Confluence storage almost full? What counts and how to free it

Q: Where do I see how much storage we use?

In admin.atlassian.com, under the site’s Site settings > Storage. Only admins can see it, and it is updated only every 4 hours.

By Kayabyte · Updated 1 November 2026

Short answer: Confluence Cloud storage is 2 GB on Free, 250 GB on Standard and unlimited on Premium. Pages, live docs, attachments, files and comments all count, and archiving doesn’t free anything, because Confluence keeps the attachments of archived content. The quickest way to free space is to delete pages or attachments that have large files; old attachment versions count too. Pruner: Version History Cleanup for Confluence, in Atlassian Marketplace review and not yet available, deletes old page and attachment versions under a keep-the-newest-N policy, with a preview of the storage involved.

You get a banner or an email that your Confluence site is close to its storage limit, and nobody knows what is taking the space. This guide lists what Atlassian counts, where to look, and what actually frees storage.

Plan limits

File storage per plan, from Atlassian’s plan comparison:

Free: 2 GB (seats for up to 10 users).
Standard: 250 GB.
Premium: unlimited.

When you reach the limit you have to upgrade or remove content. Atlassian doesn’t remove your data, but some actions are restricted until you free up space, and in the end your team can’t create or edit content (Atlassian: manage your storage usage).

Where to see usage

Only admins can see it. In admin.atlassian.com select your organization and the site, then go to Site settings > Storage. Each app shows its usage and what is left. The figure can lag: Atlassian says it is updated only every 4 hours, so don’t expect it to move the minute you delete something.

What counts

Atlassian says all pages, live docs, attachments, files and comments take up storage. In practice the big numbers are almost always files: slide decks, exports, screenshots and videos, and every extra version of each of them.

What frees space, and what doesn’t

Deleting a page that has large attachments is the quickest way, according to Atlassian.
Archiving does not free space. Confluence keeps attachments of archived content so the history stays available. Delete the attachments from the archived content, or delete the archived items.
Deleting an attachment (you need the Delete Attachment space permission) frees that file. Open the page, Show details, Attachments, then Delete.
Deleting old attachment versions frees the older copies of a file you still use. This needs the Space Administrator permission and is done one version at a time in the same attachment list (Atlassian: manage uploaded files).
Page version history is small per version, because it’s text. Deleting old page versions helps with clutter and with pages that have hundreds of versions, but it is usually not what fills 2 GB. See how to delete old page versions in Confluence Cloud.

Deleted versions can’t be restored, so check before you delete.

A practical order

Open Site settings > Storage and note the usage and the limit.
Find the spaces where people upload files: team spaces with decks, design spaces, meeting-recordings pages. Sort their pages by how many attachments they have.
Delete files nobody needs, and archived content that still holds large attachments.
For files that are updated often, delete old versions and keep the newest few.
Wait for the storage figure to update (up to 4 hours) before deciding it didn’t work.

Pruner: Version History Cleanup for Confluence

Pruner is the app I make for step 4, for the sites where nobody wants to click through thousands of attachments.

A policy: keep the newest N versions of each page and attachment, optionally delete only versions older than a number of days, and pick the spaces.
The preview shows how many old page and attachment versions it would delete and how much storage the attachment versions use, plus the pages with the most old versions. Nothing is deleted at that step.
A manual clean-up is confirmed by an admin; a nightly clean-up is optional and off by default.
It deletes versions only. The current version of each page and file stays, and it doesn’t delete whole pages, blog posts, comments, or the current copy of a large attachment. If the space is taken by large files that are still in use, those need to be removed or replaced by hand.
It runs on Atlassian Forge and makes no calls outside Atlassian.

Pruner is in Atlassian Marketplace review and not yet available to install.

FAQ

How much storage does Confluence Cloud include? 2 GB on Free, 250 GB on Standard and unlimited on Premium.

Does archiving a page free up storage? No. Confluence keeps the attachments of archived content, so archiving doesn’t free space. Delete the attachments or delete the archived content.

Where do I see how much storage we use? In admin.atlassian.com, under the site’s Site settings > Storage. Only admins can see it, and it is updated only every 4 hours.

Do old attachment versions count toward storage? Yes, each version of a file is stored. Deleting old versions of attachments needs the Space Administrator permission and can’t be undone.

What happens when we hit the storage limit? You need to upgrade or remove content. Atlassian doesn’t remove data, but some actions are restricted until space is freed.

Confluence and Atlassian are trademarks of Atlassian. Kayabyte is an independent developer and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Atlassian.