About this Log Retention Storage Calculator
Security and audit logs can grow rapidly when retention windows, indexing, and replicas are included.
Who this calculator is for
- IT, security, privacy, and operations teams doing first-pass planning.
- Small businesses documenting assumptions before buying tools or changing policy.
- Technical users who want transparent formulas for networking and security estimates.
When to use it
- Turn counts, rates, dates, storage, and capacity assumptions into quick planning numbers.
- Compare current and target scenarios before changing a policy or buying infrastructure.
- Document the assumptions that should be verified in the real environment.
How to use this calculator
- Enter values from your logs, tools, network design, policy, contract, or security program.
- Replace defaults with measured data whenever possible.
- Review the primary output, then adjust one assumption at a time for sensitivity checks.
Key assumptions
- Inputs are user-entered because pricing, deadlines, policies, and technical limits vary.
- Calculations run locally in your browser and do not store passwords, incidents, network designs, or security program data.
- This is planning math, not security assurance, legal advice, or a substitute for testing.
Accuracy and testing
Review formula sources, default test cases, assumptions, unit handling, rounding rules, and changelog for this calculator.
How this calculator works
Raw retained GB = daily ingest x retention days. Billable GB = raw retained x (1 + index overhead) x replicas / compression ratio.
Billable GB = daily ingest x days x overhead factor x replicas / compression ratio.
Inputs explained
Current state
Inventory, dates, users, rules, bandwidth, storage, or measured baseline values.
Target or policy
The threshold, retention period, deadline, service objective, or target adoption rate you want to plan against.
Rates and buffers
Growth, overhead, loss, compression, and unit costs should reflect your own environment.
Understanding your results
Results are planning estimates. Real systems can differ because of architecture, vendor limits, logging volume, threat models, policy choices, and user behavior.
Example scenarios
Planning example
250 GB/day retained for 90 days with 25% index overhead, 2 replicas, and 2:1 compression needs about 28 TB.
Key Features
- Instant Calculation
- Private & Secure
- Mobile Optimized
Tips & Best Practices
- Use measured values from production tools when available.
- Add buffer for bursty workloads, growth, vendor overhead, and manual process delays.
- Confirm legal deadlines, security controls, and vendor limits before relying on the estimate.