Salesforce storage limits cap how much record data and how many files your org can hold. Most paid editions get 10 GB of data storage plus extra per user license, and 10 GB of file storage per org, with big object storage allocated separately.
You can check your org's storage usage under Setup, in Storage Usage.
Salesforce data and file storage aren't counted the same way. That difference decides whether you should clean up, archive or buy additional storage.
Below, we cover how Salesforce storage works, how to check your usage and ten practical ways to free up storage space.
For the bigger picture beyond Salesforce, like cloud tier pricing, see our guide on how to reduce data storage costs.
What are Salesforce's storage limits?
Salesforce splits storage into three pools, and each one has its own allocation. The figures below come from Salesforce Help's Data and File Storage Allocations page.
So your org data storage allocation is 10 GB plus an amount per user license. Your file storage limit is a flat 10 GB per org on most paid editions.
If your org uses custom user licenses, contact Salesforce to confirm the exact amount. Either way, your own Storage Usage page is the number to trust.
How do you check storage usage in Salesforce?
According to Salesforce Help, you open the Storage Usage page from Setup: enter Storage Usage in the Quick Find box, then select Storage Usage.
The top of the page shows your Salesforce data storage and file storage usage, each against its storage limit.
Further down, you'll see storage in use per record type, the top users by storage and the largest files. That can be enough to spot the problem object.
To see what one person is storing, go to Setup, open Users, click their name, then click View next to Used Data Space or Used File Space.
Salesforce calculates storage asynchronously. A big import or bulk delete won't show up in your storage consumption right away.
How does Salesforce count data storage?
Salesforce estimates most data storage records at about 2 KB each, according to its record size guide. That applies to standard and custom objects alike.
Person Accounts count as about 4 KB, because each one is an account and a contact joined together. Campaigns come in at about 8 KB.
Email is the odd one out. An HTML email message uses close to its real size, so a 100 KB email takes about 100 KB of data storage.
Record count moves your Salesforce data storage far more than field count does. A million outdated records will use far more storage space than a handful of heavily customized accounts.
How is file storage different?
File storage goes by the size of whatever's uploaded. That's why compressing Salesforce files or moving them elsewhere actually helps.
Images embedded in rich text fields on Knowledge articles count toward file storage, not data storage. So do attachments, Chatter files and user photos.
We break down the numbers in a separate post on the cost of Salesforce file storage.
What happens when you exceed storage limits?
Salesforce says a production org at or near 100% of its storage keeps running as expected. Past 100%, performance degrades at some point, and Salesforce can't say exactly when.
Full sandboxes are different. Salesforce strictly enforces their storage limits, so a Full sandbox refreshed from an org that's over its limit can't create new records.
That's why Salesforce recommends staying within your limit or increasing it.
10 ways to manage Salesforce storage limits
1. Track usage over time, not once
A single reading tells you where you are today. Monthly readings tell you when you'll hit the limit, so you have time to act before anyone has to approve an emergency purchase.
Set thresholds ahead of time, such as a cleanup review at 75% and an escalation at 90%.
A scheduled flow that writes the figures to a custom object works well. A reporting tool or a recurring reminder for an admin is fine too.
Chart data storage and file storage usage as two separate lines, because the fixes for each aren't the same.
2. Find the records worth acting on
The Storage Usage page tells you which objects are biggest. Reports tell you which records to go after.
A report on ContentDocument and ContentVersion surfaces your largest files.
For data storage, look at Task and Event for activity older than your retention period. EmailMessage is worth checking too, since HTML emails use close to their full size.
As for how often to look, an org with heavy integration traffic may want a weekly check.
A smaller team can review monthly or quarterly, as long as someone owns it.
3. Back up before you delete anything
With a point-in-time backup, a deletion that turns out to be a mistake can be undone. Before any bulk delete, check four things.
First, are the records past the period your own policy and your regulators require? Second, is any of it under a legal hold or tied to open litigation?
Third, which related records, roll-ups, reports or integrations rely on it? Last, does the backup actually restore?
You'll only know if you test it.
Run the delete in batches, outside business hours, and test the logic in a sandbox first.
Deleted records sit in the Recycle Bin for 15 days. Salesforce Help says they don't count against your storage while they're there.
4. Remove data nobody needs
Data storage is counted per record, so fewer records is the main way to shrink it. Start with the objects that have the highest counts.
Old activity is a good first place to look: completed tasks and past events past your retention period. Email messages come next, because there are a lot of them and HTML emails use close to their full size.
Stale leads are another candidate: unconverted leads with no activity for years, once marketing confirms it doesn't want them.
The same goes for closed opportunities and cases that are past your retention window.
5. Clean up records the system creates
Some of your biggest storage consumers were never created by a person. Integration logs and error records in custom objects keep growing if nobody sets a retention rule for them.
Duplicates from failed imports waste valuable storage space and make data quality worse.
A logging object with no retention rule can be a quick fix, because nothing depends on the old rows.
6. Archive historical data
Data archival is the middle ground between keeping everything in production and deleting it. It suits records you have to keep for compliance or analysis that nobody opens day to day.
You can archive records anywhere from big objects on the platform to fully external archives. Our guide to Salesforce data archiving compares the options.
Choose what to archive by age, by when anyone last opened it and by whether a workflow or integration still uses it.
Then decide how quickly you'd need each group back. Test that you can actually get it back while an auditor is waiting.
7. Shrink file storage
Pull the biggest files from the Storage Usage page, then run a report on ContentVersion sorted by size.
Images can be an easy win. Tools like TinyPNG use lossy compression to shrink PNG, JPEG and WebP files, and many PDF tools can compress scans.
Delete the Salesforce files nobody needs. For big or rarely used documents, keep the file in external storage such as SharePoint, Google Drive, Box or S3, and put a link on the Salesforce record.
One catch before you move a type of file out: ask your field teams whether they need it on mobile without a connection.
8. Compare cleanup, archiving and more storage
Once you know your usage, you have three choices. You can reduce it, move it or purchase additional storage.
Buying more Salesforce storage is the only one that shows up on every invoice after that. Ask your Salesforce account team for the price of additional data storage or additional file storage, and bring it up at renewal.
Then weigh it against the staff time a one-off cleanup would take, and the cost of archiving data you rarely read. Those Salesforce storage costs are easier to compare side by side.
If a logging object or an integration is behind the growth, more storage space just pays for the problem. Fix the source first.
9. Write a data retention policy
Without a policy, cleanup turns into a project you redo every year. A written retention policy makes it routine.
For each major object, write down how long records stay and which regulation or business need sets that period.
Say what happens when the period ends, whether that's deleting, archiving or moving to a big object, and who can approve exceptions.
Spell out how legal holds override the schedule. Document the archive retrieval steps and who runs them, because the person who designed the process may not be around during an audit.
10. Automate the routine work
Manual storage work is easy to keep putting off. Automate the jobs that repeat, like scheduled archiving, backups that capture only what changed, usage tracking and restores of specific records.
Keep the controls when you automate. Role-based access, encryption and audit logs of every archive, delete and restore help your data management program stand up to a compliance review.
Salesforce storage checklist
Go through these in order. The first few are quick, and they'll tell you whether you need the rest.
- Open Storage Usage in Setup and note your data and file percentages separately.
- Find your top objects and the biggest files in your Salesforce org.
- Log the figures so you can see how fast they grow.
- Confirm retention periods and any legal holds.
- Make sure a backup exists, then test a restore.
- Clear out redundant records, starting with logs, duplicates and old activity.
- Archive what you must keep but rarely read.
- Compress or move large files.
- Write a retention policy and put the cycle on a schedule.
How does Flosum help with Salesforce storage?
Flosum Backup & Archive runs scheduled, incremental and high-frequency backups. It restores at field, record or full-org level, so a cleanup mistake in your Salesforce environment can be undone.
It can also move older records to low-cost storage you control, and the archived data stays queryable for audits and reporting.
It runs as a Flosum Cloud App, either Flosum-hosted or customer-hosted. A hybrid option writes backups to your own S3 bucket or Azure Blob container.
If you're planning the bigger picture, our Salesforce backup and recovery strategy guide is a good next read.
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