How to check storage usage and cost for your own bucket

Most people find out what their bucket costs when the bill shows up. By then the month is over and the files are already there.

file.rocks has a Usage page that shows storage, file count, and an estimated monthly storage cost for each bucket. The numbers come from the file list file.rocks already keeps for your buckets, so you don't need to add any extra provider keys.

1. Open the Usage page

There are two ways in.

Look near the bottom of the sidebar, just above the upload button. There is a small card called Usage with two numbers, Storage and Est. / mo. Click the card to open the page.

The card shows the bucket you have open. If no bucket is open, it shows the total for your workspace. You may see "updating…" next to the bucket name while it catches up.

You can also go to Settings, then Usage.

2. Read the top row

The top of the page has three numbers for your whole workspace.

Total storage is the size of all your buckets added together.

Est. monthly cost is an estimated storage cost for all of them per month. The note under it reads "Storage estimate only", and that is what it is: an estimate of storage, not a bill.

Imports this month counts the import runs you started this month, with the number of files under it.

3. Check each bucket

Below that, under By bucket, each bucket gets its own card. The top of the card shows the bucket name, the provider, whether it is Hosted or BYO, and which price list the estimate uses.

Here is what each number means:

• Storage: the total size of the files in the bucket.
• Objects: how many files are in the bucket. Folders are not counted.
• Est. storage / mo: an estimated monthly storage cost, worked out from the bucket's size and the provider's published list price.
• Imports (mo): import runs and files for this bucket this month.
• Thumb backlog: images that don't have a preview thumbnail yet, with HEIC files counted in brackets.
• Reads today: GET, HEAD, and LIST requests file.rocks made to the bucket today.
• Writes today: PUT, COPY, and DELETE requests file.rocks made to the bucket today.
• GET bytes today: how much data file.rocks downloaded from the bucket today.
• Issued links today: how many signed links file.rocks created today, with an estimated size. This counts links, not confirmed downloads.

Under the numbers there is a Media mix line. It counts the images, videos, audio files, other files, and folders in the bucket.

Reads and writes only cover what file.rocks did. Other apps that use the same bucket are not counted here.

4. Check how old the numbers are

Each bucket card has a small badge. It reads Cached or Stale, followed by the time the numbers were last worked out.

Stale means the numbers are more than 7 days old. When you open the Usage page, file.rocks refreshes stale buckets for you. The sidebar card does not refresh them on its own.

5. Refresh it yourself

You don't have to wait 7 days.

To update every bucket at once, click Refresh all at the top of the page.

To update one bucket, click Refresh on its card. This recounts the bucket from the files file.rocks already knows about.

If you added or deleted files outside file.rocks, click Refresh listing first. That starts a full listing of the bucket, so new and removed files show up. When it's done, click Refresh again to update the numbers.

6. If the number is bigger than you expected

Start with the files that take up the most space. How to clean up the largest files in your own bucket walks through it.

Copies add up too. How to clean up likely duplicates in your own bucket finds them.

If the size is fine and the price is the problem, compare providers in cheapest cloud object storage.

Your files stay in the bucket you connected, and file.rocks is how you manage them.