The present disclosure is directed to gradual context saving in a data storage device. An example data storage device may comprise at least a non-volatile memory and a control module. The control module may cause context data to be gradually saved to the non-volatile memory based on monitoring write activity to the nonvolatile memory, wherein the context data may correspond to a current state of the data storage device. The control module may cause context data to be saved based on a budget ratio. For example, a budget ratio may compare an amount of total budget consumed (e.g., based a capacity of the data storage device, an amount of data stored in the data storage device, a target time-to-ready for the data storage device, etc.) to an amount of total context data that has already been written to the non-volatile memory.