Short answer
The figures you see at the top-right of SharePoint Online ▸ Admin centre ▸ Active sites (and the matching bar in the Microsoft 365 admin centre > Reports > Storage) are not real-time.
Microsoft runs a background job that recalculates tenant storage once a day, and the UI deliberately ignores anything that happened in the last 24–48 hours. So, after you add or delete content, expect the “Free / Used” numbers to refresh within a day and sometimes up to two days later. (learn.microsoft.com)
Why the delay?
| What happens | When it really counts against (or is freed from) your quota |
|---|---|
| Uploads / new versions | Immediately counted, but the admin-centre display waits for the next daily calculation. |
| Delete to first-stage Recycle Bin | Still counted. |
| Empty first-stage → moves to second-stage Recycle Bin | Still counted. |
| Empty second-stage Recycle Bin (or 93-day auto-purge) | Space is released, but only appears in the UI after the 24-48 h timer job finishes. |
“Storage usage doesn’t include changes made within the last 24-48 hours.” — Microsoft Learn (learn.microsoft.com)
Microsoft uses this lag so that very large moves/deletes don’t force expensive quota recalculations every few minutes across the service.
How to see more up-to-date numbers while you wait
| Scope | Where to look | Typical freshness |
|---|---|---|
| Individual site | Site Settings ▸ Storage Metrics (/_layouts/15/StorMan.aspx) | Near real-time; shows the live size of every library/folder/file. (learn.microsoft.com) |
| Site list in SharePoint admin centre | Active sites grid, Storage used (GB) column | Same daily job as the tenant bar — expect the same 24-48 h lag. |
| PowerShell / Graph | Get-SPOSite -StorageUsageCurrent, Graph /sites/{id}/drive | Usually updates a little sooner than the UI, but ultimately relies on the same service-side calculation. |
(There is no supported way to “force” an immediate recalculation for the whole tenant.)
Practical tips
- Empty both recycle bins (first and second stage) before you start the clock.
- Wait at least 24 h before trusting the tenant bar; give it 48 h for very large changes.
- If you must act sooner (for example, to decide whether you really need to buy extra storage), open each heavy-hitter site’s Storage Metrics page or script against
Get-SPOSiteto see the live footprint. - Remember that version history, thumbnails, and Teams recordings all contribute to storage — trimming versions or moving recordings to Stream/OneDrive can free space without waiting for recycle-bin retention.
Bottom line
The storage numbers in the SharePoint Online admin centre are refreshed by a scheduled job about once every 24 hours; the UI intentionally shows data that can be up to 48 hours behind real usage. If you need instant figures, use the Storage Metrics page at the site level while the tenant totals catch up.