# Backups Features

Backups are automatically-created disk images of Droplets. Enabling backups for Droplets enables system-level backups at intervals of every 4 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, day, or week, which provides a way to revert to an older state or create new Droplets.

## How Do DigitalOcean Backups Work?

We use a snapshot-based backup system that creates a point-in-time image based on the current state of a Droplet. These are called *crash-consistent backups* because the image retains the entirety of the disk’s data at the moment it is created.

The following process occurs on your Droplet when a backup occurs:

1. We take a snapshot of the live system to create a crash-consistent, point-in-time image.
2. We back up the snapshot off-disk.
3. We delete the snapshot once the backup is complete.

We create these backups in the background while the Droplet is running, so you don’t need to power down.

## Backup Frequency, Retention, and Schedule

**Note**: DigitalOcean’s automated backups do not include volumes. To back up a volume, create a [volume snapshot](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshots/how-to/snapshot-volumes/index.html.md).

Backups have the following types:

- Basic plans are divided into **Weekly Backups** and **Daily Backups**, and are billed as a percentage of the Droplet’s monthly cost.
- Usage-based plans are customizable, and are billed at a flat rate per GiB of a backup’s restorable file size. You can configure the **Backup Frequency**, which refers to how often backups happen (from weekly to every six hours), and **Backup Retention**, which refers to how long you retain them.

You can enable backups for Droplets. Backups are available for all Droplets, but they may not be ideal for Droplets with heavy I/O workloads, such as database servers, because disk write performance is degraded while the backup is being created.

We store backups in the same datacenter as the corresponding Droplet.

Backups occur during a *backup window*, which is a 4-hour window of time during which the Droplet automatically initiates a new backup. You can customize your backup window when you [enable backups](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/backups/how-to/enable/index.html.md) and view your current backup window on the Droplet’s **Backups** page.