Gmail Storage Quota - by Zvi Devir

Gmail’s Quota and few in-jokes Zvi Devir

History of Gmail’s quota

April 1 st , 2004 – Gmail is born… Providing 1024 Mb of free storage!

April 2 nd , 2005 – Quota increased to 2050 Mb . Following gradual growth of ~100Mb per month.

October 1 st , 2006 – Growth rate is slowed down to ~10Mb per month.

January-March 2007 – Growth rate of ~12Mb per month, in the foreseeable future (until 2012).

Storage quota graph

Gmail’s quota counter var CP = [ [ 1167638400000, 2800 ], [ 1175414400000, 2835 ], [ 1207033200000, 2980 ], [ 1238569200000, 3125 ], [ 1270105200000, 3270 ], [ 1301641200000, 3415 ], [ 1333263600000, 3560 ] ]; This is a code fragment from the “Welcome to Gmail” page: Dates in serial form Storage quota in Mb

Gmail’s quota counter var CP = [ [ 01/01/2007 08:00 -> 2800 Mb ], [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 01/04/2008 07:00 -> 2980 Mb ], [ 01/04/2009 07:00 -> 3125 Mb ], [ 01/04/2010 07:00 -> 3270 Mb ], [ 01/04/2011 07:00 -> 3415 Mb ], [ 01/04/2012 07:00 -> 3560 Mb ] ]; Gmail calculates the current quota using a linear interpolation between the date “points”. The quota counter table in human readable form:

October 12 th , 2007 – New quota

April 1 st , 2004 – Gmail is born… with 1024 Mb of free storage!

April 2 nd , 2005 – Quota increased to 2050 Mb . Following gradual growth of ~100Mb per month.

October 1 st , 2006 – Growth rate is slowed down to ~10Mb per month.

January-March 2007 – Growth rate of ~12Mb per month, in the foreseeable future (until 2012).

October 12 th , 2007 – Another huge leap: Gmail now gives more than 6Gb of storage, with monthly growth rate of ~100Mb .

October 12 th , 2007 – New quota

New quota counter // Estimates of nanite storage generation over time. var CP = [ [ 1175414400000, 2835 ], [ 1192176000000, 2912 ], [ 1193122800000, 4321 ], [ 1199433600000, 6283 ], [ 2147328000000, 43008 ], [ 46893711600000, Number.MAX_VALUE ] ]; This is the new JavaScript counter:

What is this Number.MAX_VALUE ? Google must be kidding…

The serial dates look odd…

And what is this nanite storage generation ?

As Google’s storage capacity, which grows at similar rate… Nanites are self-reproducing (Von Neumann) nano-robotic machines.

New quota counter // Estimates of nanite storage generation over time. var CP = [ [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 12/10/2007 08:00 -> 2912 Mb ], [ 23/10/2007 07:00 -> 4321 Mb ], [ 04/01/2008 08:00 -> 6283 Mb ], [ 17/01/2038 08:00 -> 42 Gb ], [ 02/01/3456 07:00 -> Infinite... ] ]; The new counter in human readable format:

Well, 42 is a very special number.

On January 2038 the Unix world will face the infamous Y2K38 bug..

Google will hit infinity (and beyond) at a very special date – in American format, it will happen on 01-02-3456 at 07:00:00.

New quota counter // Estimates of nanite storage generation over time. var CP = [ [ 01/04/2007 08:00 -> 2835 Mb ], [ 12/10/2007 08:00 -> 2912 Mb ], [ 23/10/2007 07:00 -> 4321 Mb ], [ 04/01/2008 08:00 -> 6283 Mb ], [ 17/01/2038 08:00 -> 42 Gb ], [ 02/01/3456 07:00 -> Infinite... ] ]; 19/01/2038 03:14:08 02/01/ 3456 07:08:09 The new counter in human readable format: