Files.com is a cloud-based Managed File Transfer service that supports a wide range of integration scenarios, including access to both cloud and on-premise storage solutions. Given the variety of ways customers use our platform, the topic of Billable Usage can be somewhat complex.

Our approach to calculating Billable Usage is designed to be as customer-friendly as possible. When integrating with third-party apps and services, we strive to ensure that file transfers only pass through the Files.com network when necessary for security or performance reasons. For many popular app and integration combinations, we enable direct file transfers from your application to other cloud or on-premise services, reducing unnecessary data movement. More details on this can be found below.

When file transfers and storage do utilize the Files.com network, our pricing remains transparent and flexible, with no minimum commitments. Rates start at $0.10 per gigabyte and can decrease to as low as $0.03 per gigabyte with an annual commitment. If you're interested in exploring annual commitment options, please contact us for more details.

We calculate your bill based on a single monthly metric called "Usage," which represents your total billable usage of the Files.com service. This Usage number consists of two components: Storage Usage and Transfer Usage.

Admins can find details about Usage information on the Usage page of your site.

Usage information is available for Storage Usage, Transfer Usage, Users and API Calls.

Usage Calculation Timing

Usage is measured over a 30-day Usage Period for as long as your account remains active.

For accounts billed monthly, the Usage Period aligns with your monthly billing cycle. If your account is billed annually, the annual billing term is divided into twelve separate Usage Periods. For accounts billed on other intervals, we apply the same 30-day Usage Period structure within each billing term.

Each Usage Period is evaluated independently, meaning any unused usage does not roll over to the next period.

Storage Usage

Storage Usage applies to files actually stored on Files.com. Files stored on a Remote Server Mount, such as Azure, S3, Box, etc., do not count at all toward this category of Usage.

Active Files are the set of files that at any given time either were uploaded to your account within the last 30 days (whether or not they are currently deleted), or were uploaded to your account more than 30 days ago, and not yet permanently deleted.

Deleted files backed up, which are files that are deleted but retained because you have enabled our feature to keep deleted files for possible restoration, are not counted as permanently deleted. If you have disabled this feature, then files are treated as permanently deleted as soon as they are deleted.

Recent file uploads deleted, which are files uploaded within the past 30 days and then deleted, are counted as Active Files.

We calculate your Storage Usage multiple times a day; therefore, changes, including deletions, are not reflected in real-time. When you delete files to reduce disk usage, the files will be deleted immediately, but the updated Storage Usage, including the Active Files and folder breakdown under the current storage snapshot, may take up to 24 hours to reflect these changes.

Storage Usage is calculated by taking the sum of the actual number of bytes contained in each “Active Files” plus a 64kb “Overhead” per file. The Overhead is to account for the storage costs of metadata such as logs, behaviors, permissions, and notifications associated with each file, as well as overhead costs that are passed through to us by Amazon S3.

For each Usage Period, we consider your overall Storage Usage to be the highest level of Storage Usage recorded during that Usage Period.

User Count or has no relation to storage usage. Your site's Storage Usage will not be reduced if you disable or remove users.

Transfer Usage

Transfer Usage is the sum of the total number of bytes transferred to or from the Files.com network on behalf of your site during the Usage Period, regardless of the interface used.

Files.com offers storage in various Regions around the globe (for example: Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Germany are each considered a separate region). Transfer Usage is calculated for each Region and then summed together. Moving or copying a file from one Region to another is counted as Transfer Usage in the sending Region, plus its upload date for the purpose of Storage Usage is reset.

Many activities related to Remote Server Sync or Remote Server Mount result in billable Transfer Usage, but many do not. The below points summarize which activities are billable with regard to Remote Server Sync or Remote Server Mount:

• Syncing files between Files.com and another Files.com site (either direction) is not billable Usage to either Files.com customer.
• Syncing files between Files.com and any other type of Remote Server Sync (both directions) is billable Usage.

Uploading files to a Remote Server Mount or Downloading files from a Remote Server Mount results in billable Transfer Usage if that data traffic actually flows through Files.com's network. See the next section to learn exactly when this happens.

When Does Traffic Flow Through Files.com's Network For Remote Server Mount

Traffic always flows through Files.com’s network when FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV is used in any way, regardless of whether Files.com is acting as the client or the server. However, if you are using one of Files.com’s recommended client apps—including the Desktop App for Windows and Mac, the iOS or Android App, or the CLI App for Windows, Mac, and Linux—Files.com will route upload and download traffic directly to the Remote Server Mount when the remote server securely supports this capability. In these cases, the usage is not billable because the traffic does not pass through Files.com’s network.

This direct routing capability is fully supported for Amazon S3 and partially supported for Wasabi, Backblaze, and other S3-compatible remote server types.

We are actively exploring ways to extend this functionality to our integrations with Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, and Rackspace.

If enabling direct uploads for any of these remote services without incurring usage charges is important to you, please reach out and let us know.

Usage Caps, Limits, or Reports by User or Folder

Files.com does not currently offer the ability to set limits, quotas, nor report on Usage by user, folder, or inbox.

We do have customers achieving similar goals by using our Webhooks to update an external database of usage by user or folder.

For example, a Webhook includes a parameter indicating the size of the files being transferred.

When a user's measured "usage" reaches your predefined limit, you could disable the user's access via the API or SDK (set the user's disabled attribute to true) and delete any files you wish. Then, re-enable the user again via the API or the web interface when you deem it appropriate.