# Object storage usage and billing

> How Cloider bills object storage per GB stored, by the hour, what counts toward a bucket's size, and how to read a bucket's usage, cost and forecast.

Cloider bills object storage on one thing only: how much data your buckets store, per GB per month, charged by the hour. Requests, uploads, downloads and traffic are free. This page explains how the stored amount is measured, what counts toward it, how to see each bucket's usage and forecast, and how to keep the cost down.

## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Billed on** | Stored data, per GB per month, charged by the hour |
| **Measured** | Every few minutes, averaged over time |
| **Free** | Requests (PUT, GET, LIST, DELETE), uploads, downloads and traffic |
| **Counts toward storage** | Every file, every earlier version and delete marker kept by versioning, and parts of unfinished multipart uploads |
| **Price** | Shown on the **Create bucket** page, by `cloider pricing` and at [cloider.com/#pricing](https://cloider.com/#pricing) |
| **On the invoice** | An **Object Storage** line per bucket |
| **Where to see usage** | The bucket's **Usage** tab, the **Usage** page, `cloider bucket usage`, the API and MCP |

## How is object storage billed?

Cloider measures how many bytes each bucket stores every few minutes. You are charged for the average amount stored, at the storage price per GB per month, prorated to the hour. In practice:

- A bucket that stores 100 GB for a whole month costs 100 times the monthly price per GB.
- A bucket that stores 100 GB for 3 days, then is emptied, costs about 3 days' worth of 100 GB, about a tenth of the monthly amount.
- A file you upload and delete within the hour costs next to nothing.

There is no minimum size, no minimum storage duration, and no charge for an empty bucket. Requests and data transfer in both directions are free, so serving files from a [public bucket](/object-storage/public-and-private-buckets) doesn't add to the bill however often they are downloaded.

The sizes are measured in binary units: 1 GB in Cloider's usage figures is 1024³ bytes (1 GiB), which is how `cloider pricing` lists the price, per Gi.

### Find the current price

The **Create bucket** page shows the price per GB per month under the form. From the CLI:

```bash
cloider pricing
```

The `bucket` row, with the unit `storage per Gi`, is the price of one GiB stored for a month. Prices change, so check [cloider.com/#pricing](https://cloider.com/#pricing) or the [pricing reference](/reference/pricing) rather than copying an amount into your own documentation.

## What counts toward a bucket's size?

| Stored data | Counts? |
| --- | --- |
| Current files | Yes |
| Earlier versions kept by [versioning](/object-storage/versioning) | Yes |
| Delete markers | Yes (they are tiny) |
| Parts of multipart uploads that were never completed or aborted | Yes, until a [lifecycle rule](/object-storage/lifecycle-rules) or the tool aborts them |
| Empty folder markers created in the dashboard | Yes, zero bytes |
| Files you deleted from a bucket without versioning | No, from the next measurement |

The bucket's size shown in the dashboard and the CLI is the latest measurement, so it can lag a few minutes behind an upload or a delete.

## See a bucket's usage

**Dashboard**

1. Open **Buckets** in the sidebar and click the bucket.
2. Select the **Usage** tab.

It shows:

- **Avg. Stored (This Month)**: the average amount stored since the start of the month,
- **Stored Now**: the latest measurement,
- **Cost to Date (This Month)**,
- **Cost Forecast** for **This Month** and **Next Month**, if the bucket keeps storing what it stores now,
- daily charts of the average stored amount and the cost, with today's forecast on the last bar.

A new bucket shows `What the bucket stores is sampled every few minutes, and shows here once the first samples are in.` until the first measurements arrive.

The account wide **Usage** page in the sidebar lists every bucket next to your other resources. See [Usage](/account/usage).

**CLI**

```bash
cloider bucket usage acme-backups
```

```text title="Output"
Bucket:               acme-backups
Month:                2026-10
Average storage:      41.37 GiB
Cost so far:          $0.53
Forecast this month:  $0.83
Forecast next month:  $0.86

DATE        STORAGE    COST
2026-10-20  48.20 GiB  $0.03
2026-10-19  47.95 GiB  $0.03
2026-10-18  47.10 GiB  $0.03
```

The figures here are illustrative. `-o json` prints the API's answer. `cloider usage` shows the whole account, and `cloider bucket list` the current size of every bucket.

**Terraform**

Usage isn't exposed by the Terraform provider. Use the dashboard, the CLI or the API.

**API**

```bash
curl https://cloider.com/api/buckets/k9d4mz/usage \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOIDER_TOKEN"
```

```json title="Response (trimmed)"
{
  "hashed_id": "k9d4mz",
  "bucket_name": "acme-backups",
  "region": "eu-central-2",
  "size_bytes": 51754382131,
  "size_sampled_at": "2026-10-20T09:55:00Z",
  "monthly_usage": {
    "avg_storage_usage": 41.3712,
    "storage_total_cost": 0.5291,
    "total_cost": 0.5291,
    "days": 20,
    "forecast_this_month": 0.83,
    "forecast_next_month": 0.86
  },
  "daily_usage": [
    {
      "resource_type": "bucket",
      "date": "2026-10-20T00:00:00Z",
      "total_cost": 0.0266,
      "metrics": {"storage": 48.2, "storage_cost": 0.0266}
    }
  ],
  "date": "2026-10-20",
  "month": "2026-10"
}
```

`avg_storage_usage` and `metrics.storage` are in GiB. `daily_usage` holds up to the last 31 days. The account wide `GET /api/usage` lists every bucket under `buckets`.

**MCP**

```text title="Prompt"
How much is the acme-backups bucket costing this month?
```

It calls the `get_usage` tool for one bucket:

```json title="Tool call: get_usage"
{"kind": "bucket", "name": "acme-backups"}
```

Without arguments, `get_usage` returns the whole account, and `get_pricing` the current prices.

## How to reduce storage costs

- **Expire what you don't need.** A [lifecycle rule](/object-storage/lifecycle-rules) can delete temporary files, old logs and old backups automatically.
- **Limit version history.** Versioning keeps every overwritten and deleted file. Add a lifecycle rule with **Remove earlier versions after they've been replaced for** N days, so history is kept for as long as you need it and no longer.
- **Clean up unfinished uploads.** Interrupted multipart uploads leave invisible parts behind. A rule with **Clean up unfinished uploads after** 7 days removes them.
- **Compress before uploading.** Database dumps, logs and exports shrink a lot with `gzip` or `zstd`.
- **Delete buckets you don't use.** An empty bucket costs nothing, but forgotten data does. The **Size** column of the Buckets list shows where the data is.

## Billing and the Free plan

Buckets are billed like Cloider's other resources: the cost accrues as you go, appears on the [Usage](/account/usage) page, and is charged on your invoice under **Object Storage**. See the [billing model](/concepts/billing-model) and [Billing](/account/billing).

On the Free plan you can create one bucket. Accounts that are suspended can't create buckets until the account is back in good standing.

## Next steps

- [Expire files and versions with lifecycle rules](/object-storage/lifecycle-rules).
- [See all your usage](/account/usage).
- [Understand Cloider's billing model](/concepts/billing-model).