How many files can a shared hosting directory hold?
The number of files per directory you can have depends on your hosting type:
| Hosting Type | Max. files/directory |
|---|---|
| Linux Hosting (cPanel), Windows Hosting (Plesk), Managed WordPress | No limit 1 |
| Web & Classic | 1,024 files/inodes2 |
1 Your hosting account cannot hold more than 500,000 files and folders (Windows) or 250,000 inodes (Linux). For best website performance, limit your directories to no more than 1,024 files/inodes each.
2 The longer your filenames, the fewer files you can have in a directory (file name lengths of 1-16 characters count as 1 inode, 17-32 characters count as 2, 33-48 characters count as 3, and so on).
These limits prevent accounts from taxing the server resources and negatively affecting load time. We'll warn customers exceeding these limits and we may relocate files to maintain server performance.
Note: If you receive an "Out of Disk Space" message when trying to add or create more files in a directory, that directory has reached its limit. To avoid this issue, split directories with many files/inodes into subdirectories, and remove 'cache' or 'thumbnail' directories manually or with a cron job.
