Backup Storage Estimator
How much backup storage do you need? Use this free Proxmox backup storage calculator to estimate offsite storage for PBS, Borg, and Proxmox VE workloads. Factor in deduplication, compression, and retention policies to get accurate cost projections.
Workloads
Retention Policy
Backup Settings
Storage Summary
Cost Estimate
| Storage (500 GB) | €4.25/mo |
| Total monthly | €4.25/mo |
| Annual projection | €51.00/yr |
Pricing based on €0.85/100GB/mo at remote-backups.com.
12-Month Storage Projection
Retention Schedule
Ready to get started?
Start with 100GB free. No credit card required.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much storage do I need for Proxmox backups?
It depends on your total data size, change rate, and retention policy. A typical homelab with 5 VMs totaling 500GB and a 7-day retention needs roughly 200-400GB of backup storage with PBS deduplication. Use the calculator above to get an estimate for your specific setup.
How does deduplication reduce backup storage?
Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) uses content-defined chunking to split backups into small blocks. Identical blocks across backups are stored only once. This typically saves 60-80% of storage, especially with multiple similar VMs or daily backups with low change rates.
What retention policy should I use?
A good starting point is 7 daily, 4 weekly, and 6 monthly backups. This gives you fine-grained recovery for the past week, weekly snapshots for the past month, and monthly snapshots for the past half year. Adjust based on your compliance and recovery requirements.
What is the daily change rate?
The daily change rate is the percentage of data that changes between backups. A typical VM with normal usage sees 3-5% daily changes. Database servers or busy file servers may see 10-20%. This rate directly affects incremental backup sizes.