SharePoint Performance Expectations
File Density and Performance
File density (number of files per terabyte) significantly impacts performance.
<50,000 files / TB
Low density – Better performance
~500,000 files / TB
Medium density - Typical performance
>1,000,000 files / TB
High density – Slower performance
Lower file counts with higher data volume generally yield faster migrations and lower API consumption.
What Are Resource Units?
Resource Units (RUs) are how Microsoft measures the cost of API operations. Each action your migration tool performs consumes a specific number of RUs.
Resource Unit Costs for Movebot Migrations
Operation
Resource Units (per file or folder)
Scan Directory (Excluding Permissions and Version History)
2
Create Folder (Non-Delta)
2
File Upload
2
File Download
1
Real-World Example
The following tables provide estimated resource unit (RU) consumption when using one Movebot transfer job to copy a single folder comprising of:
1 TB data
500,000 files
50,000 folders
Each table illustrates how RU usage varies depending on the type of migration — whether migrating into SharePoint, between tenants, within the same tenant, or out of SharePoint.
Migration Into SharePoint (External ➝ SharePoint)
Create Folder
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Upload)
500,000
2
1,000,000
Total
—
—
1,100,000
Migration Between SharePoint Tenants (Tenant-to-Tenant)
Source Tenant (Scan + Transfer Files)
Scan (Folders)
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Download)
500,000
1
500,000
Subtotal
—
—
600,000
Destination Tenant (Create Folders + Transfer Files)
Create Folder
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Upload)
500,000
2
1,000,000
Subtotal
—
—
1,100,000
Total (source + destination): 1,700,000 (RUs)
Migration within a single SharePoint Tenant (Separate App Registrations)
Source App (Scan + Transfer)
Scan (Folders)
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Download)
500,000
1
500,000
Subtotal
—
—
600,000
Destination App (Create + Transfer)
Create Folder
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Upload)
500,000
2
1,000,000
Subtotal
—
—
1,100,000
Total (source + destination): 1,700,000 (RUs)
Migration out of SharePoint (SharePoint ➝ External Platform)
Scan (Folders)
50,000
2
100,000
Transfer Files (Download)
500,000
1
500,000
Total
—
—
600,000
Summary
Scenario
Source RUs
Destination RUs
Total RUs
Into SharePoint (External ➝ SharePoint)
—
1,100,000
1,100,000
Tenant-to-Tenant SharePoint
600,000
1,100,000
1,700,000
Same-Tenant (Separate Apps)
600,000
1,100,000
1,700,000
Out of SharePoint (SharePoint ➝ External)
600,000
—
600,000
Tips and Tricks
These are first-pass estimates. Delta passes will vary based on change volume.
API usage is measured in resource units (RUs), not raw call counts.
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