How does Oracle calculate data transfer costs?
In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), data transfer costs are calculated using a simple "geographic origin" model. Unlike other clouds that use complex tiers (e.g., 0–10TB, 10–50TB, 50–150TB), OCI uses a flat rate once you pass a very high free threshold.
Here is the breakdown of how your "rental" networking bill is calculated:
The first step in OCI’s calculation is subtracting 10 Terabytes from your total monthly outbound data transfer.
Calculation: Total GB Outbound - 10,240 GB = Billable Amount.
Per Region: This free allowance applies to each regional zone or product SKU, meaning if you have servers in both the US and London, you effectively get 10 TB of free egress in each location.
Once you exceed 10 TB, OCI calculates the cost based on where the data starts its journey. The destination (the internet) doesn't change the price, but the region your server sits in does:
| Originating Region | Cost Per GB (After 10 TB) |
| North America, Europe, & UK | $0.0085 |
| APAC, Japan, & South America | $0.025 |
| Middle East & Africa | $0.05 |
Oracle also calculates costs differently based on whether the data stays inside the Oracle network:
Intra-Region (Free): Data moving between Availability Domains (ADs) or Fault Domains within the same region (e.g., between two servers in Ashburn) is $0. This is a major cost saver compared to AWS/Azure, which often charge for cross-AZ traffic.
Inter-Region (Billable): Data moving between two OCI regions (e.g., US-East to London) is treated the same as internet egress. It counts toward your 10 TB free limit and is billed at the origin rates above once that limit is hit.
If you are renting a FastConnect line (a physical cable between your office and OCI), the calculation changes to a Port-Hour model:
No Data Charges: You pay $0 for every GB moved over a private virtual circuit.
Fixed Cost: You pay a flat hourly rate based on the port speed (e.g., ~$0.21/hr for 1 Gbps or ~$1.27/hr for 10 Gbps). This makes your networking costs 100% predictable, regardless of data volume.
If your data passes through a Flexible Load Balancer, OCI adds a "Bandwidth Unit" charge:
The Rate: $0.0001 per Mbps per hour.
Example: If you provision a load balancer with a 100 Mbps sustained load, you’ll pay roughly $7.20 per month for that bandwidth capacity, in addition to any egress fees if that traffic goes to the public internet.
If your application in Germany (Europe) sends 50 TB of data to your users on the internet:
Total Data: 50,000 GB
Minus Free Tier: 50,000 - 10,000 = 40,000 GB billable.
Apply Rate: 40,000 x $0.0085 = $340.00.
By comparison, the same 50 TB on a competitor's cloud could cost between $3,500 and $4,500.