Billable usage covers the resources your organization consumes on Files.com. Your plan includes resource allowances, and additional consumption can add to your bill. Understanding what counts toward each allowance helps you estimate costs as you add users, connect systems, and expand workflows.

The monthly metric called Usage combines Storage Usage and Transfer Usage. It measures the storage and transfer portion of your bill. Other resources, including billable users, connections, API calls, and Transformation and AI Credits, have their own billing measures.

Additional storage and transfer Usage is billed per gigabyte. Rates start at $0.10 per gigabyte and can decrease to as low as $0.03 per gigabyte with an annual commitment. Contact us for details on annual commitment options.

Administrators can find billable storage, transfer, user, and API call information on the Usage page of their site. When your organization uses Child Sites, usage across the Parent and Child Sites is combined for billing.

Usage Across Parent and Child Sites

Billable users, API calls, storage, and transfer usage across a Parent Site and its Child Sites are combined for billing. Each resource keeps its own calculation: billable users and API calls, for example, have specific rules for combining usage across sites.

Plan Allowances and Overages

Files.com allows your site to keep working when resource usage exceeds the quantities included in your plan, so bursts of activity and growth do not interrupt file exchanges. This applies across all plan resource allowances, including users, storage, transfer, connections, API calls, credits, and Child Sites.

Consumption above an included allowance is handled through overage billing. Included quantities and overage rates depend on your plan or agreement, with published pricing available for self-service plans. Not every customer contract specifies exact overage rates for every resource type. When your contract does not specify a rate, we bill any applicable overage at the then-current rate.

Measurement and invoicing vary by resource. For example, billable user overages depend on the highest billable user count during the Usage Period and your billing term, while additional Transformation and AI Credit usage is billed according to the credits consumed. An included allowance does not set a spending ceiling, so review your billable usage as your needs change.

We are happy to see you grow, and we never penalize customers for growth. Whatever your current plan, we are happy to resize your account onto an annual package that fits your needs. We work hard to keep our pricing reasonable for the high level of service we provide. Contact the billing team to discuss an appropriate package or get help understanding your charges.

Resource allowances are distinct from feature availability and technical operating limits. A feature must be available on your plan before you can use it, and limits such as simultaneous connection limits still apply. Allowing additional billable resources does not remove those requirements.

Usage Caps or Limits by User or Folder

Files.com does not offer the ability to set limits or quotas on Usage by user, folder, or inbox.

Usage Calculation Timing

Usage is measured over a 30-day Usage Period for as long as your account remains active.

For accounts billed monthly, the Usage Period aligns with your monthly billing cycle. If your account is billed annually, the annual billing term is divided into twelve separate Usage Periods. For accounts billed on other intervals, we apply the same 30-day Usage Period structure within each billing term.

Each Usage Period is evaluated independently. Unused usage does not roll over to the next period.

Storage Usage

Storage Usage applies to files actually stored on Files.com.

Files stored on a Remote Server Mount, such as Azure, S3, Box, etc., do not count at all toward this category of Usage, unless you use Files.com's features to index the remote for search/activity purposes or metadata storage. In those cases, we charge only an Overhead amount related to metadata consumption (see below).

Active Files

Active Files are the set of files that at any given time either were uploaded to your account within the last 30 days (whether or not they are currently deleted), or were uploaded to your account more than 30 days ago, and not yet permanently deleted.

Deleted Files Backed Up

Deleted files backed up are files that are deleted but retained because you have enabled the feature to Retain backup copies of files after deletion for possible restoration. These files are not counted as permanently deleted. File deletions can occur in several ways, such as manual deletion by users, automated actions through automations or APIs, or folder-level settings like File Expiration. If the Retain backup copies of files after deletion feature is disabled, deleted files are treated as permanently deleted as soon as they are removed.

When a file is overwritten, the previous version is deleted before the new one is saved. This can happen through manual actions in the web app, through automations or APIs, or when updating files using the online editor or the Files.com Desktop App. The deleted versions follow the same retention rules as manually deleted files and continue to count toward Storage Usage until they are permanently deleted.

When the Archive Removed Files setting is enabled on a folder, deleted or replaced files are moved to the configured archive path instead of being deleted. These archived copies remain in storage and continue to count toward Storage Usage until they are permanently deleted. If the setting is not enabled, deleted or replaced files follow the standard retention rules defined by the Keep Deleted Files setting.

Recent File Uploads Deleted

Recent file uploads deleted, which are files uploaded within the past 30 days and then deleted, are counted towards Storage Usage.

Storage Usage Calculation Timing

Storage Usage is calculated multiple times a day. Changes, including deletions, are not reflected in real time. When you delete files to reduce disk usage, the files will be deleted immediately, but the updated Storage Usage, including the Active Files and folder breakdown under the current storage snapshot, may take up to 24 hours to reflect those changes.

How Storage Usage Is Calculated

Storage Usage is the sum of the actual number of bytes contained in each Active File, plus a 64kb "Overhead" per file. The Overhead accounts for the storage costs of metadata such as logs, behaviors, permissions, and notifications associated with each file, as well as overhead costs that are passed through to us by Amazon S3.

For files not actually stored on Files.com, but indexed from a Remote Server Mount, we count only the Overhead per file and not the file's byte count.

For each Usage Period, we consider your overall Storage Usage to be the highest level of Storage Usage recorded during that Usage Period.

User Count has no relation to storage usage. Your site's Storage Usage will not be reduced if you disable or remove users.

Transfer Usage

Transfer Usage is the sum of the total number of bytes transferred to or from the Files.com network on behalf of your site during the Usage Period, regardless of the interface used.

Initial uploads to Files.com Storage that would result in Storage Usage (as explained above) are not counted as Transfer Usage. This prevents duplicate charges for the same activity.

Files.com offers storage in various Regions around the globe (for example, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Germany are each a separate region). Transfer Usage is calculated for each Region and then summed together. Moving or copying a file from one Region to another is counted as Transfer Usage in the sending Region, and its upload date for the purpose of Storage Usage is reset.

Transfers between Files.com sites and transfers involving external systems have different billing rules:

Transferring files between Files.com sites in either direction is not billable Transfer Usage to either customer when using a Files.com to Files.com Remote Server or Connected Sites.
Syncing files between Files.com and any other type of Remote Server (either direction) is billable Transfer Usage.

Uploading files to a Remote Server Mount or Downloading files from a Remote Server Mount results in billable Transfer Usage if that data traffic actually flows through Files.com's network. See the next section to learn exactly when this happens.

When Traffic Flows Through Files.com's Network for Remote Server Mount

Traffic always flows through Files.com's network when FTP, SFTP, AS2, S3-Compatible Endpoint, or WebDAV is used in any way, regardless of whether Files.com is acting as the client or the server. In these cases, upload and download traffic is billable because the data passes through Files.com's network.

How Traffic Flows with Direct Routing

Direct Routing automatically transfers eligible file contents between the client and cloud storage without relaying them through Files.com's network. Those contents do not count toward Files.com Transfer Usage. The provider, authentication method, client, operation, and processing determine eligibility; the Direct Routing reference lists the supported directions and client requirements.

The Agent's optional Direct Transfers similarly sends contents between supported clients and the Agent. Contents that use the ordinary Files.com route instead count toward Transfer Usage. Neither direct-transfer arrangement removes other usage measures or charges from the storage provider.

A mounted file's storage location alone does not determine its transfer usage. For example, an eligible direct download and an SFTP download of the same mounted object take different paths. The SFTP contents pass through Files.com's network and are billable Transfer Usage.

Remote Servers Configured with Upload Optimization Using Buffered Uploads

Buffered Uploads first receives a complete upload into Files.com Native Storage and forwards it to the Remote Server. That upload does not use Direct Routing. Because the contents pass through Files.com's network and temporary storage, both storage usage and transfer usage are billed. Required GPG processing, Auto Unzip, and Malware Scanning on a mount also stage uploads, even when optional buffering is set to Never.

Remote Servers Configured with Dedicated IP Addresses

Contents routed through Files.com's dedicated outbound addresses use Files.com's network and count toward Transfer Usage. A direct client upload instead reaches the storage provider from the client's network. Selecting dedicated addresses for the Remote Server does not turn that direct upload into traffic from Files.com's addresses. Assess the route of the actual operation when predicting usage or configuring a provider allowlist.

Edge Cases When Using SFTP and the Files.com Desktop App

For downloads, transfer usage matches what your users actually downloaded in almost every case. In certain edge cases those numbers can diverge, when downloads are performed over SFTP or through the Files.com Desktop App.

For a full explanation, see Understanding Usage with SFTP and Desktop App.

Usage History

Site Usage records show site-wide storage, bandwidth, API, and user-account usage. The site's Usage page presents this information visually, with controls for selecting the date range and chart type. Usage history is retained indefinitely while the site remains active.

Storage Usage Reports by Folder

Files.com offers the ability to export detailed Storage Usage reports by Folder. This is available on the Usage tab in the web interface.