---
title: Configure retention
description: Learn how to configure data retention policies for your streams.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/7062/solutions/observability/streams-new/configure-retention
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Enterprise
  - Elastic Cloud Hosted
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes
  - Elastic Observability
  - Elastic Stack
  - Elasticsearch
  - Kibana
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.2, Preview in 9.1
---

# Configure retention
**Goal**: Each stream has an appropriate lifecycle policy. Storage costs are controlled and/or aligned with regulatory / compliance retention requirements.
User sets retention periods per stream. For wired streams, parent retention cascades to children, override at child level when needed.
**Why Streams**: Replaces a fragmented setup (data stream lifecycle, ILM, index templates, index settings) with a single tab. Shows storage size, ingestion averages, and tier distribution in one view.