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SSD Endurance Calculator: How Long Will Your SSD Last?

Estimate your SSD or NVMe lifespan from TBW or DWPD, daily writes, and write amplification. Built for homelab, Proxmox/ZFS, and NVR write loads.

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Estimated lifespan by workload (this drive)

WorkloadWrites/dayEst. lifespanYour DWPD

Lifespan is endurance divided by write rate: years = TBW × 1000 ÷ (daily GB × WAF × 365). TBW is a conservative warranty figure — independent tests routinely run consumer SSDs well past their rating before failure, and hitting TBW usually voids the warranty rather than bricking the drive. Set the write amplification factor above 1 for ZFS/Btrfs, databases, or heavy small-write logging, where real NAND writes exceed what the OS reports. Treat results as planning numbers, not a death clock — and keep backups.

How to use this calculator

Enter your drive’s capacity and its endurance rating — either as TBW (terabytes written, common on consumer SSDs) or as DWPD (drive writes per day, common on enterprise drives) plus the warranty period. Then set how much you write per day (pick a workload preset or enter your own) and, optionally, a write amplification factor. The calculator returns the estimated lifespan in years, your effective write rate in DWPD, and how much endurance you burn per year.

The defaults model a 1 TB TLC SSD (600 TBW) on a moderate homelab load. For an accurate result, use your drive’s real rated TBW or DWPD from its spec sheet.

TBW vs. DWPD — same rating, two units

Manufacturers express SSD endurance two ways. TBW is the total terabytes you can write over the warranty; DWPD is how many full-capacity overwrites per day the drive tolerates for the warranty period. They’re interchangeable:

TBW = DWPD × capacity (TB) × 365 × warranty years

So a 1 TB drive at 0.3 DWPD over a 5-year warranty is rated for 0.3 × 1 × 365 × 5 ≈ 548 TBW. Consumer drives usually quote TBW; datacenter drives quote DWPD because they’re built for constant rewriting. This tool accepts either and shows both.

Write amplification — the homelab multiplier

Your endurance is consumed by what the NAND flash actually writes, not what your OS reports. Because flash erases in large blocks, a small logical write can force a larger physical one — that ratio is the write amplification factor (WAF). Plain desktop use sits near 1; copy-on-write filesystems (ZFS, Btrfs), databases, and chatty logging push it to 2–10x. A WAF of 3 burns your TBW three times faster, so set it if you run ZFS or VM workloads on Proxmox — it’s the difference between “lasts decades” and “lasts a few years.”

What this pairs with

If your big write load is video, the Frigate NVR storage calculator estimates the GB/day a camera setup writes — plug that number in here to size an endurance-appropriate drive. And if you’re protecting that data, the Proxmox Backup Server 3-2-1 guide covers doing it right.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate how long an SSD will last?
Divide the drive’s endurance rating (TBW, terabytes written) by how much you write per year. The formula is: lifespan in years = TBW × 1000 ÷ (daily writes in GB × 365). A 1 TB drive rated for 600 TBW, written 80 GB/day, lasts about 20 years (600,000 GB ÷ 29,200 GB/year). This calculator does that math and also accounts for write amplification, which makes real NAND writes higher than what your OS reports.
What is TBW and how is it different from DWPD?
TBW (Terabytes Written) is the total data you can write to the drive over its warranty before endurance runs out. DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) is the same rating expressed as how many times you can overwrite the full capacity every day for the warranty period. They convert directly: TBW = DWPD × capacity (TB) × 365 × warranty years. Consumer SSDs are usually rated in TBW; enterprise drives in DWPD. This calculator accepts either.
How many TBW does a typical SSD have?
It scales with capacity and tier. Consumer TLC drives are commonly rated around 600 TBW per 1 TB (e.g., ~600 TBW for 1 TB, ~1,200 for 2 TB). Budget QLC drives are lower (often ~200–400 TBW/TB), and enterprise/datacenter drives are far higher (1+ DWPD, often thousands of TBW). Always check your specific model’s spec sheet — endurance varies widely even at the same capacity, especially between TLC and QLC NAND.
What is write amplification and why does it matter for SSD life?
Write amplification (WAF) is the ratio of actual flash writes to the data your system asked to write. Because SSDs erase in large blocks, a small logical write can trigger a bigger physical write, so WAF is usually above 1. Copy-on-write filesystems like ZFS and Btrfs, databases, and heavy small-write logging push it higher (sometimes 2–10x). It matters because endurance is consumed by NAND writes, not host writes — a WAF of 3 burns through TBW three times faster, which this calculator lets you model.
Will my SSD really die when it hits its TBW rating?
Usually not immediately. TBW is a conservative warranty figure; independent endurance tests have run consumer SSDs well past their rated TBW — often several times over — before failure. Hitting TBW typically voids the warranty rather than bricking the drive, and many drives switch to read-only or start reallocating sectors as a warning first. Treat TBW as a planning number, not a death clock, but do have backups before you rely on a drive past its rating.
Is SSD write endurance something a homelab needs to worry about?
For most homelabs, light to moderate workloads (10–80 GB/day) give a typical 600 TBW drive 20+ years of life — longer than you’ll keep the hardware. Where it bites is high-write workloads: NVR/surveillance recording, busy databases, ZFS with high write amplification, or running VMs/containers with chatty logging on a small QLC drive. Those can consume a low-endurance drive in a few years, so size endurance to the workload — that’s exactly what this tool helps you check.