Capacity & Throughput

Message Capacity

Per Block

Metric	Value
Block size limit	10 MB
PMQ slot	5 MB
SMQ slot	5 MB
Max message size	8 KB
Messages per block	~1,280 max

Per Day

Metric	Calculation	Value
Message blocks/day	7,200 (every 12 sec)	7,200
Max messages/day	7,200 × 1,280	~9.2 million
Max data/day	7,200 × 10 MB	~72 GB

Realistic Throughput

Actual throughput depends on message sizes:

Avg Message Size	Messages/Block	Messages/Day
100 bytes	~100,000	~720 million
1 KB	~10,000	~72 million
4 KB	~2,500	~18 million
8 KB (max)	~1,280	~9.2 million

Latency

Scenario	Time
PMQ (low competition)	6-12 seconds
PMQ (high competition)	6-12 seconds (if top bid)
SMQ (empty queue)	6-12 seconds
SMQ (busy queue)	Variable (FIFO wait)
Finality	~13 minutes (2 epochs)

Queue Limits

Queue	Mempool Size	Blocks Buffered
PMQ	40 MB	~8 blocks
SMQ	40 MB	~8 blocks

When full, new messages are rejected until space opens.

Growth Projections

Timeframe	Cumulative Data
1 month	~2.2 TB
6 months	~13 TB
1 year	~26 TB
5 years	~130 TB

This is why sharded archives matter.