The internet holds roughly 64 zettabytes of data, though the number changes constantly

Nobody knows the exact amount of data on the internet because it grows every second and nobody owns a master inventory. The most commonly cited figure is around 64 zettabytes as of 2024, but that number comes from estimates by data storage companies and research firms, not from a central count. A zettabyte is one sextillion bytes — or one billion terabytes. To put that in perspective, if you downloaded one gigabyte per second without stopping, it would take roughly two million years to download one zettabyte.

The reason estimates vary widely is that "the internet" is not one place. It includes data centers owned by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and thousands of smaller companies; personal devices like phones and laptops; servers in offices and homes; and storage systems that are not directly connected to the public internet. Researchers measure what they can see and extrapolate from there, which means the real number could be higher or lower than published estimates.

The data is also not evenly distributed. A small number of very large companies — primarily cloud providers and social media platforms — store the majority of it. Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft together control a significant portion of the world's data storage capacity.

Key Takeaways

  • Estimates place internet data at around 64 zettabytes, but this is an educated guess based on what researchers can measure, not a precise count.
  • The amount grows by roughly 25 percent each year as people create more photos, videos, documents, and backups.
  • Most of the data is stored in data centers run by a handful of large technology companies, not spread evenly across the internet.
  • Video content makes up the largest share of stored data, followed by images, documents, and databases.

Where the data actually lives

Data on the internet lives in data centers — large buildings filled with servers, cooling systems, and backup power supplies. These facilities are not scattered randomly. They cluster in specific regions where electricity is cheap and reliable, where there is fiber optic cable infrastructure, and where local laws allow the kind of data storage the company needs.

The United States, Europe, and Asia host the majority of the world's data centers. Within those regions, certain cities have become hubs: Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C. has one of the largest concentrations of data centers in the world. Ireland, Iceland, and parts of Scandinavia have grown as data center locations because of cheap renewable energy and cool climates that reduce cooling costs. China, Japan, and Singapore host massive data centers serving Asian markets.

Your own devices — your phone, laptop, tablet — also store data that is technically part of the internet ecosystem when you use cloud storage services like Google Drive, iCloud, or OneDrive. That data lives on company servers, not on your device, even though you access it from your device.

What types of data take up the most space

Video is by far the largest category of data on the internet. Streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok store enormous libraries of video files, and each file takes up far more space than text or images. A two-hour movie in high definition can be several gigabytes; YouTube alone has hundreds of millions of videos. Every time someone uploads a video to social media, that adds to the total.

Images come second. Social media platforms store billions of photos. Google Photos, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat each hold petabytes of image data. A single high-resolution photo from a modern smartphone can be several megabytes, and when multiplied across billions of users, the total becomes enormous.

Databases and documents make up a smaller but still significant portion. This includes email archives, business records, scientific data, financial records, and the text-based content of websites. A single email with attachments might be a few megabytes, but email services like Gmail store trillions of messages.

Backups and redundancy also consume massive amounts of space. Data centers keep multiple copies of important data in different physical locations so that if one facility fails, the data is not lost. This means the same data is often stored three, four, or more times in different places.

How fast the internet is growing

The amount of data on the internet grows by roughly 25 to 30 percent each year, though the rate varies by region and by type of data. Video growth is faster than text growth because more people are recording and uploading video content. Mobile device usage has accelerated data growth because people now carry cameras and recording devices everywhere.

The growth rate is not uniform. During the COVID-19 pandemic, video streaming and cloud storage usage spiked as more people worked from home and relied on video conferencing. As new technologies emerge — like virtual reality, 4K and 8K video, and Internet of Things devices that constantly collect sensor data — the growth rate may accelerate further.

Storage technology is improving faster than data is growing, which is why companies can keep up. Hard drives and solid-state drives store more data in the same physical space than they did five years ago, and they cost less per gigabyte. This makes it economically feasible for companies to store data they might have deleted in the past.

Why estimates are uncertain

The figure of 64 zettabytes comes from companies like IDC (International Data Corporation) and Statista, which survey data center operators, cloud providers, and technology companies to estimate total storage. But not every company reports accurate numbers, and some data is stored in ways that are hard to measure. Private corporate servers, government databases, and personal devices connected to private networks do not show up in public counts.

Additionally, the definition of "data on the internet" is fuzzy. Does it include data stored on devices that are not currently connected to the internet? Does it include encrypted data that nobody can read? Does it count the same file multiple times if it is backed up in three locations? Different researchers answer these questions differently, which is why estimates vary.

The data storage industry has financial incentive to estimate high, because larger numbers suggest greater demand for their products and services. Academic researchers tend to be more conservative in their estimates, but they have less access to real numbers from private companies.

The difference between stored data and data in transit

When people talk about "data on the internet," they usually mean data that is stored somewhere — in a data center, on a server, on your phone. But the internet also moves data constantly. Right now, trillions of bytes are traveling through fiber optic cables, wireless networks, and satellite links. That data in transit is not usually counted in estimates of total internet data because it is temporary.

The amount of data moving through the internet at any given moment is measured in terabytes per second. Global IP traffic — the total amount of data crossing the internet — was estimated at around 4.8 zettabytes per year in 2022, meaning roughly 152 petabytes per second on average. But that is flow, not storage. Once data reaches its destination and is stored, it becomes part of the stored data count.

How much of the internet you can actually see

The "surface web" — the part of the internet you can find with Google and access without special tools — makes up only a small fraction of total internet data. Most estimates suggest the surface web is less than 10 percent of all stored data. The rest is in databases, private networks, encrypted storage, and systems that search engines cannot or are not allowed to index.

This includes email accounts, medical records, financial data, private social media messages, subscription services, and corporate databases. These systems are on the internet in the sense that they are connected to networks and accessible remotely, but they are not part of the publicly searchable web.

The "deep web" — data that exists on the internet but is not indexed by search engines — includes most of this hidden data. It is not inherently illegal or dangerous; it is just not designed to be found by casual browsing. The "dark web," which requires special software to access, is a much smaller subset and is where truly private or anonymous data lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much data is created every day?

Roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created daily, though estimates vary depending on what counts as "created." This includes new photos, videos, messages, sensor readings, and transactions. Most of this data is created by machines and devices, not by people typing or uploading files.

Does all the data created stay on the internet forever?

No. Much data is deleted regularly — old emails are purged, temporary files are removed, and companies delete data when it is no longer useful. However, data that is backed up or archived can persist for decades. Some data is also difficult to truly delete because copies exist in multiple locations.

How much of the internet is video?

Video accounts for roughly 80 to 90 percent of all internet traffic and a significant portion of stored data, though exact percentages vary by measurement method. YouTube alone has over 800 million hours of video stored, and streaming services like Netflix add terabytes of content regularly.

Is the internet running out of storage space?

No. Storage technology is improving faster than data is accumulating, so the cost per gigabyte continues to drop and capacity continues to increase. However, the energy required to power and cool data centers is becoming a constraint in some regions.

Who owns all the data on the internet?

Different entities own different data. You own the data you create and upload. Companies own the data they collect about you and the content you post on their platforms. Governments own their records. Data centers own the physical infrastructure, but not necessarily the data stored on it.