Storing a standard archive box with Dajon costs from £4.00 a year. Over a 7-year retention period, including intake, occasional retrievals, withdrawal and secure destruction, one rarely used box costs about £39.50 in total (modelled). Digitising the same box costs about £144.25 (modelled), so scanning pays for itself through retrieval savings rather than storage fees.
This guide sets out every cost of keeping paper records, from the day the boxes leave your office to the day they are destroyed, and compares storing them with digitising them. Every assumption is listed, and every figure built from those assumptions is marked as modelled. All prices exclude VAT.
The rates this guide uses
These are Dajon’s published rates. The pricing page explains what moves them up or down.
| Cost | Rate (ex VAT) | Charged |
|---|---|---|
| Secure collection, Central London | £45.00 for up to 20 boxes, then £1.00 per extra box | Each collection |
| Intake, barcoding and listing | £2.00 per box | Once, when a box enters storage |
| Storage | From £4.00 per box per year | Every year |
| Retrieval and return | £2.50 per retrieval | Each time a box comes back to you |
| Scan on demand | £15.00 to £45.00 per file, by number of images | Each file scanned and sent |
| Permanent withdrawal | £3.50 per box | Once, when a box leaves storage for good |
| Secure destruction with certificate | £3.00 per box | Once, at the end of retention |
| Preparation for scanning | £0.02 per page | Once |
| Scanning to searchable PDF with OCR | From £0.03 per image | Once |
| File-level indexing | £0.25 per field | Once |
| Minimum scanning order | £250 | Per project |
The assumptions behind the modelled figures
Change any of these and the totals change. If your records differ, our page-count calculator and a sample of your boxes give a figure for your own archive.
| Assumption | Value used | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pages per box | 2,500 single-sided A4 pages, so 2,500 images | A typical full standard archive box |
| Files per box | 30 | Typical for HR and client files |
| Indexing | 2 fields per file, such as name and reference number | Enough to find a file by who or what it is about |
| Rarely used archive | 1 retrieval per box every 10 years on average | Closed files kept for compliance |
| Active archive | 1 file per box each year scanned on demand at £20.00 (100 to 200 images), plus the rare retrievals above | Files still needed for claims, queries or audits |
| Retention period | 7 years in the one-box example; 1 to 15 years in the comparison | An example only. Your retention schedule decides. |
| End of retention | Every box is withdrawn and securely destroyed | Boxes leave storage to be destroyed |
| Digitised originals | Destroyed after scanning, not returned to storage | The usual reason to digitise an archive |
| Collection | One collection from Central London | Outside Central London is priced for each project |
| Prices | Held at today’s rates for the whole period, ex VAT | No inflation or contract increases are modelled |
| Your own costs | Not included | Staff time to request files, and storage for the digital files in your own systems |
Estimate your page count
Not sure how many pages you have? Our Page Count Calculator turns boxes, filing cabinet drawers and lever-arch files into an estimated page count you can use to request a quote.
What one box costs over 7 years (modelled)
Storing a rarely used box for 7 years and then destroying it costs about £39.50. Storage is £28.00 of that; the rest is paid when the box arrives, when it is retrieved and when it leaves. Digitising the same box and destroying the paper costs about £144.25, almost all of it preparation and scanning.
| Cost | Store for 7 years (modelled) | Digitise, then destroy (modelled) |
|---|---|---|
| Share of a 100-box collection | £1.25 | £1.25 |
| Intake, barcoding and listing | £2.00 | – |
| Storage, 7 years at £4.00 | £28.00 | – |
| Retrievals, 0.7 on average at £2.50 | £1.75 | – |
| Preparation, 2,500 pages at £0.02 | – | £50.00 |
| Scanning, 2,500 images at £0.03 | – | £75.00 |
| Indexing, 30 files × 2 fields at £0.25 | – | £15.00 |
| Permanent withdrawal | £3.50 | – |
| Secure destruction | £3.00 | £3.00 |
| Total per box | £39.50 | £144.25 |
Modelled from the rates and assumptions above. Prices exclude VAT.
About a quarter of the cost of storing a box (£9.75 of £39.50, for collection, intake, withdrawal and destruction) is paid when the box arrives and when it leaves, not in yearly fees. When you compare storage suppliers, add these charges to the yearly rate.
Store or digitise? 100 boxes over 1 to 15 years (modelled)
For an archive nobody uses, storage is cheaper for decades: digitising 100 rarely used boxes would take about 32 years to cost less than storing them. For an archive your teams still use, the answer reverses. If each box produces one scan-on-demand request a year, digitising costs less than storing after about 5½ years.
| Kept for | Store, rarely used (modelled) | Store, active (modelled) | Digitise once (modelled) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | £1,400 | £3,400 | £14,425 |
| 3 years | £2,250 | £8,250 | £14,425 |
| 5 years | £3,100 | £13,100 | £14,425 |
| 7 years | £3,950 | £17,950 | £14,425 |
| 10 years | £5,225 | £25,225 | £14,425 |
| 15 years | £7,350 | £37,350 | £14,425 |
Modelled totals for 100 boxes, ex VAT, including collection, intake, withdrawal and destruction at the end of each period. Store, rarely used: £325 when the boxes arrive, £425 a year, £650 when they leave. Store, active: the same, plus £2,000 a year for 100 scan-on-demand requests. Digitise once: collection £125, preparation £5,000, scanning £7,500, indexing £1,500 and destruction £300. After digitising, your teams open files in their own systems at no further charge from us.
What the model leaves out. Digitising has benefits the table does not price: files reach anyone who needs them in seconds, several people can use one file at once, and searchable text can feed other systems. It also has costs the table leaves out: your own time to check the index, and storage for the files in your own systems. Weigh both alongside the figures.
Getting records back, and getting them out
Retrieval. When you need a stored box, we retrieve it and return it to you for £2.50. If you only need one file from it, scan on demand sends it to you as a searchable PDF for £15.00 to £45.00, depending on its size, and the box stays in storage.
Permanent withdrawal. When a box leaves storage for good, whether to come back to you, to move to another supplier or to be destroyed, we charge £3.50 per box. We show this on your storage quote from the start, so it is never a surprise at the end of a contract.
Secure destruction. At the end of its retention period, we destroy a box securely for £3.00 and issue a certificate of destruction.
Compare the total, not the yearly rate
Some suppliers advertise a low storage or scanning rate that makes their quotation look very attractive, then add costs to the final invoice that the quote did not show, such as hourly preparation or processing charges and box withdrawal (“perm-out”) fees. Exit charges matter most, because they fall due when you have the least choice. Our quote lists every chargeable item, so the figure you approve is the figure you pay. See how our pricing works.
Ask any storage supplier
- What does it cost to bring a box into storage?
- What does a retrieval cost, and is delivery extra?
- What does it cost to withdraw a box permanently, and is that charged when you destroy it?
- What does secure destruction cost, and do you issue a certificate?
- Is there a charge to end the contract or move to another supplier?
- Do storage rates rise each year, and by how much?
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to store a box of records?
Storage with Dajon starts from £4.00 per standard archive box per year, ex VAT. Over 7 years, a rarely used box costs about £39.50 in total once collection, intake, retrievals, withdrawal and destruction are added (modelled).
Is it cheaper to scan records or store them?
For records nobody uses, storage is cheaper: in our model, digitising 100 rarely used boxes costs less than storing them only after about 32 years. For records your teams still request, digitising can cost less within about 5½ years (modelled).
What does it cost to get a box back?
A retrieval and return costs £2.50. A single file can be scanned and sent to you instead for £15.00 to £45.00, depending on its size.
Do you charge to take boxes out of storage permanently?
Yes, £3.50 per box, shown on your storage quote from the start.
What does secure destruction cost?
£3.00 per box, with a certificate of destruction.
How accurate are these figures?
The rates are our published prices. The totals are modelled from the assumptions listed on this page, so your own figure will differ. A sample of your records gives an itemised quote.
Get a quote for your archive
Tell us roughly how many boxes you have, how often your teams need them and how long you must keep them. We will model storage and digitisation for your archive and send an itemised quote.