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Storage Calculator

Figure out exactly how much NAS storage you need – with RAID overhead, a growth projection, and a drive recommendation.

How much storage do you actually need?

Most first-time NAS buyers underestimate how much space they need. Photos, videos, and movies pile up fast – and RAID overhead eats a chunk of your raw capacity before you store a single file. Buy too small and you’re swapping drives in a year; buy blind and you overspend.

Enter your real data below – photo count, hours of home video, movies, albums, and any security cameras – and the calculator turns it into a concrete storage figure, the RAID hit for your chosen layout, and a drive configuration that fits.

It also projects five years out at a realistic 30%-per-year growth rate, so you can see whether the recommended setup lasts or whether it’s worth sizing up now.

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Storage Calculator

Enter your data, pick a RAID level, get a result

1. Your data

📷Photos

= 80 GB

🎥Home videos

= 250 GB

🎵Music

= 100 GB

📄Documents & backups

= 20 GB

🎬Movies (rips / media library)

= 200 GB

📹Security cameras

= 0 GB

2. RAID configuration

Frequently Asked Questions

How is RAID overhead calculated?
With RAID 1, every drive is mirrored, so you lose 50% of the capacity. With RAID 5 and SHR, one drive's worth of capacity goes to parity. So 4x 8 TB in RAID 5 gives you 3x 8 TB = 24 TB usable. That sounds like a lot of loss, but in exchange your data survives a single drive failure.
How much storage does a security camera need?
A 1080p camera recording continuously produces about 15 GB per day, or roughly 450 GB per month. A 4K camera roughly doubles that. With motion detection, usage drops to about 30–50% of that. For 4 cameras with 30 days of retention, plan for at least 2 TB.
Is JPEG enough, or should I store RAW photos?
RAW photos are about 6x larger than JPEGs (50 MB vs. 8 MB), but they give you full editing latitude. If you're only backing up phone photos, JPEG is fine. For photography enthusiasts with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, RAW is the better choice — just plan for the extra space.
How realistic is the growth projection?
The projection assumes an average of 30% growth per year. That matches typical usage: more photos, more video, new devices. If you actively shoot 4K video or run several cameras, you'll grow much faster. Always plan for at least 30% headroom.
What does it cost to power the drives?
A NAS drive draws about 5–8 watts running and 0.5–1 watt idle. Four drives running 24/7 is roughly 25–35 watts. At $0.16/kWh that's about $3–4 a month — plus the NAS enclosure itself (10–20 watts).

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