Private Connectivity Break-Even Calculator
Find the monthly volume at which a private connection costs less than sending the same traffic over the internet.
Each one fills in the fields below for a typical workload of that kind. You can change any of them.
The connection
Your side of the connection
- Option
- Direct Connect dedicated, 10 Gbps
- Internet egress
- $7,810.20
- Private pays above
- 87 TB a month
100 TB a month on AWS, list prices.
Options at 100 TB a month
| Option | A month | Beats internet above |
|---|---|---|
| Internet egress | $7,810.20 | Baseline |
| Direct Connect dedicated, 10 GbpsLowest cost | $7,168.33 | 87 TB a month |
| Direct Connect flat-rate, 10 Gbps, Tier 1Covers traffic from region in the same metro as the port | $9,884.13 | 130 TB a month |
Internet egress$7,810.20 a month, $0.0781 a GB
| AWS internet tiersFrom $0.09 a GB, falling with volume, after the free allowance | $7,810.20 |
| Total | $7,810.20 |
Direct Connect dedicated, 10 Gbps$7,168.33 a month, $0.0717 a GB
Uses 3% of what a 10 Gbps connection carries in a month (3.29 PB).
| Direct Connect dedicated, 10 Gbps, resilient$2.25 an hour a port, plus $0.02 a GB out; two connections | $3,285.00 |
| Data transfer out$0.02 a GB over the connection | $2,000.00 |
| Carrier circuitYour figure, all circuits | $1,500.00 |
| Cross-connectYour figure, all cross-connects | $300.00 |
| Installation, spread$1,000.00 over 12 months | $83.33 |
| Total | $7,168.33 |
Direct Connect flat-rate, 10 Gbps, Tier 1$9,884.13 a month, $0.0988 a GB
Uses 3% of what a 10 Gbps connection carries in a month (3.29 PB).
| Direct Connect flat-rate, 10 Gbps, Tier 1, resilient$10.96 an hour for one port, $10.96 for a port-pair; no per-GB charge | $8,000.80 |
| Carrier circuitYour figure, all circuits | $1,500.00 |
| Cross-connectYour figure, all cross-connects | $300.00 |
| Installation, spread$1,000.00 over 12 months | $83.33 |
| Total | $9,884.13 |
At other volumes
| A month | Internet | dedicated 10G | flat-rate 10G, Tier 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 TB | $891.00 | $5,368.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 25 TB | $2,167.20 | $5,668.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 50 TB | $4,292.20 | $6,168.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 100 TB | $7,810.20 | $7,168.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 250 TB | $16,382.20 | $10,168.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 500 TB | $28,882.20 | $15,168.33 | $9,884.13 |
| 1 PB | $53,882.20 | $25,168.33 | $9,884.13 |
Lowest in each row in green. Volumes above 3.29 PB need more than one 10 Gbps connection.
What this means
- A private connection pays for itself here
Direct Connect dedicated, 10 Gbps costs $7,168.33 a month against $7,810.20 over the internet, $641.87 less, $7,702.40 a year. It ranks first on the carrier and term you entered; change them and the answer can change.
- Direct Connect flat-rate, 10 Gbps, Tier 1 beats pay-as-you-go above 236 TB a month
Below that, Direct Connect dedicated, 10 Gbps plus $0.02 a GB costs less. 236 TB is 7% of what a 10 Gbps connection can carry in a month. Covers traffic from region in the same metro as the port.
What this model assumes
Show
- A month is 730 hours, the figure all three providers use. Ports, circuits and gateways bill every hour whether or not traffic flows, which is why low volumes favor the internet.
- Internet egress shares one tier ladder. Traffic to users already on the internet is priced first, so moving the data-center traffic off it saves the marginal rate. Free allowances are included.
- Flat-rate options carry no per-GB charge for the traffic they cover: AWS flat-rate Direct Connect for the regions in its tier, Azure ExpressRoute Unlimited and Local for all outbound data. Google has no flat option.
- Azure includes the gateway. Private peering needs an ExpressRoute gateway in the virtual network: ErGw1AZ for 1 Gbps, ErGw3AZ for 10 Gbps. Each circuit is already two links.
- Your carrier figures decide the answer. The circuit, cross-connect and installation are quotes only you have; the defaults are placeholders. Connection traffic is priced at the same-continent rate.
- Not counted: partner fees for hosted or Partner Interconnect connections beyond the carrier line, routers and firewalls on your side, and negotiated discounts.
Prices verified 18 Oct 2026. List prices in USD for North America and Europe, plus the rates you enter.
Already paying for data transfer?
Cloud Cost Audit: We read your bill, separate internet, private connection and cross-region lines, and tell you whether a connection would pay for itself. From $1,500, fixed. Nothing paid upfront.
Questions
When is Direct Connect cheaper than internet egress?
When the per-GB saving covers the fixed fees. Direct Connect carries data out for $0.02 a GB against $0.05 to $0.09 to the internet, so every GB saves 3 to 7 cents, but the port, the carrier circuit and the cross-connect cost the same every month. With a resilient 10 Gbps link and a $1,500 carrier, that is roughly 90 TB a month; with a single 1 Gbps link and a cheaper carrier, far less.
What is AWS Direct Connect flat-rate pricing?
A fixed hourly price for a 10 or 100 Gbps connection with no per-GB data transfer out for the regions its tier covers. A 10 Gbps port or port-pair is $10.96 an hour at Tier 1 (a region in the same metro), $17.12 at Tier 2 and $23.29 at Tier 3. It beats pay-as-you-go only at high, steady volumes.
ExpressRoute Metered or Unlimited?
Metered charges $0.025 a GB out on top of the circuit; Unlimited includes all outbound data for a higher monthly fee ($5,700 against $436 at 1 Gbps in Zone 1). Unlimited wins above about 210 TB a month at 1 Gbps. ExpressRoute Local includes egress for less, but only to Azure regions in the same metro.
Does Google Cloud have a flat-rate Interconnect?
No. Dedicated Interconnect is $2.328 an hour for 10 Gbps plus $0.10 for each VLAN attachment, and data out costs $0.02 a GiB in the United States, Canada and Europe whatever the volume.
Is inbound traffic over a private connection charged?
No. All three clouds charge nothing for data coming in, over the internet or a private connection. The break-even is about traffic leaving the cloud: backups home, hybrid applications and reports.
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This prices a connection you might order. Finitizer prices the traffic you already send.
Finitizer reads data transfer from your bill, separates internet, private connection and cross-region lines, and shows which of them a connection or a placement change would remove.
See how Finitizer works