AVAILABLE FOR WEB, FLUTTER & QA PROJECTS

How to use this tool

1. Enter Table Row Count & Size

Specify initial record volume and average byte size per row (e.g. 500 bytes for typical user profiles).

2. Set Index Overhead & Growth Rate

Configure B-tree index percentage (typically 30% to 50%) and expected monthly row growth rate.

3. Configure Backup & Retention Policy

Choose automated daily snapshot retention (e.g. 7 to 30 days) to compute auxiliary backup storage.

4. Compare Provider Bills

View projected 1-year and 3-year disk footprint alongside estimated bills for Supabase, AWS RDS, and Neon.

Formula or logic used

Relational Database Disk & IOPS Calculations

Database storage requirements comprise raw table heap data, index pages, write-ahead logs (WAL), and point-in-time recovery (PITR) snapshots.

  • Raw Table Data (GB): $\text{Raw GB} = \frac{\text{Total Records} \times \text{Avg Row Size (Bytes)}}{1024^3}$
  • Total Active Disk (GB): $\text{Active GB} = \text{Raw GB} \times (1 + \frac{\text{Index Overhead \%}}{100}) \times 1.2$ (includes 20% WAL & vacuum buffer)
  • Backup Storage: $\text{Backup GB} = \text{Active GB} \times (1 + (\text{Retention Days} \times 0.05))$
  • Total Storage Footprint = $\text{Active Disk GB} + \text{Backup Storage GB}$

Examples

Example 1: E-Commerce Order & Customer Database

Input: 5,000,000 orders, 850 bytes/row, 40% index overhead, 14 days backup retention.
Calculated Result: Active Disk: 7.14 GB. Backup Storage: 12.14 GB. Total Footprint: ~19.3 GB. Est. AWS RDS: ~$28/mo.

Comfortably fits within entry-level managed cloud database tiers with low operational overhead.

Example 2: High-Volume SaaS Event Analytics Logs

Input: 120,000,000 event rows, 350 bytes/row, 50% index overhead, 30 days retention.
Calculated Result: Active Disk: 75.6 GB. Backup Storage: 189.0 GB. Total Footprint: ~264.6 GB. Est. AWS RDS: ~$145/mo.

Highlights the necessity of table partitioning and cold data archiving to Amazon S3.

Common use cases

Supabase & Neon Tier Sizing

Ensure your database storage stays safely within free and pro plan storage quotas.

PostgreSQL Migration Capacity Planning

Size AWS RDS gp3 SSD volumes and provisioned IOPS before migrating on-prem databases.

Data Archiving & Partitioning Strategy

Calculate exact cost savings from moving historical logs from hot SSD storage to cold S3 object storage.

Disaster Recovery Backup Budgeting

Prevent surprise cloud bills resulting from unmonitored point-in-time snapshot retention policies.

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Frequently asked questions

How much disk space do PostgreSQL indexes typically consume?

In typical OLTP applications, indexes (B-Trees, GIN, unique constraints) add 30% to 60% on top of raw table data. Heavily indexed tables with UUID primary keys and text search indexes can exceed 100% index overhead.

Why does database disk usage keep growing after deleting rows in PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL uses Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC). When rows are deleted or updated, dead tuples remain on disk until cleaned up by VACUUM. To reclaim disk space to the OS, VACUUM FULL or pg_repack is required.

What is the difference between IOPS and Storage in AWS RDS?

Storage (GB) is the physical disk capacity, while IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) measures read/write throughput speed. Standard gp3 volumes include 3,000 baseline IOPS free.

Should I store images and files directly in PostgreSQL?

No. Storing images or large binary blobs (BLOBs/bytea) in your database bloats backups, slows queries, and dramatically increases hosting costs. Always store files in S3/Cloudflare R2 and store only the URL in the database.

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