Last Updated: April 03, 2026
If your Salesforce reports have started crawling instead of running, your storage might be quietly staging a revolt. In such a case, your best bet is to implement Salesforce data storage best practices for the org.
Before your Salesforce environment running complex objects, custom apps, or third-party integrations hits Salesforce storage limits, learn and understand how simply monitoring the growth and automating the data lifecycle in Salesforce can go a long way.
This blog walks you through 7 actionable Salesforce data storage best practices to keep your org lean, fast, and future-proof. To ensure long-term system performance, cost-efficiency, and compliance, it’s critical to adopt Salesforce storage best practices and implement Salesforce data archiving strategies.
How Does Salesforce Store Data?
Understanding how Salesforce stores data is the foundation of any smart storage strategy. Salesforce splits storage across three main categories:
- Data Storage (CRM records like Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Cases, and custom objects).
- File Storage (attachments, documents, Salesforce Files, and ContentDocument records).
- Big Objects (designed for storing large volumes of historical data natively within Salesforce at scale).
Salesforce Storage Limits: What You Are Actually Working With
| License Type | Data Storage | File Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Base Org Allocation | 10 GB | 10 GB |
| Salesforce (Standard) User | +20 MB per user | +612 MB per user |
| Salesforce Platform User | +120 MB per user | +612 MB per user |
| External App License | +20 MB per user | +612 MB per user |
Cut Salesforce Storage Costs by 60–80% with DataArchiva: A Real ROI Breakdown
Additional storage purchased from Salesforce costs roughly $5 per 500 MB of data storage and $5 per 1 GB of file storage per month, which adds up quickly for growing orgs. This is exactly why implementing best storage management practices before you hit the ceiling is far more cost-effective than buying your way out after the fact.
How to Check Your Salesforce Storage Usage
Before diving into best practices, you need visibility into where your Salesforce storage is actually going. Salesforce provides a built-in tool for this, and knowing how to use it is step zero of every storage optimization effort.
How to Check Data Usage in Salesforce (Step-by-Step)
- Go to Setup using the gear icon in the top-right corner.
- In the Quick Find box, type Storage Usage.
- Click Storage Usage under Data Management.
- Review the summary for both Data Storage and File Storage, along with a breakdown by object.
- Click on any object name to see which records are consuming the most space.
How to Make a Storage Usage Report in Salesforce
The native Storage Usage page gives you a snapshot, but a custom Salesforce storage usage report gives you trends over time, which is where the real intelligence lives. To build one, go to the Reports tab and create a new report based on any high-volume object (like Cases, Tasks, or Leads). Add fields for Record Count, Last Modified Date, and Created Date. Group by object or owner, then save and schedule it to run monthly.
For deeper Salesforce data usage analytics, DataArchiva’s built-in dashboards go a step further by forecasting storage demand based on historical growth patterns and flagging anomalies like sudden data spikes from integrations or bulk imports.
Mastering Salesforce Data Storage: Maximize Efficiency, Minimize Cost
7 Salesforce Data Storage Management Best Practices
Incorporating a structured framework helps organizations manage growth, control costs, and stay audit-ready. Below are actionable Salesforce storage best practices:
1. Monitor Storage Growth with Native Tools and Custom Reports
Monitoring Salesforce storage is not a once-a-quarter activity. Start with the native Storage Usage page in Setup to get an object-level breakdown of your current consumption. Then complement it with custom reports that track record counts, average record sizes, and growth rates month over month.
Pay special attention to long-tail objects like historical Tasks, Emails, audit trail logs, and Campaign Member data, which silently inflate storage without being on anyone’s radar. Setting threshold alerts at 75%, 85%, and 95% capacity gives your team time to act before hitting the wall.
2. Identify and Prioritize High-Growth Data Objects
Not all objects are equal when it comes to Salesforce data storage. Leads (especially unconverted ones sitting for years), Tasks and Events (from heavy activity logging), Emails, Cases, and custom objects built for niche integrations tend to be the biggest offenders. Use SOQL queries and custom dashboards to analyze each object by record volume, estimated size, and last activity date.
3. Implement a Salesforce Data Archiving Strategy
For example, Cases older than three years, closed Opportunities, or leads that never converted are prime candidates for archiving. DataArchiva supports native archiving into Salesforce Big Objects, and DataArchiva Pro supports external archiving to cloud platforms like AWS S3, Azure, Heroku, GCP, or on-premises systems.
DataArchiva capabilities for archiving:
Schedule archiving directly from the Salesforce UI without writing custom code.
Preserve parent-child record relationships so data context is never lost.
Automate archiving policies using field-level rules, status conditions, and date filters.
Access archived records through a native Salesforce interface, no switching tools.
4. Apply a Tiered Data Storage Strategy
A tiered approach to data storage Salesforce teams use to classify records by how frequently they are accessed and store them accordingly, rather than treating all data the same. Think of it as hot, warm, and cold tiers. Hot data (records accessed daily, like open Cases or current Opportunities) stays in live Salesforce for peak performance. Warm data (records accessed occasionally, like recently closed deals) can remain in Salesforce or Big Objects.
Cold data (historical records rarely accessed, like multi-year-old Leads or archived Tasks) belongs in external storage like AWS or Azure, where costs are significantly lower. This tiered model prevents expensive primary storage from filling up with data that nobody actively uses, and it is one of the most cost-effective Salesforce data storage best practices for growing enterprises.
Want a deeper dive into building a tiered storage architecture for Salesforce? Check out our dedicated blog: Setting Up a Tiered Data Storage Strategy in Salesforce.
5. Automate Your Data Lifecycle Management
You can build automation using Salesforce Flow for simpler scenarios, or use DataArchiva’s scheduler for more complex, multi-object archiving workflows with relationship preservation. Combine this with intelligent threshold alerts and automated purge jobs for data that has passed its retention period, and you have a data lifecycle that practically manages itself.
Automation checklist to get started:
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Automate archiving of inactive records based on status + date criteria.
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Set storage alerts at 75%, 85%, and 95% thresholds.
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Schedule monthly purge jobs for data past its retention period.
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Use field-based filters (e.g., Status = Closed AND LastModifiedDate < 2 years ago) for precise targeting.
6. Optimize File Storage in Salesforce
File storage is one of the fastest-growing and most overlooked parts of Salesforce storage consumption. Attachments, ContentDocument records, emails with large attachments, and files uploaded via Communities or Experience Cloud can consume gigabytes before anyone notices. Salesforce file storage best practices start with a simple audit: use the Storage Usage page to see how much of your allocation is consumed by files versus records.
From there, migrate legacy Attachments to Salesforce Files for better deduplication, and consider offloading large files entirely to external storage. DataArchiva’s file archiving capability allows you to move file storage Salesforce content to AWS S3, Azure, or SharePoint while maintaining native access within the Salesforce interface.
DataArchiva file storage features:
Seamless file archiving to AWS S3, Azure, and SharePoint.
Users access archived files from the standard Salesforce Files interface.
Automatic deduplication to eliminate redundant file copies.
Supports bulk migration of legacy Attachments to external cloud storage.
7. Enforce Data Governance, Quality, and Retention Policies
No amount of archiving fixes a storage problem caused by bad data habits. Duplicate records, junk test data left in production, free-text fields used where picklists should be, bulk API imports without deduplication checks: these are all symptoms of weak Salesforce data management best practices at the governance level.
Start by defining a data stewardship role or team responsible for quality enforcement. Implement duplicate rules and matching rules natively, or use a third-party deduplication tool for more advanced scenarios. Enforce validation rules and required fields to keep incoming data clean. On the retention side, classify records by sensitivity (PII, financial, medical) and set formal retention schedules aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX as applicable.
Salesforce Data Security & Compliance: A Complete Guide
Reduce Salesforce Storage Costs by Over 80% with DataArchiva
Buying more Salesforce storage is expensive and a short-term fix at best. DataArchiva is purpose-built to give Salesforce admins and architects a smarter alternative: a native archiving and external storage platform that integrates directly with your Salesforce org and keeps costs under control as your data grows.
| Storage Option | Best For | DataArchiva Support |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Big Objects | Native, scalable historical data within Salesforce | Full support with relationship preservation, Native connectors, and Easy Salesforce UI access |
| AWS S3 / Azure /Heroku/ GCP | Cost-effective external cloud, analytics-ready | Direct integration via DataArchiva Pro |
| On-Premises Systems | Regulated industries requiring data locality | Secure on-prem archiving with compliance logging |
What makes DataArchiva the go-to choice for Salesforce data archiving best practices:
| Feature | DataArchiva | DataArchiva Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Archiving Destination | Salesforce Big Objects (Native) | AWS, Azure, GCP, Heroku, and On-Prem |
| Platform Type | Native Salesforce archiving | External / Hybrid archiving |
| User Access | Access archived data directly in Salesforce UI | Retrieve archived data from the Salesforce interface |
| Compliance & Automation | Audit logs, retention policies, automated archiving rules | Advanced governance, retention controls, automated lifecycle policies |
Conclusion
Salesforce storage is not a set-it-and-forget-it thing. The seven Salesforce data storage best practices outlined here give you a framework that covers every angle: visibility, archiving, automation, file management, tiered storage, and governance.
Powerful Protection & Backup for Your Critical Business Data within Salesforce
