What is Space Amplification?

Space amplification is the ratio between the actual disk space RocksDB's data files consume and the true logical size of the data currently stored.

• Occurs because outdated versions of a key, and tombstones marking deletions, can persist on disk until compaction removes them
• Compaction styles that delay merging more aggressively, like universal compaction, tend to have higher space amplification while that data waits to be cleaned up
• Can be reduced through more frequent or more aggressive compaction, at the cost of increased write amplification

Like the other two amplification metrics, this reflects a genuine trade-off rather than something that can simply be eliminated, tuning RocksDB means choosing which of these costs matters most for a given workload.

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