Bandwidth, Storage, and Overages FAQs

Your SproutVideo account is billed on a monthly schedule based on your selected plan level. The main factors contributing to your monthly bill are bandwidth, storage, live streaming usage and overages.

NOTE: Check out our Live Input, Live Delivery and Overages FAQs article for more information about live streaming usage.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the amount of data in GBs that is streamed from our servers to your viewers when they watch or download your videos. Uploading videos does not count against your bandwidth. Bandwidth resets every month. We notify you by email if you reach 80%, 90%, 100%, 120% of your total bandwidth. The Seed, Sprout, Tree, and Forest plans each include different amounts of bandwidth. If you exceed the included amount, you will be charged at the rate for extra GBs corresponding to your plan level. You can refer to the Manage Subscription page to view your plan details.

NOTE: Viewing videos within your account counts towards your monthly bandwidth usage

Storage

Video storage is the amount of space in terms of GBs that your video files take up on our servers. During the encoding process, multiple versions of your original video file are created, allowing playback on different devices, browsers, and internet connection speeds. Therefore, the final amount of space a video file takes up in your account might not correspond exactly to the original file, although it should be similar in total. Retaining the source video for your files will increase the amount of storage required. The amount of storage space you have access to corresponds with your subscription plan, and does not reset every month. The Seed, Sprout, Tree, and Forest plans each include different amounts of storage. If you exceed the included amount, you will be charged at the rate for extra GBs corresponding to your plan level. You can refer to the Manage Subscription page to view your plan details.

Overages

Overages are charges for extra bandwidth or storage that are incurred when you need more than the amount of either one included with your plan. We send email notifications when you use 80%, 90%, 100%, 120% of your bandwidth so that you can monitor your usage - we never want there to be any surprises!

If you ever have any questions about your bill or how the monthly billing works, please contact us and we will happily walk you through it.

How to set a Bandwidth Overage Cap

If you need to reduce your streaming to help avoid overages you can set a Bandwidth Overage cap. This will help to limit overage charges if you start to stream more bandwidth than is included in your plan.

NOTE: We do our best to disable streaming at your set limit, however, we cannot guarantee your account will not incur additional overage charges. If your videos are streaming at an abnormally high rate, it may be difficult for us detect the exact bandwidth used in real-time to prevent further streaming before overages occur.

To enable a Bandwidth Overage Cap navigate to Account > Account Settings > Usage. Scroll down until you see the “Set Bandwidth Overage Cap” toggle switch. Toggling this switch to “ON” enables you to set a limit on streaming beyond the amount of bandwidth included with your plan. Be sure to click the “Set Overage Cap” button when you are done.

Enabling this option will help limit the overage charges you will incur on your account.