The internet holds roughly 64 zettabytes of data as of 2024, though the number changes constantly and nobody measures it the same way

A zettabyte is one sextillion bytes — or a trillion gigabytes. To put that in perspective: if you downloaded one gigabyte per second without stopping, it would take you 31 million years to read a single zettabyte. The 64-zettabyte figure comes from industry analysts like IDC and Statista, but it is an estimate, not a count. Nobody actually knows the exact total because data lives on millions of servers owned by different companies, governments, and individuals across the world, and there is no central registry.

The number also depends on how you measure. Some estimates count only data that is actively stored and accessible. Others include data that is backed up multiple times across different locations — which means the same file gets counted three or four times over. Some counts include the "dark web" and private corporate networks; others do not. This is why you will see estimates ranging from 50 zettabytes to over 100 zettabytes depending on the source.

What matters more than the exact number is the direction: the internet is growing faster than it ever has. Video streaming, cloud storage, social media, and Internet of Things devices (like security cameras and smart home systems) generate new data constantly. Estimates suggest the total will reach 175 zettabytes by 2025.

Key Takeaways

  • The internet contains roughly 64 zettabytes of data, but this is an estimate because no single organization measures or owns all of it.
  • The actual number depends on what you count — some estimates include backed-up copies of the same file multiple times, which inflates the total.
  • Video and streaming services make up the largest share of stored data, followed by social media, cloud backups, and business databases.
  • The total amount of data on the internet roughly doubles every two to three years, driven by smartphones, cameras, and always-on devices.

Where the data actually lives

Data does not float in the air. It sits on physical servers — computers that run 24/7 in climate-controlled buildings called data centers. These facilities are owned by companies like Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and thousands of smaller hosting providers. A single data center can hold thousands of servers, each one a metal box the size of a pizza box, stacked in rows.

The largest data centers are in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Google alone operates data centers on every continent. These buildings use enormous amounts of electricity to power the servers and keep them cool — data centers account for roughly 1 to 2 percent of global electricity use. When you upload a photo to Google Photos or save a document to OneDrive, it lands on one of these servers, usually in a data center closest to your location for speed.

Most of the internet's data is not evenly distributed. A small number of companies control the majority. Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple together store a huge portion of the world's data — your emails, photos, videos, messages, and browsing history. Smaller companies and individuals own the rest, but the concentration is significant.

What takes up the most space

Video is by far the largest category. Netflix, YouTube, TikTok, and streaming services store millions of videos, each one taking up gigabytes or terabytes of space. A single two-hour movie in high definition can be 10 to 50 gigabytes. YouTube alone has over 800 million videos uploaded, and new ones arrive constantly.

Social media comes second. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok store billions of photos and videos posted by users every day. A single Instagram photo might be only a few megabytes, but multiply that by billions of users posting daily, and the total becomes staggering. Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) stores an estimated 300 petabytes of data — that is 300 million gigabytes.

Cloud storage and backups rank third. Services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud store copies of files for millions of people. Many people have multiple backups of the same file in different locations, which means the same data gets counted several times in total estimates.

Business databases, email systems, websites, and the Internet Archive (which stores historical copies of websites) make up the remainder. Email alone generates roughly 300 billion messages per day, though most are deleted within weeks or months.

How data gets measured and why estimates vary so much

Measuring the internet's total data is like trying to count all the grains of sand on all beaches while new sand keeps arriving. Different organizations use different methods, which is why estimates vary.

IDC, a market research firm, publishes the most widely cited estimates. They survey data center operators, cloud providers, and device manufacturers to estimate how much data is created and stored each year. Statista, another research company, uses similar methods. Neither organization has access to private company servers, so they make educated guesses based on public information and industry reports.

The variation also comes from how you define "data on the internet." Does it include:

  • Backups and copies of the same file stored in multiple locations?
  • Temporary data like browser cache and session files that disappear after a few hours?
  • Private corporate networks that are connected to the internet but not publicly accessible?
  • Data on personal devices like phones and computers, or only data on servers?
  • Deleted data that is still technically recoverable from a hard drive?

Different researchers answer these questions differently, which is why you see estimates ranging from 50 to over 100 zettabytes.

Why the internet keeps growing so fast

Three things drive the explosion: more devices, higher resolution, and constant recording. In 2010, roughly 2 billion people used the internet. Today, over 5 billion do. Each person now carries a smartphone with a high-resolution camera that records video constantly. Security cameras, doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, and surveillance systems generate terabytes of footage daily.

Resolution matters too. A photo from a smartphone camera in 2010 was 2 to 5 megabytes. Today's smartphone photos are 5 to 15 megabytes. A 4K video is four times larger than a 1080p video. As devices get better, files get bigger, and storage needs grow.

Internet of Things devices — smart watches, fitness trackers, connected cars, industrial sensors — generate constant streams of data. A single connected car can produce 25 gigabytes of data per hour of driving. Multiply that by millions of connected vehicles, and the total becomes enormous.

This growth shows no signs of slowing. Artificial intelligence systems require massive amounts of training data. Virtual reality and augmented reality applications need high-resolution 3D models. The trend is toward more data, stored longer, in higher quality.

What happens to old data

Not all data on the internet is kept forever. Email services delete messages after a certain period if you do not back them up. Social media platforms delete inactive accounts and their associated data. Websites disappear and their data is lost unless the Internet Archive captured them.

However, data that matters — financial records, medical files, legal documents, and anything stored by large companies — is kept for years or decades. Companies are often required by law to retain certain data. Banks must keep transaction records for seven years. Healthcare providers must keep medical records for at least six years after the last visit.

Deleted data does not always vanish when ready. When you delete a file, the space it occupied is marked as available for new data, but the old data can sometimes be recovered until that space is overwritten. This is why data recovery services exist — they can sometimes retrieve files from hard drives and phones even after deletion.

How much data do you personally generate

The average person creates roughly 1.7 megabytes of data per second, according to industry estimates. This includes every email you send, every photo you take, every video you watch, every search you perform, and every website you visit. Most of this data is generated without you actively doing anything — your phone tracks your location, apps send usage data to their servers, and websites log your behavior.

If you use cloud storage, stream video daily, and use social media, you are probably generating 10 to 50 gigabytes of data per month. Most of this is video and photos. If you use your phone minimally and do not stream video, you might generate only 1 to 5 gigabytes per month.

The data you generate is stored somewhere — usually on servers owned by Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, or your internet service provider. You do not pay for most of this storage directly because these companies sell access to your data to advertisers, or they use it to train artificial intelligence systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a limit to how much data the internet can hold?

No hard limit exists, but practical limits do. Data centers require physical space, electricity, and cooling. As storage technology improves, the same physical space can hold more data. Solid-state drives and newer storage technologies are denser than older hard drives, so the internet's capacity grows without needing proportionally more buildings.

Who owns all the data on the internet?

Different people own different data. You own the photos and documents you upload to your own accounts. Companies like Google and Meta own the platforms and the data about how you use them. Internet service providers own data about your browsing habits. Governments own data about citizens. No single entity owns "the internet" or all its data.

Can the internet run out of storage space?

Not in the foreseeable future. Storage technology keeps improving, and companies keep building new data centers. However, the cost of storing data does increase as the total grows, and electricity consumption becomes a constraint. At some point, the cost of powering data centers may limit growth more than physical storage capacity does.

How much of the internet's data is actually useful versus junk?

Nobody knows precisely, but estimates suggest 30 to 50 percent of stored data is duplicate copies, backups, or data that is never accessed again. Spam emails, deleted files that have not been overwritten, and outdated cached data make up a significant portion. The rest is actively used or legally required to be kept.

Does deleting something from my phone actually remove it from the internet?

If you delete something from your phone but it was synced to cloud storage (Google Photos, iCloud, OneDrive), it still exists on the internet unless you also delete it from the cloud service. If you posted it to social media, the company keeps a copy even after you delete your post. Deletion from your device does not mean deletion from the internet.