Document storage cost calculator
What it costs to keep scanned records for the retention period you are required to hold them.
However long you are required to hold them. This tool does not advise on that.
From your provider. Include any charge for a second copy or a different region.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to VitalFax or stored anywhere.
- Storage at steady state
14.8GB
Reached after 7 years, when the oldest records start expiring and the archive stops growing.
- Added in the first year
- 2.1GB
- Cost at steady state
- $0.34per month
- Cumulative over 7 years
- $14.26
Costed on the average holding while the archive fills, not on the final size from day one.
Working
1,200 pages × 0.15 MB × 84 months ÷ 1024
Read this with the result
- Page sizes are round figures for a compressed page at each resolution, not a measurement of your scanner. If you have real files, divide their size by their page count and treat that as the truth.
- Deletion is not free either. A retention policy that actually deletes needs something to run it, and an archive nobody prunes is a liability as well as a bill.
Provided for reference. Check any value that will inform a decision against an independent source.
About this calculation
Scanned pages accumulate, and a retention obligation means they accumulate for years before anything can be deleted. This projects the volume and the storage cost from your page rate, your scan settings and the period you hold records for.
Formula
stored GB = pages per month × MB per page × retention months ÷ 1024
- Methodology version
- 1.0.0
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-29
What this does not account for
- Storage is the cheap part of keeping records. Retrieval, indexing and the cost of proving what you hold are larger and are not modelled here.
- The retention period is a question for your counsel and your state. This calculator takes whatever number you give it and does not suggest one.