Web Hosting Storage & Bandwidth Estimator

Enter your monthly visitors, page weight, media library size, and any downloadable files. The estimator works out how much storage and monthly bandwidth your hosting plan needs to cover, with a buffer for traffic spikes, and suggests which hosting tier fits.

Explain like I'm 5 (what is web hosting bandwidth?)

Imagine your website is a shop. Storage is how much shelf space you need to hold all your products (the files that make up your site: pages, images, videos, PDFs). Bandwidth is how much stuff gets carried out of the shop each month. Every time someone loads a page, that page's weight gets carried out over the internet to their screen. If lots of people visit, or your pages are heavy, a lot gets carried out. Your hosting plan has a limit on both. This tool works out how much of each you actually need, so you can pick a plan that fits without paying for a warehouse when a cupboard would do.

Estimate

Traffic
Typical pages are 1,000–3,000 KB. Check yours in browser dev tools (F12 → Network tab → reload page → total size).
Media library (images, videos stored on your server)
Compressed JPEGs and WebP images are typically 100–500 KB. Uncompressed or video files are much larger.
Downloadable files (PDFs, ZIPs, etc.)
Total number of file downloads per month, across all your downloadable files combined.
Buffer
Add 20–50% to absorb traffic spikes, crawlers, and growth. Zero means no headroom at all.

Enter your numbers, then press Estimate.

Prove it

Page bandwidth = monthly visitors × pages per visit × page weight (KB) ÷ 1,000,000. Download bandwidth = monthly downloads × file size (MB) ÷ 1,000. Total bandwidth with buffer = (page bandwidth + download bandwidth) × (1 + buffer ÷ 100). Media storage = media files × average file size (KB) ÷ 1,000,000. Download storage = download files × file size (MB) ÷ 1,000. Total storage with buffer = (media storage + download storage) × (1 + buffer ÷ 100).

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How to find your page weight

Open your browser, go to a representative page on your site, and press F12 to open developer tools. Click the Network tab, then reload the page. Once it finishes loading, look at the status bar at the bottom of the Network panel. You will see "X requests, Y KB transferred". That transferred figure is your page weight for that URL.

Check a few different page types: your homepage, a typical content page, and a product or landing page if you have them. Average those figures. Most pages on a well-optimised site fall between 500 KB and 3,000 KB. If yours is significantly higher, image compression and lazy loading are usually the first levers to pull.

What counts as media files

Media files are anything stored on your server that is embedded into your pages: photos, illustrations, background images, short video clips, audio files. They contribute to storage but not necessarily bandwidth in a straightforward way: images already embedded in pages are counted in the page weight calculation. Use this section for files that sit in your media library but may not all be loaded on every page, such as a large image archive.

If you use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) or a third-party image host, those files are stored and served from there, not from your main hosting account. Only count files that sit on your hosting plan's server.

What counts as downloadable files

PDFs, ZIPs, software packages, ebooks, templates, datasets: anything a visitor clicks to download to their own device. These contribute to both storage (the file lives on your server) and bandwidth (each download transfers the full file size). A 10 MB PDF downloaded 500 times a month adds 5,000 MB (5 GB) to your monthly bandwidth before any buffer.

Understanding the hosting tiers

The tier labels are rough guides based on common hosting plan thresholds. Individual hosts set their own limits, so always read the plan details before committing.

Shared hosting

Multiple sites share the same server resources. Typically up to 100 GB per month bandwidth and up to 5 GB storage for the purposes of this estimator. Fine for most small to medium sites: blogs, small business sites, portfolios, local service sites. Costs a few pounds a month. Limitations: a traffic spike on a neighbour's site can affect yours, and you have no control over server configuration.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) or cloud

Your own slice of a server, isolated from other users. Appropriate for 100–1,000 GB per month bandwidth or 5–100 GB storage. Better performance, more configuration control, and more predictable behaviour under load. Costs typically £10–£100 per month depending on resources. Suitable for growing business sites, WooCommerce stores, and sites with regular traffic spikes.

Dedicated server or enterprise cloud

An entire physical server or enterprise-tier cloud instance. Required above 1,000 GB per month bandwidth or above 100 GB storage. Full resource control, highest performance, highest cost. Suitable for large e-commerce sites, media-heavy platforms, and sites with very high traffic volumes.

What this estimator does not cover

This tool estimates the raw data you need; it does not account for:

  • CDN offload: if you use Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, or a similar CDN, most of your bandwidth is served from edge nodes, not your origin server. Your origin bandwidth may be a fraction of what this tool shows.
  • Database and application overhead: dynamic sites (WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento) use server CPU and database resources alongside storage and bandwidth. A high-traffic dynamic site may need a VPS for performance reasons even if bandwidth is modest.
  • Email hosting: if your hosting plan includes email, each mailbox uses additional storage.
  • Backup storage: most hosts recommend keeping backups for at least 30 days. Daily backups of a 5 GB site add up quickly.

Nothing on this page is hosting, technical, or professional advice. Hosting requirements vary by platform, traffic pattern, and application. Read your prospective host's fair-use and acceptable-use policies before making a decision.

Related calculators

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Frequently asked questions

How is website bandwidth calculated?

Monthly bandwidth = monthly visitors × pages per visit × average page weight. Add monthly downloads × file size for any downloadable content. Add a buffer of 20–50% on top to absorb traffic spikes and crawlers. This tool does that maths for you.

What is the difference between bandwidth and storage?

Storage is how much space your files take up on the server. Bandwidth (data transfer) is how much data flows out to visitors each month. You can have high storage with low bandwidth (a large archive with few visitors) or low storage with high bandwidth (a lean site with lots of traffic).

What hosting tier do I need?

Shared hosting suits most sites under 100 GB per month bandwidth and 5 GB storage. VPS or cloud is right for 100–1,000 GB or 5–100 GB storage. Above those figures, dedicated or enterprise cloud is the appropriate tier. These are rough guides; the estimator applies the same thresholds.

Why add a buffer?

Your average monthly bandwidth is exactly that: an average. A link from a popular site, a seasonal campaign, or a crawl from a large search engine can send bandwidth well above the average for days at a time. A 20–50% buffer means your plan covers your peak, not just your steady-state figure.

How do I find my average page weight?

Open browser dev tools (F12), go to the Network tab, reload the page, and look at the total transferred size. Check a few representative pages and average them. The HTTP Archive reports a median of around 2,000 KB for desktop pages.

Last updated 29 April 2026 by Andrew Laws.