Estimating the total value of all data on the world's computers and servers is complex and necessarily speculative, because "value" depends on:
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Type of data (personal, commercial, scientific, governmental, etc.)
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Context of use (e.g., strategic military info vs. a YouTube video)
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Marketability (some data is highly private and not for sale; some is duplicative or obsolete)
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Legal/ethical constraints (IP laws, privacy laws, trade secrets)
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Infrastructure & redundancy (lots of data is backup or junk)
Still, let’s approach this in a coarse-grained way:
🧮 Step 1: Estimate the Total Amount of Data
As of 2025, estimates suggest the total amount of digital data in existence is around:
175–200 zettabytes (ZB)
(1 ZB = 1 billion terabytes = 1 trillion gigabytes)
Not all of that is on active servers—some is on personal devices, backups, or offline storage.
💰 Step 2: Estimate Value per Unit
There’s no uniform "per-byte" value, but some coarse benchmarks:
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Personal data (e.g., from social media) is often valued at $0.10–$10 per user/year, depending on monetization strategy.
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Business data (financial, R&D, analytics) can be worth $1,000–$100,000+ per TB or more depending on exclusivity and strategic value.
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Scientific or proprietary datasets (e.g. genomic databases, LLM training data, geospatial data) are high-value but non-liquid.
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Bulk commodity data (logs, backups, spam, surveillance footage) is near-worthless in isolation.
Let’s assume:
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1% of global data has strategic/commercial value
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That 1% (e.g., 2 ZB) is worth, on average, $10,000 per TB
2 ZB = 2 billion TB → 2,000,000,000 TB × $10,000 = $20 quadrillion
That’s the upper bound for high-value data.
⚖️ More Realistic Range
Most estimates from the data economy literature value global data stocks at:
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$3 to $30 trillion annually in indirect economic value (e.g., McKinsey, WEF)
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Valuation of specific datasets (e.g., Google's search index, LLM training sets, government surveillance data) is opaque and indirect
So a reasonable rough total value range might be:
$10 trillion to $20 quadrillion, depending on how you define and monetize "value"
🧾 TL;DR
| Estimate Type | Approx. Value |
|---|---|
| Total digital data | ~200 zettabytes |
| Value of 1% high-value data | $10–$20 quadrillion |
| Broader economic value | $10–$30 trillion annually |
| Liquid market value | Much lower, context-dependent |
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