Understanding the 95th Percentile Bandwidth Billing Model

The 95th percentile method is an industry standard way for hosting providers to bill for bandwidth, widely used for colocation and dedicated servers.

For dedicated server customers it has real advantages.

You can receive unexpected traffic spikes (up to 5% of the billing period, about 36 hours a month) without being hit with an unexpectedly large bandwidth bill. You can therefore more easily estimate your average bandwidth needs and usage.

In this post, we're going to discuss the 95 percentile method, as well as the alternatives: fixed traffic quotas and flat-rate committed bandwidth.

Our dedicated servers can be billed on the 95th percentile model or on flat-rate committed bandwidth.

How does 95th percentile billing work?

Bandwidth is not calculated real-time, but polled and logged at a sampling interval every 5 minutes. At the end of the billing cycle, the monthly log is sorted from lowest to highest (ascending order).

But rather than calculate usage on all entries, the largest 5% of use is ignored.

Out of all those data points, the top 5% (432 data points, or 2160 minutes, or 36 hours) are ignored. About 36 hours of unforeseen peak traffic a month is excluded from the bill.

That leaves room for a good month without a surprise on the invoice. For example, traffic from news coverage, due to sites like CNN or Reddit.

Why choose 95th percentile billing?

Because the top 5% of samples are discarded, you are not charged for short traffic spikes.

If you are new to it, expect a billing cycle or two to get a feel for your 95th percentile, as most people have never measured their use on a standard VPS plan.

Advantages of the 95th Percentile Model:

• No fixed bandwidth cap
• Your visitors are never presented with a “Bandwidth Exceeded” notice in their browsers
• No wasted funds; by not forcing included bandwidth, you only pay for what you use
• Short bursts above your usual level do not raise your bill

Alternative Billing Methods

Fixed-Quota Bandwidth Model

The cost of the included transfer is built into the price of the plan, so you may pay for transfer you do not use, and usage above the allowance is billed as overage.

Flat-Rate Committed Bandwidth

With flat-rate committed bandwidth you choose a committed rate and pay the same amount every month for traffic within it. At EuroVPS you can choose 1, 5 or 10 Gbit/s. It suits steady, high-volume traffic and anyone who wants a fixed, predictable bill.

Which model suits you

Ask us about 95th percentile billing or flat-rate committed bandwidth (1, 5 or 10 Gbit/s) for your dedicated servers; the choice is yours.