Bandwidth, Storage, and Additional Usage 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 additional usage.

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

Also, playback of Direct File Assets happens outside of the video player we provide so videos viewed using Direct Video File Access will not be tracked in our Analytics and Video Engagement Metrics.

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. 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.

Additional Usage

Additional usage charges include extra bandwidth and storage for videos incurred when you need more than the amount 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 Usage Cap

If you need to reduce your streaming to help avoid additional usage charges, you can set a bandwidth usage cap. This will help to limit additional usage if you start to stream more bandwidth than the amount included with your plan.

NOTE: We do our best to disable streaming at your set limit, however, we cannot guarantee your account will not incur additional usage 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 additional usage occurs.

To enable a Bandwidth Usage Cap navigate to Account > Account Settings > Usage. Scroll down until you see the “Set Bandwidth Usage 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 Usage Cap” button when you are done.

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