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How Max a Database Can Be

Create Tablespace in a Database

Maximum Size Limit of a Database

After knowing how big a data file can be and how big a tablespace can be in previous posts, we can continue to calculate how big a database can be. According to the physical database limits, we can have at most 65533 data files or 64000 tablespaces in a database. Additionally, we should also consider the type of data file and the block size to calculate theoretical maximum database size.

Here are quick reference tables for maximum size limits of SMALLFILE and BIGFILE tablespaces.

Databases with Pure SMALLFILE Data Files

Maximum Size Limit of a Database with Pure SMALLFILE Data Files
Block Size (KB)Data File Max Size (GB)Max Data FilesDatabase Max Size (PB)
416655331
832655332
1664655334
32128655338

Databases with Pure BIGFILE Data Files

Since there's only one data file is allowed in a bigfile tablespace, so we use the limit of maximum tablespaces in a database to calculate the maximum size.

Maximum Size Limit of a Database with Pure BIGFILE Data Files
Block Size (KB)Data File Max Size (TB)Max TablespacesDatabase Max Size (PB) ★
416640001000
832640002000
1664640004000
32128640008000

★ Conventionally, we take binary prefix instead of decimal prefix as the byte unit multiple to calculate the physical space, so 1000 PB here means 1000 PiB (Pebibyte) which does not equal to 1 EiB (Exbibyte).

Please note that, the maximum database sizes we calculated above are just theoretical figures, don't take them too seriously. And I believe no one knows the exact boundaries, do you?

Further reading: How to Check Oracle Database Size?

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