How to Check Disk Space and Bandwidth Usage in cPanel Print

If cPanel warns you that you're running out of space, or you want to see what's using your bandwidth, these tools show you where it's going.

See your overall usage

Log in to cPanel and look at the Statistics panel on the right-hand side of the home page. It shows Disk Usage, Bandwidth, database usage and the number of email accounts against your plan's limits.

Find which folders use the most space

1. Go to Files › Disk Usage.
2. The table lists each top-level folder and how much space it uses, along with space used by databases and mail.
3. Use the folder tree further down the page to drill into a folder and sort by size to spot the largest items.

See how much email each mailbox uses

Go to Email › Email Accounts. The list shows each mailbox's storage use. To clear old mail in bulk, use Email › Email Disk Usage, which can delete messages from a folder by age or size. Deleted mail can't be recovered, so be sure first.

Check bandwidth

Go to Metrics › Bandwidth to see data transfer by month, split into website (HTTP), mail and FTP traffic.

Common space hogs

• Email: years of mail with attachments, especially in Sent and Trash folders.
• Backup files: full account backups or backup-plugin archives left in your home folder or public_html. Download them and delete the server copy. We already keep daily backups for you; see what we keep and how to download your own.
• Logs: large error_log files in your site folders. Fix the error behind them, then delete the file.
• Caches: cache folders created by WordPress caching plugins under wp-content. Clear the cache from the plugin.

What happens when you reach your quota

When the account is full, new email bounces back to the sender, uploads and updates fail, and your site may show errors. Clear space as soon as you get a quota warning; to make sure those warnings reach you, see how to update your cPanel contact email. If you regularly need more space, look at a larger hosting plan.