Gmails Quota Secrets

Gmail’s Quota and few in-jokes Zvi Devir zdevir AT gmail.com

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…

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:

42 is a very special number.

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

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... ] ]; The new counter in human readable format: Still, something is wrong…

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... ] ]; 02/01/ 3456 07:08:09 The new counter in human readable format:

Still, something is wrong…

A better magic date is 01-02-3456 at 07:08:09 .

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:

And the Y2K38 bug will occur on January 19 th , 2038 , at 03:14:08 .

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: