WordPress resource needs estimator

Estimate a workload scenario for one or more self-hosted WordPress sites. Enter figures measured on your sites or documented by the software and provider. No vendor defaults are built in, and the result does not say what every WordPress site needs.

Enter all ten values and calculate.

How the estimate works

• Monthly transfer: sites × monthly views per site × average transferred MB per view ÷ 1,000.
• Steady-state storage: sites × (current non-media GB per site + new media GB per month × retention months). The model assumes a steady upload rate and deletion at the end of the retention period.
• Peak memory scenario: sites × (baseline MB per site + simultaneous dynamic requests per site × observed MB per request), then add your entered headroom. Convert MB to GB by dividing by 1,000.

Use the same decimal-unit convention throughout: 1 GB = 1,000 MB. NIST distinguishes decimal SI prefixes from binary powers. If a provider reports GiB or uses a different convention, convert before comparing.

Use measured inputs and check limits

For a dated reference to WordPress Core PHP pairings and release dates, see the WordPress PHP compatibility snapshot. It does not establish whether your plugins or theme work with a runtime.

WordPress.org's recommended hosting requirements list software compatibility and HTTPS; they do not publish a universal RAM, disk-space, or bandwidth allowance. The memory figures here must come from your own measurements or documented software/provider limits. Dynamic request memory varies with PHP configuration, plugins, themes, caching and request mix. Page transfer should reflect what is actually sent after any cache/CDN behavior you intend to model.

This is a capacity scenario, not a forecast, stress test, provider quote or plan recommendation. It excludes database growth beyond the entered current size, logs, backups, staging copies, email, operating-system/runtime overhead, file-system overhead, traffic spikes beyond your inputs and provider-specific accounting. Shared and managed products may not expose RAM or worker limits in comparable ways. Check the exact plan, dashboards and support documentation; leave operational headroom for unmodeled items.

Sources

• WordPress.org recommended hosting requirements — software and HTTPS requirements; checked November 3, 2026.
• NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 4 — decimal prefixes and binary powers; checked November 3, 2026.

For measured file and database sizes across repeated full copies, use the backup space estimator. For a separate page-transfer calculation with an editable cache-share assumption, use the page-view bandwidth calculator; the hosting needs estimator is a simpler transfer worksheet. For image-specific upload retention and transfer, see the image storage planner. For provider-specific capacity claims, start with the hosting comparison method and verify the exact current plan terms. For an average concurrency scenario based on measured PHP request rate and service time, use the PHP worker capacity worksheet; it does not model burst capacity or judge a plan.