What Is 95th Percentile Billing?
95th percentile billing is a common method used by ISPs and data centres to measure and charge for bandwidth usage. Instead of billing based on your absolute peak usage, it allows for occasional traffic bursts without penalty.
Bandwidth usage is sampled every 5 minutes throughout the month. At the end of the billing cycle, the top 5% of the highest usage samples are discarded. The next highest value — the 95th percentile — becomes your billable rate.
How It Works
- Traffic is measured every 5 minutes (≈8,640 samples/month)
- The top 5% (≈432 samples) are discarded
- The highest remaining value is your billable bandwidth
- Short bursts are ignored — only sustained usage is billed
This method is ideal for businesses with variable traffic patterns, allowing them to burst above their committed rate without incurring extra charges — as long as those bursts are infrequent.
Example
Suppose you have a 1 Gbps port. Your traffic spikes to 900 Mbps a few times during the month, but typically stays around 400 Mbps. With 95th percentile billing, those brief spikes are excluded — and you’re only billed for the 95th percentile value (e.g. 450 Mbps).
Need help understanding your bandwidth usage or billing? Contact our support team for a breakdown or custom traffic report.