video calls and background usage, with a safety margin and monthly data estimate. - [LLM API Cost Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/llm-api-cost-calculator) — Project monthly and annual LLM API spend from request volume, average token counts, per-token pricing, and prompt caching discounts. - [Auto Loan Calculator](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/auto-loan-calculator) — Estimate monthly car payments, total financing cost, and interest owed based on vehicle price, down payment, and loan term. --- _This calculator performs exact arithmetic on the sizes you enter. Real-world photo, video and document sizes vary substantially by device, camera, codec, compression settings and content — the 'typical' defaults are reasonable planning figures, not a guarantee that they match your specific files. Check a sample of your own library for the most accurate estimate, and note that cloud storage pricing changes over time and varies significantly by provider and tier._ --- _Source: [Do The Calculation](https://dothecalculation.com/calculators/data-storage-calculator). Quote freely with attribution and a link to this page._