Where egress is charged
Uploading, or ingress, is normally free. It is the outward traffic that is billed.
- CDN to viewer: every segment a viewer downloads
- Origin to CDN: when an edge fetches content it does not yet hold
- Between clouds or regions: moving files from storage in one place to processing in another
How to estimate egress for streaming
Work out the volume, then apply the rate. Viewing hours × average bitrate in Mbps × 0.45 gives gigabytes. A service with 10,000 subscribers watching 5 hours a month at about 2.2 Mbps delivers roughly 50,000 GB, or 50 TB.
Rates differ enormously. Raw cloud egress is often listed at several cents per gigabyte, CDNs at a fraction of a cent to a few cents depending on volume and region. At $0.0075 per GB those 50 TB cost $375; at $0.05 per GB they cost $2,500.
How to reduce it
- Lower the average bitrate with a well-tuned ladder and efficient codecs
- Limit default quality on mobile data
- Keep cache hit rates high so the origin is rarely touched
- Keep storage, processing and delivery with providers that do not charge each other for transfer
- Choose a plan with an allowance that matches your volume and a low overage rate
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