4 Ways to Check File Size in Linux

Many Linux users ask questions like: “How can I check the size of a file in Linux?” or “What’s the best way to find out how much space a directory occupies?”

In this guide, we’ll cover four practical methods to check file size in Linux using the du, ls, stat, and find commands—each with real command examples and their output.

Key Takeaways: How to Check File Size in Linux

• du command → Shows how much disk space a file or directory is actually using. This is your best choice for checking real storage usage.
• ls command → Lists files and directories and displays their apparent size along with details like permissions and ownership. Best for a quick glance at file sizes in a directory.
• stat command → Provides detailed file information, including the exact size in bytes and metadata.
• find command → Helps you locate files by size, name, or type, making it easy to search for large or small files across directories.

Tip: Use du -sh for directories, ls -lh for quick file size checks, stat -c "%s" for exact byte counts, and find / -size +100M to locate large files.

In Linux, everything is a file. A file isn’t only text files, images, and compiled programs—it also includes partitions, hardware device drivers, and directories. This article uses text files as examples. If you want to check your disk size instead, see this article.

The following commands can be used to check file size:

Command	What it does
du -h filename	Check the size of the specified file
du -sh dir	Check the size of a directory, including its subdirectories
ls -lh filename	Check the size of the specified file
ls -lh *	Check the size of all files in the current directory
ls -alh *	Check the size of all files, including hidden files
ls -alh dir/	Check the size of all files (incl. hidden) in dir

Quick procedure to check file size in Linux

1. Open the terminal application.
2. Change into the directory where the file is located with the cd command.
3. Type du -h filename.
4. Press Enter to run the command.
5. The output displays the size of the file.

The -h option prints the size in a human-readable format (e.g., 1K, 234M, 2G).

Method 1: Check file size with the du command

The most reliable way to check the real disk usage of a file in Linux is the du command. Change into the directory where the file is located, then run du -h with the file name. The size is shown in the first column, in human-readable units (bytes, KB, MB, GB, and so on).

Here’s how Red Hat describes it:

The du command summarizes disk usage of each file and, recursively, for each directory. It offers many helpful options individually or in combination.

Check the size of a single file

cd ~
du -h test

Output:

See also: Mastering the Linux Command Line — Your Complete Free Training Guide

4.0K    test

You can also pass the full path instead of changing directories first:

du -h ~/test

Output:

4.0K    /home/howtouselinux/test

Here ~ means the home directory in Linux. From the output, the size of the file test is 4.0K.

Extract just the size in a bash script

filesize=$(du -h /etc/passwd | awk '{ print $1 }')
echo "$filesize"

Output:

4.0K

Check the size of every file in the current directory

du -h *

Check the size of a directory

Can du also measure a whole directory? Yes. To get the size of a directory in Linux, use du -sh. The -s (summary) flag prints a single total for the directory rather than listing every file and subdirectory inside it—the most efficient way to size a directory:

du -sh /home/howtouselinux
du -sh /etc/

Output:

48K     /home/howtouselinux
46M     /etc/

Without -s, du walks the tree and reports each subdirectory. Compare the raw (kilobyte) output with the human-readable version:

du /home/howtouselinux

Output:

40000   /home/howtouselinux/downloads
4096    /home/howtouselinux/.mozilla/plugins
4096    /home/howtouselinux/.mozilla/extensions

du -h /home/howtouselinux

Output:

40K     /home/howtouselinux/downloads
4.0K    /home/howtouselinux/.mozilla/plugins
4.0K    /home/howtouselinux/.mozilla/extensions

In short: use du -h filename for a single file and du -sh dir for a directory:

du -h /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
du -sh /etc/

Output:

96K     /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
46M     /etc/

If you’re unsure when to use du versus df, we summarized all the differences here.

Method 2: Get file size with the ls command

Use ls -lh to see a file’s size in human-readable format (bytes, KB, MB, GB).

Note: you cannot use ls to measure a directory’s total size—that’s a key difference between ls and du.

The ls command is one of the most basic commands in Linux; it prints the contents of a directory. By default it lists names only, but flags reveal more, such as file permissions and the file owner:

• -l lists files in long format (size, owner, group, permissions, etc.).
• -h shows the size in human-readable format.
• -S sorts the files by size, largest first—handy for finding big files.

Long format shows the size in bytes

ls -l test.txt

Output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 987 Apr 12 13:37 test.txt

The 987 is the file size in bytes.

Human-readable format

For larger files, add -h so the size is easier to read:

ls -lh backup.tar

Output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 987M Apr 12 13:37 backup.tar

Here 987M means roughly 987 megabytes. (For a small file like the 987-byte test.txt above, ls -lh simply prints 987, since it’s under one kilobyte.)

Listing a whole directory

ls -l

Output:

total 176
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  683 Aug 19 09:59 0001.pcap
-rw-------. 1 root root 1586 Jul 31 02:17 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Jul 31 02:48 Desktop

ls -lh

Output:

total 176K
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  683 Aug 19 09:59 0001.pcap
-rw-------. 1 root root 1.6K Jul 31 02:17 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4.0K Jul 31 02:48 Desktop

ls vs du: why the sizes can differ

Linux supports a file type called a sparse file—a file with “holes” that contain no actual data. A sparse file only allocates disk space for the data actually stored, so it can appear far larger than the space it occupies on disk.

For such files, ls reports a much larger size than du:

• ls shows the apparent size of the file (how many bytes you’d read if you opened it).
• du shows the actual disk usage, which can be smaller because of holes.

So when you need the exact disk space a file consumes, du is the right command.

Method 3: Get file size with the find command

The find command searches for files and directories that match conditions you specify. You can find files by name, permissions, users, groups, file types, date, size, and more—recursively through subdirectories.

Find all files that are (approximately) 50 MB:

find / -size 50M

Find all files larger than 50 MB but smaller than 100 MB:

find / -size +50M -size -100M

A + prefix means “greater than,” and - means “less than.” Combine find with ls -lh to also print the sizes it locates:

find / -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;

Output (example):

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 240M Aug 20 11:02 /var/log/journal/system.journal
-rw-r--r-- 1 mysql mysql 1.2G Aug 21 03:15 /var/lib/mysql/ibdata1

Method 4: Check file size with the stat command

The stat command shows detailed, system-level information: permissions, owner, group, size, last modification time, and more.

stat file.txt

Output:

  File: file.txt
  Size: 4030          Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 801h/2049d    Inode: 13633379    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/ howtouselinux)   Gid: ( 1000/ howtouselinux)
Access: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.991979701 +0100
Modify: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971979713 +0100
Change: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971979713 +0100
 Birth: -

To print only the size in bytes, use -c "%s":

stat -c "%s" file.txt

Output:

4030

Summary: which command should you use?

Goal	Best command	Example
Real disk usage of a file	du	du -h file.txt
Total size of a directory	du -sh	du -sh /etc/
Quick size + permissions/owner	ls -lh	ls -lh file.txt
Exact size in bytes	stat -c "%s"	stat -c "%s" file.txt
Locate files by size	find	find / -size +100M

For everyday checks, ls -lh is fastest. When you need the true space a file or directory occupies on disk, reach for du. Use stat for an exact byte count and full metadata, and find when you need to hunt down large files across the filesystem. Knowing the difference between apparent size (ls) and disk usage (du) is what keeps your storage math honest.