Fair use
How we measure traffic
We do not offer unlimited traffic. Instead there is fair use, measured at the 95th percentile. Here is what that means.
Why not unlimited
Unlimited does not exist. A port has a speed, a network has capacity, and someone pays for the transport. Providers who promise unlimited throttle in practice the moment it suits them -- it is just buried in the small print. We would rather call it what it is: fair use, with a method you can check yourself.
What the 95th percentile means
We measure your usage continuously and line up every sample from the month. Then we drop the highest five percent. Whatever sits at the top after that is what we bill on.
Traffic has a rhythm. Quiet at night, busy in the evening, and heavier on weekdays than at the weekend. You can see that daily wave in the graph, with the weekends as the lighter bands.
The upshot: a short spike costs you nothing. Push out a large update, or catch a busy evening, and it lands in the five percent we discard. Only sustained usage counts. You are charged for your normal usage, not for your outliers.
Everything above the line is the highest five percent of all samples. That part does not count.
This is the value we bill on: the 95th percentile.
So what is the limit?
It differs per product and per situation, and we adjust it when the network allows. If your agreement does not state something specific, just ask -- you get an engineer, not a script.