IPFS Storage Cost Calculator

IPFS itself doesn't guarantee your data stays available — content only persists as long as some node keeps it pinned, which is why this calculator's core number is pinning service cost rather than "storage cost" in the traditional sense. It first multiplies your raw data size by a replication factor (3 copies is the standard redundancy target) to get total storage consumed, then multiplies that by your pinning service's per-GB monthly rate to get monthly and total costs over your chosen duration — mirroring how providers like Pinata actually bill. The calculator then runs two comparison numbers against fundamentally different storage models: a Filecoin estimate at a much lower assumed rate (~$0.0001/GB/month) representing cold, less-redundant storage rather than IPFS's always-online pinning, and an Arweave estimate that's a one-time flat cost (~$5/GB, not adjusted for replication) reflecting Arweave's permanent-storage design where you pay once and the network is economically incentivized to keep the data forever.

The "Arweave breakeven months" figure divides that one-time Arweave cost by your monthly IPFS pinning cost, telling you how long you'd need to keep paying pinning fees before they exceed what permanent Arweave storage would have cost upfront — useful for deciding whether long-lived NFT metadata or archival data belongs on a pay-per-month or pay-once model. A common mixup: these three costs aren't measuring the same guarantee — IPFS pinning cost buys you continued availability via a service you trust to keep paying, while Arweave's cost buys permanence backed by the network's own incentive design.