Database Sizes
RocksDB
Kusama |
Polkadot |
|
| Full Node Retains last 256 blocks |
Size - 171.99 GiB Last Updated - 11/14/2022 11:30:05 PM Block Height - 15,225,799 |
Size - 171.57 GiB Last Updated - 3/26/2023 8:15:14 AM Block Height - 14,803,892 |
|---|---|---|
|
Pruned Node Retains last 1,000 blocks |
Size - 225.9 GiB Last Updated - 3/29/2023 4:15:05 AM Block Height - 17,240,824 |
Size - 178.74 GiB Last Updated - 3/28/2023 7:00:17 AM Block Height - 14,830,844 |
|
Archive Node Retains all blocks |
Size - 945.05 GiB Last Updated - 11/16/2022 8:30:10 AM Block Height - 15,185,550 |
Size - 563.36 GiB Last Updated - 11/16/2022 8:30:26 AM Block Height - 12,833,368 |
Full Node - A full node is a pruned node that retains the last 256 blocks. It can be initiated, in default, by starting a node and not specifying the --validator or any pruning flags.
You may use the following flags to initate a full node manually:
--pruning=256
--unsafe-pruning
Pruned Node - A pruned node is one that retains only the last x blocks i.e. the database is pruned (trimmed). It can be used as a measure to reduce the storage footprint of a node's database, which is the usually the largest store of information for a node. Pruned databases can be used for validator nodes, the most popular configuration of which is to retain the last 1000 blocks.
A pruned database still requires a full download and processing of all blocks in the chain. To circumvent this you may use a database snapshot to restore or load a pruned database. The pruned settings of the snapshot must match those used in your config. While there's no reason to suspect mischievious behavior of current providers; one should approach use of snapshots with caution and on the basis of need.
You may use the following flags to initate a pruned node that retains the last 1000 blocks:
--pruning=1000
--unsafe-pruning
Archive Node - An archive node retains all block history for the chain. This can be used by validators if storage requirements permit. It is best suited for those who desire to retain a copy of the chain for the purpose of redundancy and redistribution. An archive node may also be used for development purposes to fulfil historical queries.
You may use the following flags to initate an archive node manually:
--pruning=archive
Methodology - Presented are the uncompressed size of the /home/{user}/.local/share/polkadot/chains/{chain}/db folder and all subcontents using the du -sh command. The output was then converted to JSON using code available here. This does not reflect the final size of a complete Polkadot installation, it only represents the size of the database. Please note and scale your estimates.