# Data usage for a ipfs dht client node with current release?

**URL:** <https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [June 12, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399 "2020-06-12T20:39:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![emclab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/emclab/32/3432_2.png) [@emclab](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/emclab)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399/1 "2020-06-12T20:39:54Z")

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There was extensive discussion about how to reduce the data usage on this [thread](https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/issues/3429). The data usage was as high as 900GB/month as reported in the discussion. What is average data usage a dhtclient node has with the current ipfs release? Anyone has usage data to share? Many thanks.

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**Author:** ![stebalien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/stebalien/32/156_2.png) [@stebalien](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/stebalien)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399/2 "2020-06-12T20:46:59Z")

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There’s no one answer. It depends on what data you’re storing, how much data you’re storing, what data you’re fetching, how many peers you connect to, what your connection manager limits are, etc.

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**Author:** ![emclab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/emclab/32/3432_2.png) [@emclab](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/emclab)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399/3 "2020-06-12T21:14:43Z")

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Probably a better phrasing of the question is what is the data usage of overhead to keep a node running. As said, this should not include the actual data download and upload. As I understand, the data usage of node are from announcement and searching (keep connection with peers), bitswap (including acutal data sharing). The more peers a node is connecting to, the more bandwidth/data is consumed. In previous implementation, there is no cap number of peers connected.

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**Author:** ![stebalien](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discuss.ipfs.tech/stebalien/32/156_2.png) [@stebalien](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/u/stebalien)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://discuss.ipfs.tech/t/data-usage-for-a-ipfs-dht-client-node-with-current-release/8399/4 "2020-06-12T22:02:04Z")

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Got it. The data usage is mostly from:

- Keeping the DHT routing table up-to-date.
- Receiving/sending address updates as our peer’s addresses change (really low traffic).
- Bitswap requests. This is the _vast_ majority of the traffic.

On my idle dhtclient node, I’m seeing ~20MiB/h, which is ~13.3GiB per month (or ~115Gbits/month, which is usually how bandwidth is charged).

Note: That’s what IPFS is tracking. The OS may see more, and the provider may see even more due to (TCP, security, etc. overhead).