How do bandwidth and traffic differ on an unmetered port?

Split the two words

Bandwidth is marked on the port, in Mbps. 250M is 250 Mbps, 1G is 1000 Mbps, and 2G is 2000 Mbps. Divide by 8 for an approximate MB/s: 31.25, 125, and 250. That is the most the port can move in one second. It is not a monthly transfer allowance.

Traffic is counted in GB or TB. It is the volume that actually moved over a period. Some cloud bills set a peak and then charge per public GB. These three tiers have no such line. Unmetered means tens of TB in a month do not open a second traffic invoice. The port remains the 250M, 1G, or 2G chosen on the order.

Traffic answers how much moved this month. Bandwidth answers how fast one second can move. Unmetered removes the first bill. It does not raise the second ceiling. Reading unmetered as “no rate cap” expects 1G speed from a 250M port.

Turn monthly volume into an average rate

The number in hand is often “about this many GB a month,” or “100M on the old machine.” Neither row compares directly with 250, 1000, or 2000 until it is in Mbps. The figures below use 30 days and decimal units: 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes, and 1 TB = 1,000 GB. Thirty days contain 2,592,000 seconds.

Average Mbps = monthly GB × 8,000 ÷ 2,592,000. The 8,000 is the megabits in 1 GB. In short: each 1 TB of monthly volume averages about 3.1 Mbps. Ten TB averages about 31 Mbps. The monthly average reaches about 250 Mbps only around 80 TB.

A large-looking volume often still sits inside 250M. Ten TB, spread across the month, is about 31 Mbps. The reason to move to 1G or 2G is transfer stacked in the same second, not the monthly total. Pages, APIs, and admin traffic can grow from 1 TB to several TB and still leave the average under 250.

A former 100 Mbps port, full for 30 days, is about 32.4 TB. 250M is 2.5 times that rate, about 81 TB if it stayed full. Those figures compare an old port. They are not a tier on sale. The order starts at 250M. There is no 100M tier. Use the monthly GB from the old bill. A 5 Mbps average and a 5 Mbps port are different rows.

A full 30 days is only the ceiling

If the port stayed full for 30 days, decimal TB is Mbps × 2,592,000 ÷ 8 ÷ 1,000,000. 250 × 2,592,000 = 648,000,000 megabits. Divide by 8 for 81,000,000 MB, then by 1,000,000 for 81 TB. 1G and 2G scale by the same factor.

Work has quiet hours. Pages and APIs spend most of the day well under the port. When the monthly total is already tens of TB, check whether those TB sit in a few hours. That busy slice sets the tier. A few dozen TB spread across the month can still average under 250M.

When the only statistic is egress, use egress in the monthly formula. Downloads, backups, and pages leaving the machine fill that direction first. Peak is per direction: outbound in one column, inbound in another. Take the larger column. Do not add the two directions and then pick a tier.

Pick 250M, 1G, or 2G from simultaneous transfer

Peak Mbps is about simultaneous streams × MB/s per stream × 8. 250M is about 31 MB/s. At 1.5 MB/s each, about 20 downloads at once fill 250M. A 0.5 MB page, on the port alone, is about 62 such pages a second. That count is only the port. It leaves out CPU, TLS, and disk. Ordinary pages often meet the machine before they meet 250M.

Take the larger of the average from monthly volume and the concurrent peak, then step up to 250, 1000, or 2000. An average of 31 Mbps with an occasional peak of 400 Mbps follows the peak and takes 1G. An average of 3 Mbps with a peak under 100 Mbps stays on 250M. Write both numbers down. Monthly volume alone stays on 250M when a peak needs a higher tier. The word unmetered alone buys 2G when the average is only a few Mbps.

One set of figures: 2 TB of egress a month averages about 6.2 Mbps. At most 8 streams at 2 MB/s, the peak is about 8 × 2 × 8 = 128 Mbps. Both numbers are under 250, so the port is 250M and the bandwidth add-on is $0.

Another set: 4 TB of egress averages about 12 Mbps. In the backup window, 40 streams at 5 MB/s is about 1,600 Mbps, over 1000, so the port is 2G at $745 a month. The same backup staggered to 15 streams is about 600 Mbps, and 1G is enough at $255. Staggering drops that line by $490 a month. When the window can move, change the schedule before buying 2G.

The add-on joins the monthly total first

The bandwidth add-on joins the monthly total, then the term multiplies. One month multiplies by 1, a quarter by 3, half a year by 6, and a year by 12. There is no separate bandwidth discount, and no transfer package.

The 128GB model is $462 a month. Changing only bandwidth, 250M stays $462, 1G is $717, and 2G is $1,207. A quarter is $1,386, $2,151, or $3,621. The 256GB model is $595 a month. With 1G that month is $850. The multiplication is the same.

The port add-on does not change the machine. Both memory tiers are an AMD EPYC 7543P, 32 cores / 64 threads, 2.8–3.7 GHz. Memory is DDR4-3200 ECC RDIMM, 128GB or 256GB, and sticks are not added after the order. The default disks are 2×1TB NVMe, no hardware RAID, each direct-attach. Usable capacity is 2TB, not 1TB left after a mirror. Extra 2TB NVMe is $71 each, at most two, still direct-attach. One IPv4 is included. Extra addresses are $2 each, at most 255 more, not sold as a subnet. Windows Server Standard adds $22 a month. Datacenter adds $25. Linux uses SSH. Windows uses RDP. The machines are deployed in Tokyo, Japan. There is no setup fee.

Those lines stay separate from the port. Moving from 250M to 1G does not add an address. Buying addresses does not turn 250M into 1G. The address count is in How extra IPv4 addresses count with the included one. Amount due = (model + disks + bandwidth add-on + extra addresses + system) × months.

Check the peak before the order

Bandwidth on the order page is one of three, and 250M is the default. After the choice, the monthly total and the amount due for the term both move. Use the two tables here: one turns monthly volume into average Mbps, and one turns simultaneous transfer into peak Mbps. Step up from the larger number.

1. Take one month of GB from existing stats. Without stats, estimate the busiest kind of transfer and mark it as an estimate.
2. Average Mbps = GB × 8,000 ÷ 2,592,000. One TB is about 3.1 Mbps.
3. Count large transfers that overlap in one direction. Streams × MB/s × 8 is that direction’s peak Mbps. Keep outbound and inbound in separate columns and take the larger one.
4. Take the larger of average and peak. Up to 250 stays on 250M. Over 250 and up to 1000 is 1G at $255 a month. Over 1000 is 2G at $745 a month.
5. Add the add-on to the monthly total, then multiply by the months in the term. Match memory, disks, and addresses before payment.

Before a higher tier, see whether backups and distribution can be staggered. Fifteen streams and forty streams use the same machine, and the bandwidth line can differ by $490 a month. If the peak is still over 1000 after staggering, take 2G. If it lands between 250 and 1000, 1G is enough.

Unmetered means there is no monthly transfer package. The 250M, 1G, or 2G on the order is still the port ceiling. Once the average rate, the concurrent peak, and the monthly add-on agree, the tier is set.