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What 'unmetered bandwidth' actually means (and what it doesn't) in 2026

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"Unmetered bandwidth" is one of the most consistently misused terms in hosting marketing. Every provider that advertises it has an acceptable-use policy that quietly caps what you can actually move. This is what unmetered really means at each of the providers we track.

Prices as of 2026-09-22.

What "unmetered" literally means

Unmetered = not billed per gigabyte transferred.

That's the entire technical claim. It says nothing about:

  • Port speed limits.
  • Rate shaping under sustained load.
  • The provider's right to throttle heavy users.
  • Fair-use policies.

If a provider says "unmetered bandwidth" and stops there, they are almost always relying on port speed limits and/or discretionary throttling to prevent abuse. Both are legitimate. Both are also things you should know about before buying.

What "unmetered" means at each provider

OVHcloud

OVHcloud publishes port speeds explicitly:

  • VPS-1: 250 Mbps guaranteed port
  • VPS-2: 500 Mbps
  • VPS-3+: 1 Gbps

At 250 Mbps, the theoretical maximum monthly egress is roughly 80 TB. You will never bill overages, but you can never exceed 250 Mbps of throughput. If a burst of visitors saturates the port, requests slow down; they don't get billed.

In practice: for typical web workloads, port limits don't matter. For sustained video streaming, live streaming, or bulk file distribution, port limits are what you're planning against.

Contabo

Contabo does not publish port speeds. Their AUP allows shaping of "excessive" usage. Community reports place the practical sustained ceiling around 200 Mbps under Contabo's discretionary shaping.

In practice: short bursts are fine. Sustained high-throughput (media serving, large file distribution) will get throttled without a clear published threshold. Plan against ~200 Mbps sustained if you need capacity certainty.

AWS Lightsail

Not unmetered. Lightsail publishes explicit TB allowances (1-5 TB per plan) with overage at $0.09/GB in US regions and $0.14/GB in Asia. This is the most dangerous overage rate on the market.

Hetzner

Not "unmetered" — quantified. Every Hetzner Cloud plan includes 20 TB of outbound transfer per month, with overage at €1/TB (~$1.08/TB) after. This is by a wide margin the friendliest bandwidth pricing on the market.

In practice: most workloads never hit 20 TB. If you do, overage is trivial (€1 per TB).

DigitalOcean

Not unmetered — quantified per plan, from 1 TB on Basic 1 GB up to 5 TB on Basic 8 GB. Overage at $0.01/GB.

In practice: friendly rate; even a 10x overage is only $100.

Vultr

Similar to DigitalOcean: quantified per plan (1-4 TB), overage at $0.01/GB.

UpCloud

Metered from the first gigabyte. Every GB out costs $0.056 or similar depending on region. The most expensive bandwidth pricing on the list at any volume.

Reading between the lines

If a provider says any of these, translate accordingly:

  • "Unmetered bandwidth" → not billed, but shaped or port-limited. Read the fine print.
  • "Unlimited bandwidth" → identical to "unmetered." Almost certainly throttled.
  • "Up to 1 Gbps" → your port maximum. Real ceiling.
  • "Fair use policy applies" → the provider decides when your usage is too heavy.
  • "1 TB included, then $X/GB" → quantified. The most honest formulation.

Which providers are actually good for bandwidth-heavy workloads

Tier 1 (best): Hetzner. 20 TB quantified per plan at €1/TB overage.

Tier 2 (good): OVHcloud (port-limited, quantified). DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode ($0.01/GB overage).

Tier 3 (acceptable): Contabo (unclear ceiling, but generous in practice for non-sustained loads).

Tier 4 (avoid for bandwidth): AWS Lightsail (expensive overage). UpCloud (metered).

The two rules

1. If a provider markets "unmetered" without publishing a port speed or a fair-use threshold, treat their bandwidth as ~200-500 Mbps sustained. Anything above that is a bet on the provider's discretion.

2. Prefer quantified bandwidth for capacity planning. Hetzner's 20 TB / €1/TB is the friendliest quantified plan on the market by a wide margin.

Related guides

Prices as of 2026-09-22.