Site & subsite storage
Largest SharePoint sites, including subsites
Where the tenant's storage has actually gone, ranked. The SharePoint admin centre gives you site collection totals; this goes a level deeper and measures nested subsites individually, which is where a surprising amount of a large tenant tends to hide.
What it tells you
- Which sites and subsites are the largest, ranked, with the parent each one sits under.
- Each web's own storage separately from the inclusive site collection total, so you can add the figures up without double counting.
- How much of a site is recycle bin rather than live content.
- How the number was arrived at, per row, so a figure you doubt can be traced.
How it runs
- Sign in and choose sites. Clicking the tile asks which account to use and how to connect, signs you in if you are not already, and drops you straight on the site list. No feature page asks you to connect a second time.
- Say how deep to go. Subsites are a choice on the options page, not a tick box buried in the picker. Deeper costs more time.
- It measures. Every site and subsite is measured directly from its libraries and lists. SharePoint's admin total, where it can be read, is shown as the inclusive site collection total and used only as a cross-check; it never replaces a measurement. Each row records how it was measured.
- Save the workbook. Ranked sheets, plus the working behind the ranking.
How it works
The run has four stages. First, where your sign-in allows it, the tenant's own storage figure for each site collection is fetched from the SharePoint admin centre; those totals include subsites. Second, each site collection is opened and its subsites are found level by level, a few site collections at a time. Third, every site and subsite is measured directly, one at a time. Fourth, if you asked for them, the recycle bins and the list of deleted sites are read.
Measuring a site means reading the storage figure of each visible list and library, which includes version history, and adding them up. Hidden lists are left out, except the Preservation Hold Library when you include it. Where a library's figure is inconclusive, its current files are added up instead, which does not include older versions. The optional file level scan adds up every file, and every retained version when that option is on. Each row's measurement source says which of these produced its figure.
Every site is measured directly whether or not the admin centre figure is available. The admin centre figure is kept beside it as a check, and the Storage sources sheet shows how the two reconcile. A site that cannot be measured stays in the workbook as Not measured with the reason, and the run carries on. If subsites cannot be listed, a warning is recorded and the rest continue.
Recycle bins are read once per site collection, first and second stage separately, and are reported beside the live storage, never added into it. The deleted sites list needs the SharePoint administrator role and carries no size figure. Rows are ranked largest first. Sheets that list individual files continue onto a further sheet past Excel's row limit rather than being cut off, and the workbook goes into History when the run ends.
What you get
An Excel workbook, named like site-and-subsite-storage-20260901-142207.xlsx, kept in Report History whether or not you save it. Sites & subsites is the sheet most people want. The others exist so a number you doubt can be traced back.
Sites & subsites sheet
Every web, ranked by size, with its parent and depth.
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Rank | 1 |
| Site / subsite | Marketing archive |
| Type | Subsite |
| Site collection | Marketing |
| Parent site | Marketing |
| Depth | 1 |
| Storage used (GB) | 212.4 |
| Measurement source | Detailed library/list breakdown |
| URL | https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing/archive |
| Status | Measured |
Site collections sheet
One row per site collection, with its inclusive total.
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Rank | 1 |
| Site collection | Marketing |
| URL | https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing |
| Total storage (GB) | 640.2 |
| Subsites found | 6 |
| Status | Measured |
Recycle bins sheet
How much of each site is deleted content waiting to expire.
What you need
- Read access to the sites in scope.
- The SharePoint administrator role for tenant-wide figures and for the admin-API storage totals. Without it you can still measure the sites you can reach.
What it will not do
- Storage figures reported by Microsoft settle over time. Two runs a day apart can differ slightly on the same unchanged site, which is why every row carries when it was measured.
- Site collection totals include their subsites. The Sites & subsites sheet is where the per-web split lives. Mixing the two is the one easy way to double count.
- A deep run over a large tenant is a long run. It reports as it goes rather than going quiet.