---
id: freeing-space.how-does-the-storage-profile-measure-cloud-usage
url: https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/how-does-the-storage-profile-measure-cloud-usage
category: "Freeing up space"
subcategory: "Storage Profile, charts and Home"
question: "How does the Storage Profile know how much I store in my cloud accounts?"
alt_questions:
  - "How much is in my cloud accounts?"
  - "Analyze my cloud storage"
  - "How much does iCloud or Google Drive use?"
  - "Connected cloud accounts section"
  - "Cloud analysis cached for a day"
short_answer: "It reads each linked account's real usage live from the provider and, once analysed, shows file types, recent activity and how much is online-only. Large accounts are sampled and results are cached for a day."
tags: ["storage profile", "cloud", "analysis"]
related: ["https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/what-does-where-it-lives-show", "https://storagestudio.us/faq/freeing-space/what-does-the-storage-profile-free-up-button-do"]
applies_to: "all"
last_reviewed: 2026-10-01
---

# How does the Storage Profile know how much I store in my cloud accounts?

For each cloud service linked to this Mac, it reads the account's real usage live from the provider. Once an account is analysed, it also shows the mix of file types, how much you've touched recently and how much is online-only — already off your disk. iCloud and other synced folders are measured too.

Analysis runs automatically in the background, large accounts are sampled rather than read in full, and results are cached for a day so it isn't repeated constantly. Connecting accounts is covered in the [Cloud accounts FAQ](https://storagestudio.us/faq/cloud-accounts/).