Select a base image and enter application and dependency layer sizes to estimate final image size, pull time, and registry storage cost with and without multi-stage builds.
Calculations run locally in your browser
Tool
Example — Representative default scenario — base MB 120 · deps MB 180 · app MB 40.
Base image
7 MB
alpine
Total image size
257 MB
single stage
Savings vs single-stage
0 MB
use multi-stage
Attack surface
Medium
About this tool
Container Image Size Estimator
The Container Image Size Estimator computes final image size from base image selection and layer sizes, with multi-stage build comparison, pull time, and registry cost modeling.
• Estimate image size before building to choose between Alpine and Debian Slim base
• Calculate cold start latency improvement from switching to a smaller base image
• Model registry storage cost for a fleet of microservices with N image versions retained
• Quantify multi-stage build size savings before investing in Dockerfile refactoring
Next step
Continue with Utility Matrix tools for the next decision in this workflow.
The Container Image Size Estimator computes final image size from base image selection and layer sizes, with multi-stage build comparison, pull time, and registry cost modeling.
What affects the result most?
Base image size comparison: alpine (~7MB), distroless/static (~2MB), ubuntu (~70MB), node:20 (~1GB). Multi-stage build savings: build stage with full toolchain discarded, only runtime artifact copied. Layer deduplication: shared base layers across images reduce registry storage and pull time.
How should I use the result?
The calculation is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same output — so the most useful workflow is to vary one input at a time and see which factor moves the result most. That tells you where to focus your attention before committing to a decision.