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Flat-Rate vs 95th Percentile Billing
How NoBull Networks measures 95th percentile bandwidth on colocation ports, and how to decide between a flat-rate port and a percentile commit.
Colocation bandwidth at NoBull Networks can be billed two ways: a flat-rate port with an unmetered speed, or a committed rate measured at the 95th percentile. Neither is "better"; they suit different traffic shapes. This guide explains how we measure the 95th percentile and how to pick.
Flat-rate ports#
You pay a fixed monthly price for a port at a given speed (1 Gbps or 10 Gbps) and use it as you like. One predictable number, no graphs to read. It is the right choice if you push steady traffic around the clock, or if you simply value predictability over squeezing the last dollar.
95th percentile commits#
You commit to a baseline rate (say 200 Mbps on a 1 Gbps port) and pay for that. The port itself still runs at full speed. Once a month we look at how you actually used it:
- We sample your port utilization every five minutes, all month, in both directions.
- We sort the samples from highest to lowest.
- We discard the top 5%. In a 30-day month that is about 36 hours of your very heaviest traffic, thrown away for free.
- The highest remaining value is your billable rate, measured against your committed baseline. At or below the commit, you pay the commit. Above it, you pay for the excess at the per-Mbps rate on your quote.
The effect is that bursts, spikes, and a couple of busy days each month cost you nothing, while sustained usage is billed fairly. That is why the model exists.
Which should I choose?#
| Your traffic | Usually cheaper | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Steady around the clock (streaming origin, replication, always-busy APIs) | Flat-rate | Little to discard, so the 95th percentile ends up near your peak anyway. |
| Bursty (game launches, backups windows, daytime-only audiences, batch transfers) | 95th percentile | The busiest 36 hours a month are free burst headroom, and the commit can be sized to your baseline. |
| Unknown or growing | Ask us | Send 30 days of traffic graphs with your quote request and we will run both models for you. |
A worked example#
A port that idles at 150 Mbps most of the day, climbs to 600 Mbps for a few evening hours, and hits 950 Mbps during a weekly maintenance push has 8,640 five-minute samples in a 30-day month. Dropping the top 432 (5%) removes the maintenance peaks and most of the evening spike. The 95th percentile lands somewhere near 500 Mbps: that is what you are billed against, not the 950 Mbps peak. On a 200 Mbps commit you would pay for 300 Mbps of excess; on a flat 1 Gbps port you would pay the flat price whatever the graph did. Which is cheaper depends on the numbers in your quote, and we will show you both.
Watching your usage#
Ask for your port graphs at any time, or export them from your own switch or router. If you find yourself consistently above the commit, raising the commit is usually cheaper than paying for the excess every month, and it is a ticket rather than a contract renegotiation. See Request a Colocation Quote.
VPS and VDS are different#
Virtual servers are not billed on the 95th percentile at all: they have a fixed port speed and a monthly transfer allowance in terabytes. That model is described in Bandwidth, Monthly Transfer, and Overage.
