Why This Is Useful
Most Salesforce records cost you 2KB of data storage each, regardless of how many fields you’ve actually filled in. Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, your custom objects, all 2KB a pop.
Storage is one of the more annoying things to run out of, because the fix is usually either archiving data somebody insists they need or writing Salesforce a cheque.
But here’s the thing not enough people know: some standard objects take up zero storage. Not “less.” Zero.
The Proof
The Asset object is one of them, and I tested this properly rather than taking Salesforce’s word for it.
In a Developer Edition org with a 5MB data storage limit, sitting at 4.3MB used (86%), I ran this in the Developer Console:
SELECT COUNT() FROM Asset70,000 Asset records.
Do the maths on that. 70,000 × 2KB = 140,000KB, which is 140MB of data in an org with a 5MB limit.
The storage usage page didn’t budge. Those 70,000 records cost exactly nothing.
Where To Find The Rest
Asset isn’t the only one, and the list shifts between releases, so rather than me giving you a list that goes stale, go check yours directly:
Setup → Storage Usage
That page breaks your usage down by record type. Anything with a meaningful record count but no corresponding storage is one of the free ones. It’s the only source that’s guaranteed current for your org.
Salesforce also documents the general rules in their storage allocation help article, which is worth a skim if you’re planning a data model.
Should You Actually Exploit This?
Carefully, and with your eyes open.
If you’re already using Assets for what Assets are for, brilliant, you’ve got a genuinely free ride and you should stop worrying about the volume.
But please don’t go bending the Asset object into some unrelated logging table just to dodge storage costs. Standard objects come with page layouts, standard fields, standard behaviour and reporting that all assume you’re using them as intended. Misuse one and you’ve traded a storage bill for a maintenance headache and a very confused developer in two years’ time.
If what you actually need is somewhere cheap to put a huge volume of data, the purpose-built answer is Big Objects, which are designed for exactly that and don’t count against your normal storage either.
So: know about the free objects, take advantage where it genuinely fits, and don’t get clever.
Go have a look at your Storage Usage page. There might be a discount sitting in there you didn’t know about.
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Salesforce Development Books I Recommend
Advanced Apex Programming
Salesforce Lightning Platform Enterprise Architecture
Mastering Salesforce DevOps
Good Non-SF Specific Development Books:
Clean Code
Clean Architecture
