Cloud included traffic is the outbound data volume a provider puts inside the price of a server or plan, and it is the most visible trait of the European pricing models beside the monthly cap and the flat rate per plan: where a metered model bills every gigabyte outward, a model with an allowance bills only what lies above it, and a flat model nothing. That changes the shape of the bill, the allocation of costs and the places where the bill suddenly grows.

How it works

Three mechanisms stand against the metered models. The allowance per server, at Hetzner 20 TB outbound per cloud server at the European locations and EUR 1.00 per further TB, at Exoscale 1.42 GiB per hour per instance and EUR 0.02 per GiB beyond, hangs on the resource: every server brings its quota, quotas are not shared between servers, and a server that delivers everything exceeds its own while the others' lapse. The allowance per account or project, at IONOS 2 TB per contract with falling tiers beyond, at Scaleway 75 GB of object storage egress per month and EUR 0.01 per GB beyond, hangs on the account: all resources fill one pot, and the bill jumps when the pot is full. Traffic inside the price without a meter, at OVHcloud for instances in Europe and at UpCloud under a fair-use limit per plan, has no price line but a limit whose consequences the documentation sometimes names and sometimes does not. T Cloud Public, with 1 GiB of allowance and tiers from EUR 0.074489 per GiB, stands closer to the metered model. The mechanics of the metered model, with a price per GB by destination and region, are in data transfer and egress.

yesnoon the serveron the accountnowhere: insidethe priceOutbound trafficMetered pergigabyte?Every gigabyte billed bydestination and regionWhere does theallowance hang?Every server brings itsquota, not shared; oneserver that deliverseverything exceeds its ownwhile the others' lapseAll resources fill onepot; the bill jumps whenthe pot is fullNo price line, only alimit whose consequencesare sometimes namedand sometimes not
Against the metered gigabyte stand three shapes: a quota per server that is not shared, a pot per account that jumps when full, and a price with a limit but no line

The monthly cap is the second mechanism: Hetzner bills per hour and never more than the monthly price, UpCloud per hour as one 672nd of the monthly price with that price as the ceiling, OVHcloud offers beside the per-second rate a monthly price that bills every commenced month in full. A server that runs through costs a fixed figure, a server for days its hours; the commitment sits in the cap, not in a programme. The flat rate per plan is the third: Cubes at IONOS, server plans at UpCloud and object storage with a base price at Hetzner bundle compute, storage, IP address and traffic into one price that no longer splits into dimensions. What a metered provider shows as ten lines is one here.

The hidden limits sit in the footnotes. Fair use at UpCloud means a transfer limit per plan between 1 and 100 TB to which all plans of an account contribute, and the documentation does not say what happens beyond. Overage at Hetzner means billing in blocks of 100 MB at EUR 1.00 per TB, at IONOS the entry into the first tier at EUR 0.03 per GB, at Exoscale EUR 0.02 per GiB; whoever reads the allowance as unlimited meets the limit on the bill. And the allowance usually covers outbound traffic to the internet only; traffic between regions costs at Scaleway, the way to Asia at OVHcloud, and inbound traffic is free everywhere.

What it means for your cost

The bill loses its egress line and gains jumps. In metered models traffic grows steadily with usage and is visible as a line; with allowances the line is absent until it appears on one day of the month, and then in an amount unrelated to the previous month. A comparison with sourced list prices shows the shape: a Hetzner CX23 costs EUR 5.99 per month with 20 TB of outbound traffic; 20 TB from an Exoscale instance cost, after 1 TiB of allowance, about 19 TiB times EUR 20.48, that is EUR 389, and at T Cloud Public about 20 times 1,024 GiB times EUR 0.0745 in the first tier, EUR 1,526, while at IONOS 20 TB after 2 TB of allowance cost in two tiers about 8 TB times EUR 30.72 plus 10 TB times EUR 25.60, EUR 502. The same 20 TB are four amounts between zero and over EUR 1,500 at four providers.

For cost allocation that means two things. Traffic inside the server price cannot be split by service, because there is no quantity per service in the cost data; whoever wants to know which application consumed the 20 TB measures it themselves, at the server or at the load balancer. And a flat rate cannot be allocated by dimension: the Cube with 120 GB of storage carries no storage price one could charge to a team, only the Cube. Allocation rules that reach lines at the hyperscalers reach servers here, and shared cost arises where one server serves several. For budgets and forecasts, by contrast, the model is friendly: a capped server is a fixed figure per month, and the forecast is the sum of the servers as long as nobody tears through the allowance.

Whoever sits permanently above the allowance pays EUR 1.00 per TB at Hetzner, nearly the metered price at T Cloud Public; whoever sits far below pays for the allowance all the same, because it is in the price. The model rewards even delivery per server, and data transfer becomes a question of architecture, not of price per GB; the price differences between regions that come on top are the subject of price differences between regions.

permanently abovefar belowspread evenlyper serverDelivery againstthe allowance?Pays the overage: a priceper TB, at the tieredprovider nearly themetered pricePays for the allowanceall the same: it isin the priceUses every server's quota:what the model rewardsData transfer becomes aquestion of architecture,not of price per GB
Above the allowance the overage is paid, far below it the allowance is paid anyway, and even delivery per server is what the model rewards

Where it goes wrong

  • The allowance is per server, not per account. Symptom: one server produces a traffic line although the account as a whole sits far below the sum of the allowances. Cause: at Hetzner and Exoscale the quota hangs on the resource; delivery must be spread across the servers to use the quotas.
  • The monthly figure is not a cap. Symptom: at Scaleway or STACKIT the bill exceeds the pricing page's monthly figure. Cause: there the monthly figure is an extrapolation onto 730 or 720 hours; a cap exists only at Hetzner, UpCloud and in OVHcloud's monthly price.
  • Included applies outward only. Symptom: an egress line between regions or zones. Cause: Scaleway bills traffic between regions; OVHcloud excludes Asia-Pacific; only Exoscale leaves traffic between zones free.
  • A flat rate without dimensions. Symptom: allocation by storage and compute fails on Cubes and plans. Cause: the flat rate does not split; allocation runs through the server as a whole.
  • Fair use without a price. Symptom: a notice from the provider instead of a charge. Cause: UpCloud does not price egress but limits it; the consequence is operational, not an amount.

Example

List prices, read on 2026-10-21, euro without tax, for 20 TB of outbound traffic a month from a single server: Hetzner, European locations, CX23 with 20 TB included, EUR 5.99 per month for server and traffic together, every further TB EUR 1.00; Exoscale, 1.42 GiB per hour free, about 1 TiB a month, then EUR 0.02 per GiB, that is 19 TiB times 1,024 GiB times EUR 0.02, about EUR 389; IONOS, 2 TB per contract free, 8 TB at EUR 0.03 per GB and 10 TB at EUR 0.025 per GB at 1,024 GB per TB, about EUR 502; T Cloud Public, region EU-DE, 1 GiB free, then EUR 0.074489 per GiB up to 1,000 GiB and EUR 0.070351 per GiB beyond, about EUR 1,445 for 20,480 GiB. The figures show that the same traffic costs between nothing and about EUR 1,445, that the allowance per server at Hetzner makes the largest difference, and that the tiered model at T Cloud Public stands closest to the metered model.

Sources

Read on 2026-10-21. Hetzner Cloud Cost-Optimized and Cloud billing FAQ, Exoscale pricing, IONOS Cloud prices, German page, T Cloud Public service description and price list (PDF), Scaleway storage pricing, OVHcloud Public Cloud prices, UpCloud network billing and account balance.