<p>A pruned node deletes historical block chain data it already validated. However the blocks are not the only data stored by a node. In order to be able to validate blocks a node needs to maintain a UTXO set (here in the <code>chainstate</code> folder). This data cannot be pruned.</p>
<p>Nowadays the most part of the additional disk space usage comes from the UTxO set. But as @Murch points out in the comment a node will always keep at least 288 blocks, which can also technically exceed 550MiB.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-12T10:22:16.690Z
2024-02-13T09:48:02.437Z
2024-02-13T09:48:02.437Z
Antoine Poinsot
<p>Why is a bitcoin node pruned to 550MB taking up 10GB+?</p>
<pre><code>$ du -smc blocks chainstate index | sort -g
0       index
849     blocks
10325   chainstate
11174   total
</code></pre>

<bitcoin-core><linux><pruning><storage-footprint><blockchain-data-storage>
Why is a bitcoin node pruned to 550MB taking up 10GB+?
Shovas
# Why is a bitcoin node pruned to 550MB taking up 10GB+?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-02-12)

Why is a bitcoin node pruned to 550MB taking up 10GB+?

```
$ du -smc blocks chainstate index | sort -g
0       index
849     blocks
10325   chainstate
11174   total

```

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, linux, pruning, storage-footprint, blockchain-data-storage


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-02-12. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

A pruned node deletes historical block chain data it already validated. However the blocks are not the only data stored by a node. In order to be able to validate blocks a node needs to maintain a UTXO set (here in the `chainstate` folder). This data cannot be pruned.

Nowadays the most part of the additional disk space usage comes from the UTxO set. But as @Murch points out in the comment a node will always keep at least 288 blocks, which can also technically exceed 550MiB.


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