How much web space do I need?Realistic values instead of gut feeling

Published on October 20, 2026

The short answer

For the vast majority of websites, 5 GB is enough. A fresh WordPress installation takes up around 100 MB, a theme with all extensions rarely more than 200 MB. The rest goes on images - and even several hundred sensibly compressed photos hardly add up to more than 1 GB.

Larger plans are usually needed for two other reasons: because several projects are to go on the same web hosting (more domains and databases), or because a lot of video material, high-resolution galleries or backups live directly on the web hosting.

Guideline values by project type

The values assume compressed images in web resolution. If you upload unprocessed camera files, you quickly end up at ten times as much - and slow down loading time at the same time, see Speed up your website. If you build the site with the website builder instead of a CMS, you get by with less space anyway: database and extensions disappear.

What really fills storage

• Uncompressed images. By far the biggest item. A photo straight from the camera often has 5-10 MB, the same image in web resolution 150-400 KB. WordPress also creates several crops of every upload - so one image quickly becomes five files.
• Videos. Video files rarely belong on web hosting. They eat storage and load the connection when played. Better to embed them via a video platform.
• Backups in the wrong place. Many backup plugins store their archives on the web hosting and do not clean up old versions. After a year, that can be double-digit gigabytes - and in an emergency, the backup lies exactly where the problem is. How to back up properly is described in Create and restore backups.
• Old installations and test directories. Migration leftovers, a forgotten /old directory or a staging copy that was never deleted add up.

Emails count separately

A point that often gets lost in provider comparisons: with us, web storage and mail storage are separate quotas. Plan S comes with 5 GB of web space and 5 GB of mail storage, plan XL with 100 GB and 40 GB. A full mailbox therefore never comes at the expense of your website.

With providers that use a shared pool, things are different - there, a mailbox with years of attachment archives can eat up the space for the website. How to create accounts and keep an eye on storage is described in the guide Set up email accounts.

How you notice it is getting tight

Plesk shows you the used storage directly on your subscription's start page. Three warning signs:

• Uploads in the WordPress backend fail for no apparent reason.
• Mails are no longer delivered even though the mailbox itself still has space.
• The backup manager aborts in the middle of the process because the archive no longer fits.

Before you book a bigger plan, it is worth a look into the file manager: sort by folder size and first check the wp-content/uploads directory and the storage locations of your backup plugins. Often, several gigabytes are free again within a quarter of an hour.

Storage is not the only deciding factor

With us, the plan size determines not only the space but also other limits that in practice lead to a switch more often than storage itself:

• Assignable domains: 2 in plan S, 5 in plan M, unlimited from plan L.
• Databases: 5 to 40 - every CMS installation takes up one.
• Mail accounts: 5 to 80.
• PHP upload size: 10 MB in plan S, up to 100 MB in plans L and XL - relevant when importing large databases or media libraries.

So anyone who wants to run three small websites needs plan M not because of storage, but because of the domains and databases. You will find the complete comparison in the table on the web hosting page. If even the biggest plan is not enough or you need your own software, read Web hosting or VPS?.

Frequently asked questions