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S3 path data size for a Delta table is more than the table size seen from the describe detail output

Execute VACUUM to remove the stale files.

Written by ujjawal.kashyap

Last published at: July 25th, 2025

Problem

The size of the Delta table does not match the size of the data in the storage bucket the table uses. 

 

Cause

You may have stale files present in your storage path. 

 

To verify, you can use describe detail <table-name> to get your table size, and then compare to the actual size in the storage bucket.

 

You can also run VACUUM <table-name> [RETAIN num HOURS] DRY RUN to check the details of the stale files.

 

Solution

Run VACUUM to remove the stale files. 

 

For more information, refer to the VACUUM (AWS | Azure | GCP) documentation and the Remove unused data files with vacuum (AWS | Azure | GCP) documentation.