The short answer: there are three places, and each answers one question. The cPanel Statistics sidebar tells you how much you use and what the limit is. The Disk Usage screen tells you where that space is, folder by folder, with e-mail and databases listed separately. And the usage page in Meu Interweb, which appears once you pass 75%, tells you how close to the limit you are and lets you upgrade from the same page. This article shows you how to find and read all three. To clean up, the next step is what to delete first.
Where to see each thing
| What you want to know |
Where to look |
What you will see |
| How much you use, and the plan limit |
cPanel, the Statistics sidebar, the Disk Usage line |
Space used, the limit, and a bar with the percentage. |
| Which folders weigh the most |
cPanel, Files section, Disk Usage |
The account folders by size, plus separate lines for e-mail, e-mail archives, mailing lists and databases. |
| How much each mailbox weighs |
cPanel, Email Accounts |
For each mailbox, the space used and the quota you gave it. |
| How much the databases weigh |
The Statistics sidebar, the MySQL Disk Usage line; and MySQL Databases |
The total for all databases and the size of each one: the database has grown. |
| How close to the limit, outside cPanel |
The service page in Meu Interweb, or the link in the warning e-mail |
The usage bar, the Upgrade button and the Check now button. |
| Exact figures, folder by folder |
The cPanel Terminal or SSH |
The read-only commands further down. |
cPanel menu names change slightly with the version and the panel language: look for the meaning, and type the name into the cPanel search box if you cannot spot it.
Checking your space, step by step
| 1 |
Sign in to the account’s cPanel (if you are not sure which login that is, see which login you need).
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| 2 |
Look at the Statistics sidebar. The Disk Usage line shows what you use and the limit, as a bar with your plan’s limit beside it. On a narrow screen, such as a phone, this column moves to the bottom of the page. Write the figure down: it is your starting point.
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| 3 |
Open Disk Usage. The table at the top lists the account’s main folders and, separately, e-mail and databases. Find the biggest line: the problem is nearly always there.
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| 4 |
Drill into the biggest folder. In the folder browser further down the same screen, sort by size and open the heavy folder until you reach the one that matters. How to read this screen in detail is in finding what fills your account.
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| 5 |
If the biggest line is e-mail, open Email Accounts and look at the space each mailbox uses. Mailboxes of people who have left the company are usually at the top.
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| 6 |
Check in Meu Interweb. If usage has passed 75%, the service page shows the banner with the See the account usage button. After cleaning up, use Check now to measure again instead of waiting for the next warning.
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On the service page in Meu Interweb (Services, the service), once usage passes 75% a banner appears with the usage and a See the account usage button. It opens a page with the usage bar, Upgrade and Check now. The link in our warning e-mails opens that same page.
With the cPanel Terminal or SSH (the cPanel Terminal), these commands only read, they delete nothing. The first gives the account total; the second, the weight of e-mail, the site and the File Manager trash; the third, the ten heaviest e-mail folders (each mailbox has its own):
du -sh ~
du -sh ~/mail ~/public_html ~/.trash 2>/dev/null
du -h -d 2 ~/mail | sort -h | tail -10
How to read the figure
| What you see |
What it means |
What to do |
| Below 75% of the limit |
You get no usage warnings. |
Nothing urgent. Check the figure once a month to know how fast it grows. |
| 75% to 85% |
One warning every 15 days, and the banner appears on the service page. |
See what grew: clutter or real growth? |
| 85% to 95% |
A warning every 7 days. |
Clean up this week, or decide on the upgrade. |
| 95% or more |
A warning every 3 days. |
Act today: you are very close to the limit. |
| 100%: the limit |
The site can no longer save and mailboxes stop accepting new messages. Above the limit the account may be suspended, and we always warn you the day before. |
Upgrade (the account reactivates right after) or ask for 24 hours to sort it out, through the link in the e-mail (once every 7 days): what the warnings mean. |
| The three places show different figures |
Each screen measures at a different time, and Disk Usage warns that its values may lag behind. |
Wait a little and open it again. In Meu Interweb, use Check now. |
| You deleted files and the total did not drop |
What you delete in the File Manager goes to the hidden .trash folder and still counts. |
Empty the trash from the File Manager itself. |
Optimise or upgrade?
| Situation |
Optimise or upgrade? |
| The biggest line is a backup, an old folder or the trash |
Optimise. Download and delete, and it is done. |
| The biggest line is e-mail, with years of Trash and Spam |
Optimise. Your mailbox is full. |
| Space grows every month with photos, products and documents the site uses |
Upgrade. That is growth, not clutter. |
| You have cleaned up and the figure passes 85% again within weeks |
Upgrade. |
Bigger plans
| Plan |
Space (NVMe SSD) |
| Pro |
10 GB |
| Plus |
20 GB |
| Ultra |
30 GB |
| Business Pro |
50 GB |
| Business Plus |
100 GB |
| Business Ultra |
200 GB |
Space on each plan, all on NVMe SSD: from 10 GB on Pro to 200 GB on Business Ultra (table above). After the upgrade, the new limit shows straight away in the Statistics sidebar. You upgrade in Meu Interweb, pay only the difference up to the renewal date, and the site, the e-mail and the files stay where they are: how to upgrade your plan. Which step to pick: which hosting plan comes next.
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Looking is not deleting. Before you delete what you found, take a copy and download it (making a full cPanel backup), and do not leave it inside the account: it takes the very space you want to free. Never delete the mail, etc or ssl folders, or the whole public_html.
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Note the figure on the first day of each month. With three or four figures in a row you know whether space grows slowly (and when you will need an upgrade) or jumped (and then there is a cause with a date to look for).
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Cannot tell what is filling the account? Open a support ticket with what Disk Usage shows for the three biggest lines.
Open a support ticket
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