How many TB per month can a 1 Gbps port transfer?

How is the 324 TB figure worked out?

Multiply the port speed by the time, then convert bits to bytes. Network speeds use the decimal SI prefixes, so giga stands for 10^9.

1. A 1 Gbit/s port signals 1,000,000,000 bits each second.
2. Eight bits make a byte, so that is 125,000,000 bytes, or 125 MB, per second.
3. A day has 86,400 seconds: 125 MB × 86,400 = 10.8 TB.
4. Thirty days of 10.8 TB give 324 TB.

A 1 Gbps port at line rate moves 324 TB in 30 days in each direction, so 648 TB counting both. A 31-day month adds 10.8 TB; February loses 21.6 TB.

Why does my system show 294.7 instead of 324?

Your operating system probably counts in binary units. NIST lists tebi (Ti) as 2^40, while the SI tera is 10^12.

The bytes are the same; only the unit changes. 324 × 10^12 bytes divided by 2^40 gives 294.7 TiB. On Linux, df -h and ls -lh print powers of 1024, while df -H prints powers of 1000. Host quotas are almost always written in decimal terabytes, like port speeds.

How much of 324 TB is file data after protocol overhead?

About 300 to 308 TB, depending on the packet type. This is an estimate built on stated assumptions, not a measured figure.

The assumptions:

• Frame on the wire: 1,538 bytes per full packet. Around the 1,500-byte IP packet sit an 8-byte preamble and start delimiter and a 14-byte Ethernet header. A 4-byte checksum and a 12-byte idle gap follow.
• IP header: 20 bytes for IPv4 (RFC 791) or 40 bytes for IPv6 (RFC 8200).
• TCP header: 20 bytes (RFC 9293), plus 12 bytes when the timestamps option of RFC 7323 is on, as Linux does by default.
• Not counted: TLS records, retransmissions, VLAN tags, application headers, and the acknowledgements that travel the other way.

Does the limit apply to uploads and downloads separately?

Yes. Server Ethernet ports run full duplex, so 1 Gbit/s can leave the server while another 1 Gbit/s arrives. Each direction has its own 324 TB ceiling in 30 days.

Many quotas count only one direction. On 30 October 2026, Cherry Servers listed "100TB free egress per month, unmetered ingress". HostSailor wrote "10TB outgoing (included), incoming unmetered". NiceVPS also meters outbound traffic only. Before you compare two quotas, check which direction each one counts.

How do common monthly quotas translate into speed?

One terabyte spread evenly over 30 days averages 3.09 Mbit/s. Multiply that by the quota to see the steady speed a plan really pays for.

What about a 10 Gbps port?

Multiply everything by ten. A 10 Gbit/s port moves 1.25 GB per second, 108 TB per day and 3,240 TB in 30 days at line rate. With IPv4 TCP and timestamps, about 3,050 TB of that is file data, by the same estimate.

Few servers sustain that. Whether a faster port pays off depends on your peaks, not your monthly total; see whether you need a 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps port.

Does unmetered traffic cost more than a quota?

Not at the hosts surveyed on 30 October 2026. Ravenquay compared servers with 8 cores, 64 GB of RAM and 1.9 TB of flash at no-KYC crypto hosts: the unmetered ones cost a median $294.97 a month. Counting plans with a quota too, the median rose to $337.49.

Ravenquay writes its rule in two sentences:

Unmetered means no monthly traffic quota and no overage bill: the port speed of your plan, 1 or 10 Gbit/s, is the only limit. Each server has one dedicated IPv4 address and an IPv6 /64.

Each berth and its price are listed on the Ravenquay pricing page. For the way other hosts phrase their limits, read how fair-use clauses read at 10 Gbit/s. Carriers that bill by rate instead of volume are covered on what 95th percentile billing is.