Contabo bandwidth limit

Nobody likes a sudden decrease in speed especially when you have paid for a reliable host like Contabo. So, we will see about the Contabo bandwidth limit.

Every host has some amount of bandwidth limit to it. This guide will cover hidden terms of the Contabo traffic limit.

Let’s begin.

Insights into Contabo bandwidth limit

Before we begin the port speed details, let’s talk about the traffic limit first.

Contabo VPS provides 32 TB outgoing traffic and unlimited incoming traffic whereas their dedicated servers start with a 32 TB bandwidth limit and can go up to 324 TB. For Australia and Japan VPS, Contabo has 10 TB of outgoing traffic instead of 32.

Contabo provides full port speed to you. 10 years back, they had 100 Mbit speed with multiple restrictions which is not the case now as they have become pretty transparent offering complete information in the package itself.

It has allocated limits for each VPS plan.

If your outgoing bandwidth limit exceeds your bandwidth package, your speed is decreased. For instance, if your server is at 200 Mbit/s and the average traffic exceeds this limit for 10 straight days, your port speed will decrease to 100 Mbit/s (details are given in the next section).

Not to mention, you can use the allotted amount of outgoing bandwidth (32 TB) without any restrictions. This process is called throttling.

What is the port speed of Contabo VPS?

Now, let’s talk about the port speed of Contabo VPS.

• Cloud VPS S: 200 Mbit per sec
• Cloud VPS M: 400 Mbit per sec
• Cloud VPS L: 600 Mbit per sec
• Cloud VPS XL: 1 Gbit per sec
• Cloud VPS XXL: 1 Gbit per sec

Now, if the outgoing traffic exceeds the given limit, you will experience throttling.

The table below shows what the speed will decrease to if you exceed the limit.

What is the connection limit for Contabo?

The connection limit for Contabo is directly connected with the speed. As mentioned in the previous section, the base plan’s connection speed starts at 200 Mbit/s. This is the average port speed of 10 days.

If someone uses the full speed for over 50% of the time, it falls under the exceeded limit. Simply put, if you use a 100 Mbit/s port for 10 days straight, you fall under this category.

Along with this, the total bandwidth used must be at most 17 TB in 10 days.

Don’t worry, even if you exceed the Contabo bandwidth limit, they won’t charge you extra or suspend your account, instead, they will throttle your speed.  Let’s take an example to understand the concept in a little bit more depth.

Suppose, we had a VPS XL with a 1 Gbit link. On this server, we had a lot of traffic coming in. After 10 days, Contabo switched the server to a 100 Mbit link due to “Extraordinary bandwidth consumption”.

This may sound like a scam. However, it is Contabo’s fair use policy.

They allow 32 TB egress traffic which is 100 Mbit/s if you break it down. If your server is using the maximum capacity of the bandwidth, it will also affect other users.

So, to maintain the expenses of the server and to provide proper fair performance to other users in the servers, Contabo has this bandwidth limit. The fair usage bandwidth limit is mainly applicable to virtual products such as VPS hosting.

Conclusion

In summary, the Contabo’s bandwidth limit is pretty decent. They will decrease speed only after you are using a high amount of bandwidth.

It’s common for all the hosting providers to limit bandwidth size and port speed.

The throttling is done to maintain the server expenses and to provide fair resource distribution among other users. In terms of bandwidth, Contabo has a fair policy.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

How fast is Contabo bandwidth?

The bandwidth speed usually ranges between 200 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. In case of limit, the speed is at 100 Mbit/s.