rclone Size

rclone size counts the total number of objects (files) and their combined size at the given path. It provides a quick, human-readable summary without listing individual files.

Quick Summary

Use size to check how much data is stored at a remote path before running transfers, to verify backup sizes, or to monitor storage consumption in scripts.

Basic Syntax

rclone size REMOTE:PATH [flags]

# Check size of a remote bucket
rclone size remote:my-bucket

# Check size of a specific path
rclone size remote:my-bucket/backups/2024

# Check local directory size
rclone size /var/www/html

Output Example

Total objects: 12,345
Total size: 4.567 GiB (4903281344 Bytes)

Key Flags

Flag	Description
--json	Output as JSON (for scripts)
--include PATTERN	Only count files matching pattern
--exclude PATTERN	Exclude files from count
--min-size SIZE	Only count files larger than SIZE
--max-size SIZE	Only count files smaller than SIZE

Practical Examples

Check Backup Size

# How big is today's backup?
rclone size remote:backups/daily/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

Monitor Storage Usage

# Check total storage used per top-level directory
for dir in $(rclone lsf remote:my-bucket --dirs-only); do
  echo -n "${dir}: "
  rclone size "remote:my-bucket/${dir}" --json | jq -r '.bytes | . / 1073741824 | floor | tostring + " GB"'
done

JSON Output for Scripts

rclone size remote:my-bucket --json

{
  "count": 12345,
  "bytes": 4903281344
}

Size of Specific File Types

# How much space do log files use?
rclone size remote:my-bucket --include "*.log"

# How much space do images use?
rclone size remote:media --include "*.{jpg,png,gif,webp}"

Pre-Transfer Check

# Check source size before starting a large copy
echo "Source size:"
rclone size /var/www/html
echo "Available at destination:"
rclone about remote:my-bucket

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall	Consequence	Prevention
Running on a huge bucket	Slow — must enumerate all objects	Use --include to narrow scope
GiB vs GB confusion	1 GiB = 1.074 GB — sizes may seem "wrong"	Note rclone uses binary units (GiB)
API costs on object storage	Listing operations charged per request	Be mindful of frequency with large buckets

What's Next

Examples with Output

1. Check total size of a bucket

Get a quick summary of object count and storage usage. Command:

rclone size gdrive:Backups

Output:

Total objects: 1500
Total size: 45.2 GiB (48534123456 Byte)

2. Size of specific file types

Calculate how much space only your images are consuming. Command:

rclone size remote:media --include "*.jpg"

Output:

Total objects: 250
Total size: 1.2 GiB (1288490188 Byte)

3. Exclude large files from count

Determine size without including heavy archive files. Command:

rclone size remote:bucket --max-size 100M

Output:

Total objects: 1200
Total size: 5 GiB (5368709120 Byte)

4. Check size for recently modified files

See how much data was added in the last 24 hours. Command:

rclone size remote:bucket --max-age 24h

Output:

Total objects: 12
Total size: 150 MiB (157286400 Byte)

5. Machine-readable size output

Use JSON format for easy parsing in scripts or dashboards. Command:

rclone size remote:bucket --json

Output:

{"count":1500,"bytes":48534123456}