Sui pays you back when you delete your data

How the Storage Fund Works

Every transaction on @SuiNetwork carries two costs: a computation fee and a storage fee. While the computation portion goes straight to validators as normal, the storage component is handled differently. Storage fees collected during transactions go into a storage fund rather than being distributed directly to validators.

The storage fund resolves the long-term cost problem by collecting fees at the time of data creation and redistributing them to validators throughout the entire time the data is stored on-chain. The fund is staked each epoch, allowing its staking rewards to help compensate active validators. In practical terms, the storage fund is a tool for shifting gas fees across different epochs, ensuring that future validators are compensated for their storage costs by the past users who created those storage requirements in the first place.

Delete Your Data, Get Your $SUI Back

The more user-facing feature of this system is the rebate mechanism. In the Sui storage fund model, users pay up front for the cost of storing data in perpetuity but can also get a partial rebate on previously stored data if that data is deleted. The rebateable amount equals 99% of the storage fees, while the non-rebateable amount equals the remaining 1%.

The type of data that can be deleted includes data corresponding to objects that are no longer live, such as an NFT's metadata, tickets that have been redeemed, or auctions that have concluded. It is worth noting that the deletion option should not be confused with deleting past transactions. Activity on Sui is finalized at each epoch boundary and past transactions are immutable and can never be reversed.

There is one firm limitation: immutable objects cannot be deleted. Any $SUI locked into storage fees for those objects does not come back.

The mechanics of the storage fund also incentivize users to delete data when the cost of storing it exceeds the value of keeping it on-chain, introducing a market-based mechanism that encourages users to free up space when it is no longer useful. This has a broader supply effect: as the fund grows, it holds a larger share of the total $SUI supply, effectively removing it from active circulation. With total supply capped at 10 billion, any sustained reduction in circulating tokens against steady or growing demand creates upward pressure on price.

Sources:
Sui Documentation: Gas Fees and Storage Rebate
Sui Blog: All About Storage Fees
Sui Blog: Sui's Storage Fund Demystified