The Account disk quota critical percentage setting in WHM determines the threshold at which cPanel sends a critical disk usage alert to account owners. This alert warns users that their disk space is nearly exhausted and immediate action (such as removing old files or logs) is needed to prevent uploads and services from failing.
Step 1: Log in to WHM
Open your browser and navigate to https://your-server-ip:2087. Enter your root credentials to access the WHM dashboard.
Step 2: Navigate to Tweak Settings
In the left-hand sidebar, go to Home » Server Configuration » Tweak Settings.
Step 3: Enable Disk Quota Usage Warnings
The critical percentage setting only appears when Disk quota usage warnings are enabled. Use the search bar and type disk quota. Verify that the Disk quota usage warnings toggle is set to On. If it is off, the critical percentage option will not be visible.
Step 4: Set the Critical Percentage
Find the setting named Account disk quota critical percentage and enter a value between 1 and 100. This represents the percentage of disk quota at which a critical alert will be triggered.
- Default value:
90 - Recommended range: 85% to 95%, depending on how much advance notice you want users to have.
- Lower value (e.g., 80%): Users get earlier warnings but may receive more frequent alerts.
- Higher value (e.g., 98%): Users are alerted only when almost completely full, which may leave insufficient time to act.
You can also configure the Account disk quota warn percentage on the same page, which should be set lower than the critical percentage to give users a two-stage warning system.
Step 5: Save Changes
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save. The change takes effect immediately.
Important Notes
- The critical percentage should be higher than the warn percentage (e.g., warn at 80%, critical at 92%).
- Disk quota usage warnings must be enabled for this threshold to take effect.
- Critical alerts are sent to the cPanel account contact email address.
- This is a server-wide setting that applies to all cPanel accounts on the server.
- You can also configure whether the admin or reseller receives a notification when accounts reach the critical state — look for the Notify admin or reseller when disk quota reaches critical state setting.
- There is also a separate Account disk quota full percentage setting that triggers when the quota is completely used.
Troubleshooting
- Cannot find the critical percentage option: Ensure Disk quota usage warnings are enabled. The critical percentage field only appears when this parent setting is turned on.
- Users not receiving critical alerts: Verify that Disk quota usage warnings are enabled, the critical percentage is configured, and the account contact email address in cPanel is valid.
- Want to disable notifications entirely: Set the value to Disable this notification (available as an option in the dropdown or text field depending on your WHM version).
For more information, see the official cPanel Tweak Settings — Notifications documentation.
