Filecoin storage providers use cryptographically hashed containers—known as sectors—to store data. Each sector can hold either 32 GiB or 64 GiB of data, depending on the storage provider’s configuration. Filecoin storage providers use a process known as sealing to transfer data into a sector.
Cost-effective cloud storage that is reliable and secure
Leverage the distributed cloud: flexibility and scale without compromise.
The benefits of Filecoin cloud storage

Data Integrity
Content addressing and cryptographic storage proofs verify data is being stored correctly and securely over time.

Security
Filecoin's blockchain technology leverages immutability and decentralization to provide storage that is more tamper resistant to malware and bad actor exploits than traditional storage.

Cost
The cost of storage has proven to be beyond 95% lower on a per-gigabyte basis than today’s market rates for Web2-based public cloud storage providers

Availability
Because organizations can specify the level of resiliency they need to meet availability requirements, they have the flexibility to go far beyond what any Web2-based public cloud storage provider will guarantee
Data Integrity:
Content addressing and cryptographic storage proofs verify data is being stored correctly and securely over time.
Security:
Filecoin’s blockchain technology leverages immutability and decentralization to provide storage that is more tamper resistant to malware and bad actor exploits than traditional block- or file-based storage.
Availability:
Because organizations can specify the level of resiliency they need to meet availability requirements, they have the flexibility to go far beyond what any Web2-based public cloud storage provider will guarantee
Cost:
The cost of storage has proven to be beyond 95% lower on a per-gigabyte basis than today’s market rates for Web2-based public cloud storage providers (and can even be free in some cases).
NETWORK CAPACITY
CLIENTS ONBOARDED
Cryptographic proofs guarantee your data remains available and unchanged over time
HOW IT WORKS
Solution Discovery
Large data archival for enterprise and research
Researchers and companies needing to store large data sets are often met with high fees. As an alternative to costly cloud storage, the Filecoin network offers efficiently priced and geographically decentralized storage, minimizing financial barriers and reducing the risk of data comprimization by having data stored across multiple nodes, instead of a central network.

Scientists spend 80% of their time managing and preparing data. GenRAIT uses the Filecoin network as their default archive for non-sensitive genomics and scientific research data, so scientists can spend more time analyzing the data than uploading it.

UC Berkeley Underground Physics Group partnered with Seal Storage, a decentralized cloud storage product built on Filecion, to store their neutrino physics research data. Putting this data on Filecoin’s blockchain ensures it is verifiable and will help support the development of a novel detection technology.
Preserving humanity’s most important information
With misinformation running rampant in the current media landscape, it’s more important than ever to have a safe place to store data. Storing on the Filecoin network ensures that the data is verifiably true, and prevents it from being deleted or tampered with by malicious players.

Starling lab and USC Shoah foundation built an immutable archive of genocide survivor testimonals from the Holocaust on Filecoin to make sure this historical time will never be erased.

The Internet Archive is leveraging Filecoin to store a decentralized copy of their entire archive, enabling it to be censorship resistant. The latest project is digitizing historical films to preserve records of daily life and culture.
Ownership of digital assets
Transparent ownership of data is a core belief for the web3 community but the technical ins and outs of uploading data, especially for the creative web3 community, can still be a barrier to participation. Creatives, collectors and developers rely on products built on Filecoin to making storying NFTs easy and safe.

NFT.Storage helps NFT developers utilize APIs and lays out the best best practices for storing their NFT data securely and resiliently. It is used to store over 90M NFTs.

Opensea trusts Filecoin storage to provide their creators with a seamless NFT media file uploading experience. Users can rest easy knowing that their files will be replicated throughout the distributed web and immediately available via IPFS, so they can focus on creating media while leave incentivised storage providers handle the rest.”
Frequently Asked Questions
The cost will depend either on the product you are using to store data or the storage provider. Thanks to staggering economies of scale, competition between providers, and incentive programs like Fil+, the cost of storage has proven to be beyond 95% lower on a per-gigabyte basis than today’s market rates for Web2-based public cloud storage providers (and can even be free in some cases).
The cost of retrieving data from the Filecoin network varies by storage provider. Clients and storage providers can and should specify the cost of data retrieval when developing the initial contract documents.
Enterprises with large datasets choose Filecoin data storage for several reasons:
Content-based access ensures data integrity and verifiability
Replication methodology ensures availability and durability of data
Native immutability provides an organic hedge against ransomware
Storage providers can be chosen based on location, add-on services provided, security certifications, cost, and other factors
Filecoin storage is significantly less expensive than Web2 storage options
In addition to long-term backup and archive data sets, Filecoin is extensively used for a wide variety of use cases including digital archives, public data sets, research data, and genomics archives. Educational organizations use it for massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other education data sets. Enterprise organizations use the ecosystem for business analytics and as an alternative to tape backups. Other uses include non-fungible token (NFT) storage, surveillance data, drone data, and other Web3 workloads. It is also very effective for Web2 applications like climate analysis and historical internet archives.
Filecoin integration is offered on a protocol by protocol and case by case basis. Due to the robust service provider options there are many different integrations that are provided to data owners in the network.
There are thousands of storage nodes distributed across the globe. storage providers can allow their customers to determine the geographical distribution of data so it can stay within certain countries or regions and thereby meet various data sovereignty requirements that Web2-based public cloud providers cannot.
Filecoin uses replication and auditing to ensure data durability. Data replicated six times—for example—could yield in excess of twenty 9s of data durability. (The data durability of traditional Web2 storage yields only eleven 9s.) Daily auditing increases durability by immediately revealing any data corruption, providing the opportunity to replace corrupted data with non-corrupted replicas.
The contract length for a Filecoin storage deal typically ranges from 6-18 months. Clients wishing to store data for longer than 18 months can renew their contracts at the end of the initial term, akin to renewing a contract with a traditional Web2 storage provider.
Storage providers can use various methods to keep data secure, and typically work with enterprise clients to determine the right combination of security measures. Security measures or services may include:
Data-at-rest encryption services
TLS/SSL encryption support for data in flight
Secure data transport through sneakernet-style options (for large datasets; akin to an AWS Snowball)
Filecoin developers use a combination of methods to keep the Filecoin network secure. These tactics include:
Using secure development processes
Conducting security-focused training sessions
Funding independent security research by third parties
Filecoin developers also engage with reputable auditing firms to complete theory audits, designed to ensure that the theory behind the Filecoin protocol and its implementation is delivering the intended value.
Enterprises can maintain data privacy using one or more methods to control access. These privacy tactics include:
Self-encrypting data prior to placing it on the Filecoin network
Using a wallet-based encryption scheme such as Lit Protocol to enable client-side encryption
Using dedicated storage hardware with data retrievals disabled
Setting retrieval costs to be so high that no retrieval attempts are made
Storage providers hold security certifications directly, with different storage providers pursuing different certificates. Storage providers may be certified or specialize in SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, or another security framework. Clients with specific security or regulatory requirements can seek out storage providers with the relevant qualifications or certificates.
Filecoin storage providers can support data access auditing upon request. Storage providers can retain and supply data access logs to clients, provided that the client indicates a preference in advance for receiving this type of information.
Storage providers can use various methods to keep data secure, and typically work with enterprise clients to determine the right combination of security measures. Security measures or services may include:
Data-at-rest encryption services
TLS/SSL encryption support for data in flight
Secure data transport through sneakernet-style options (for large datasets; akin to an AWS Snowball)
Filecoin developers use a combination of methods to keep the Filecoin network secure. These tactics include:
Using secure development processes
Conducting security-focused training sessions
Funding independent security research by third parties
Filecoin developers also engage with reputable auditing firms to complete theory audits, designed to ensure that the theory behind the Filecoin protocol and its implementation is delivering the intended value.
Today there are more than 17 EiBs of capacity available on the Filecoin network. With a monthly growth rate of roughly 1% per month of capacity coming online, the Filecoin network continues to grow and scale at unprecedented rates.
Storage providers participating in the Filecoin network can earn Filecoin (FIL) tokens in addition to fiat currency. Filecoin storage providers are rewarded with FIL for providing storage capacity to the Filecoin network. Other ways for storage providers to earn income may include:
Providing auxiliary services to clients such as compute over data
Providing services to other storage providers such as sealing and replication
Charging a data storage fee in fiat currency
Bringing data storage deals to the Filecoin network
Participating in Filecoin special incentive programs such as Filecoin Plus, Moon Landing, Slingshot, and Evergreen
Filecoin is a blockchain-based decentralized storage network that is built from an ecosystem of service providers compensated through cryptocurrency (FIL).
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol for storing and sharing hypermedia data in a distributed file system used for storing and accessing information.
Protocol Labs (PL) is an open-source research and development lab that builds protocols, tools, and services such as IPFS, LibP2P, and Filecoin to radically improve the internet.
The Filecoin ecosystem is adding compute-over-data capabilities in multiple ways. The launch in 2022 of the Filecoin Virtual Machine was a major step forward for compute functionality on Filecoin. In addition, a compute layer between Filecoin and IPFS is currently being deployed for a variety of use cases. Some storage providers are also developing proprietary compute-over-data services.