Disk quota and inode limit are the two main physical limits of a hosting tariff. Disk quota — how many gigabytes you can occupy. Inode limit — how many files and folders you can store. Most clients know the first, few know the second.
What's an inode?
An inode is a metadata structure in the Linux file system. Each file and folder uses one inode (image, video, txt, folder — all one inode each). If your tariff has 10 GB disk quota but a 100,000 inode limit, you can store 100,000 files regardless of total size.
Example: A standard WordPress install uses 1500-3000 files. Adding WooCommerce takes you to 5000-8000. Many plugins and themes — 10,000-30,000. With backups and old versions you can reach 50,000+.
What happens when limits hit?
Disk quota exhausted: new file uploads, incoming emails, new MySQL inserts — all stop. The site is partly or fully broken.
Inode limit exhausted: same as disk quota — you can't create files even with free space available. This is the most frustrating — disk is half empty but you can't create a new file.
Space-saving strategies
Delete old backups and log files — regularly clean public_html/backup/ directories. Remove unneeded images from WordPress media library. Clear cache files weekly via cron. Limit old WordPress revisions — in wp-config: define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5).
For inodes — consolidate many small files (e.g., one JS bundle instead of 1000 separate files).
Checking in cPanel
cPanel sidebar (or "Statistics"): Disk Space Usage (used / total) and File Usage (inodes used).
Sayt.uz practice
Sayt.uz tariffs: Basic Hosting 10 GB + 100K inodes, Pro Hosting 50 GB + 500K inodes, Premium 200 GB + 2M inodes. 12% of clients hit the inode limit once a year (mostly WordPress + many plugins + cache). Solution: clear cache files, optimize old images. Tip: audit hosting yearly — how much disk and inodes are used, where you can save.