See the pressure coming.
Plan beyond today’s size.

A trend, not a promise.

Use several comparable measurements to select a growth rate, then revisit the forecast as your workload changes.

Calculation models

Fixed growth: current used GiB + monthly addition × month. Compounded growth: current used GiB × (1 + monthly percentage ÷ 100)^month. Planned capacity multiplies used data by (1 + headroom ÷ 100). Month 0 represents the entered current state.

Reading budget pressure

The tool checks each month from 0 through the selected horizon. A negative budget margin means forecast data plus headroom exceeds the entered storage budget. A separate result shows when data alone exceeds the budget. “Not within horizon” does not mean the budget lasts indefinitely.

Set the right scope

This is an occupied-data forecast, not a SQL file autogrowth simulation. Include index space consistently in your input and growth measurements. File preallocation, filesystem overhead, log growth, backups, replicas, temporary maintenance space and other databases require separate budgets. The percentage headroom is your assumption, not a vendor configuration recommendation.

Both models assume nonnegative steady growth. They do not predict seasonal spikes, purge jobs, index rebuilds, compression changes or migrations. For shrinking or irregular workloads, use a measured capacity plan instead of extrapolating these examples.