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How the costs for Object Storage are structured

No matter whether you use our Object Storage to keep backups, as a repository for your container images or as a web server for your static assets, the storage space used is averaged over the day and charged to your account at midnight (Zurich local time). The daily costs also comprise a component for outbound network traffic (inbound traffic is free) and an amount for HTTPS requests made to your buckets and objects (also see our pricing).

Past use of your buckets at a glance

The most current data was already reported in our cloud control panel in the past so you could track occupancy and access statistics almost in real time. Now you can also display past usage data for your buckets. Instead of the "Live" view, set a freely selectable time frame to see the total quantity of outbound traffic and requests as well as the storage usage averaged over this period.

Using "Hide Deleted" you determine whether, for the shown Objects Users, the list should include buckets that have been deleted in the meantime. By the way, in order to ensure the best possible clarity of usage and costs, the dates in Objects Metrics always refer to local time in Zurich, regardless of the time zone you have specified for displaying times in your user account.

Even more data available in our API

Of course the Objects Metrics can be accessed via our API, too. The API also reports inbound traffic as well as the number of objects – averaged over the selected period – stored in the corresponding bucket. These two values have no impact on costs for our Object Storage, but can still be helpful for your usage evaluation. Furthermore, through the API you can also see usage by Objects Users that no longer exist.

If you need the metrics for a specific bucket or Objects User only, specify the desired filter directly in the API call:

$ curl -H "$AUTH_HEADER" 'https://api.cloudscale.ch/v1/metrics/buckets?start=2019-06-09&end=2019-06-11&bucket_name=mytestbucket'

{
  "start": "2019-06-08T22:00:00Z",
  "end": "2019-06-11T22:00:00Z",
  "data": [
    {
      "subject": {
        "name": "mytestbucket",
        "objects_user_id": "62c2...ab53"
      },
      "time_series": [
        {
          "start": "2019-06-08T22:00:00Z",
          "end": "2019-06-11T22:00:00Z",
          "usage": {
            "requests": 136,
            "object_count": 157,
            "storage_bytes": 18036937,
            "received_bytes": 10855616,
            "sent_bytes": 14278972
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

This ensures that output is limited to data that is actually relevant to you. It goes without saying that you can find all the details about calling the API in our API documentation.

With Objects Metrics, we provide you with a new tool for breaking down usage of our Object Storage by the day – be it spontaneously or in an automated manner, for your accounting team or for profiling a specific setup. Either way, with our Object Storage you only pay for what you actually use.

For the best transparency,
Your cloudscale.ch team