<p>Prometheus use a timeseries databases with vacuum, the <a href="https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/storage/#operational-aspects" rel="noreferrer">documentation</a> gives some maths to plan your disk consumption:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>On average, Prometheus uses only around 1-2 bytes per sample. Thus, to
  plan the capacity of a Prometheus server, you can use the rough
  formula:</p>

<pre><code>needed_disk_space = retention_time_seconds * ingested_samples_per_second * bytes_per_sample
</code></pre>
</blockquote>

<p>So depending on your retention configuration, 1TB could never be reach or you can keep a very long time. That said it's using prometheus local storage, using another storage system will change the maths depending on the system concerned, influxdb is one of them and has its own documentation about storage.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-26T15:10:01.200Z
oh,now I feel like an idiot. I actually read that page, and totally missed the calculation in it - so thanks!
Bruce Becker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-10T04:36:26.920Z
how to get this values `retention_time_seconds`, `ingested_samples_per_second`, `bytes_per_sample`
Mark
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-10T07:27:52.680Z
@Mark This is values you configure and deduct from your infrastructure.
Tensibai
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-12T03:28:15.847Z
@Tensibai I think around 200M per hour, then when it reaches 1.1G it will reset to 700M+
Mark
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-26T14:44:44.137Z
2018-11-26T14:44:44.137Z
Tensibai
<p>This may sound like a vague question so I will provide some context below. The basic question is :</p>

<p><strong>What parameters describe the growth in size of a Prometheus database over time?</strong></p>

<p>To tie the question down: <strong>When will the prometheus time series data base reach 1TB if I collect 10 metrics sampling them at 5 per minute?</strong></p>

<monitoring><capacity-planning><prometheus>
How fast does Prometheus data grow?
Bruce Becker
# How fast does Prometheus data grow?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-11-26)

This may sound like a vague question so I will provide some context below. The basic question is :

**What parameters describe the growth in size of a Prometheus database over time?**

To tie the question down: **When will the prometheus time series data base reach 1TB if I collect 10 metrics sampling them at 5 per minute?**

**Tags:** monitoring, capacity-planning, prometheus


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-11-26. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

Prometheus use a timeseries databases with vacuum, the documentation gives some maths to plan your disk consumption:

On average, Prometheus uses only around 1-2 bytes per sample. Thus, to
  plan the capacity of a Prometheus server, you can use the rough
  formula:
needed_disk_space = retention_time_seconds * ingested_samples_per_second * bytes_per_sample


So depending on your retention configuration, 1TB could never be reach or you can keep a very long time. That said it's using prometheus local storage, using another storage system will change the maths depending on the system concerned, influxdb is one of them and has its own documentation about storage.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: oh,now I feel like an idiot. I actually read that page, and totally missed the calculation in it - so thanks!  
> **username_2**: how to get this values `retention_time_seconds`, `ingested_samples_per_second`, `bytes_per_sample`  
> **username_1**: @username_2 This is values you configure and deduct from your infrastructure.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 I think around 200M per hour, then when it reaches 1.1G it will reset to 700M+  

---

