How to Check Website Disk and Bandwidth Usage
Monitor your hosting resource consumption to prevent overages and keep your website running smoothly.
Checking Disk Usage in cPanel
Overview
- Log in to cPanel.
- Look at the right sidebar — disk usage is displayed at a glance.
- For detailed breakdown, go to Files > Disk Usage.
Detailed Disk Usage
The Disk Usage page shows:
- Total space used vs. allocated.
- Usage by directory (public_html, mail, databases, etc.).
- Largest directories highlighted.
[screenshot: cPanel disk usage breakdown by directory]
Finding Large Files
- In Disk Usage, sort by size to find the largest directories.
- Open File Manager and navigate to those directories.
- Look for:
- Old backup files.
- Large log files.
- Unused media/images.
- Temporary files.
Checking Bandwidth Usage
In cPanel
- Go to Metrics > Bandwidth.
- View monthly bandwidth consumption.
- See breakdown by protocol (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP).
Understanding Bandwidth
- HTTP Traffic — website visitors and page loads.
- FTP Traffic — file uploads and downloads via FTP.
- Email Traffic — sending and receiving emails.
Reducing Disk Usage
- Delete old backups — remove downloaded backup files from the account.
- Clean up email — delete old emails from large mailboxes.
- Optimise images — compress images (use TinyPNG or ShortPixel plugin).
- Remove unused files — themes, plugins, old website versions.
- Clean database — remove spam comments, post revisions, and transients.
- Check error logs — large error logs can consume space. Truncate them.
Reducing Bandwidth Usage
- Enable caching — LSCache plugin for WordPress.
- Use a CDN — offload static files to Cloudflare.
- Optimise images — smaller images = less bandwidth.
- Enable compression — Gzip/Brotli compression (usually enabled by default).
- Block hotlinking — prevent other sites from using your images.
Setting Up Alerts
In cPanel, you may receive automatic email alerts when:
- Disk usage exceeds 80% of your quota.
- Bandwidth approaches the limit.
Tip: Check your disk and bandwidth usage at least monthly. Running out of disk space can cause website errors and email failures.
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