"Unmetered bandwidth" is marketing for "we will throttle you if you stand out." Every unmetered plan has a real cap buried in the TOS under "Fair Use." Real caps vary from 10GB/hour to undocumented CPU-based throttles. Here is what unmetered really means and how to know what you are actually getting.
Key Takeaways
- "Unmetered" means "no per-GB billing" — not "no limit."
- Throttling is triggered by CPU, concurrent connections, or sustained throughput — not just bandwidth total.
- A typical small site uses 2–20 GB/month; the cap rarely hits personal sites.
- A popular site at 100k+ monthly visits can hit throttles even if under the advertised plan.
- LaunchPad Host publishes actual bandwidth numbers — no "unmetered" in marketing.
"Unmetered" defined by the TOS
Every "unmetered" or "unlimited bandwidth" plan has a TOS section defining fair use. Representative text:
"Our shared hosting plans include 'unmetered' bandwidth, meaning we do not charge on a per-GB basis. However, in the event that your site consumes resources significantly greater than typical shared-hosting usage, including but not limited to sustained high CPU, memory, inode, or concurrent-connection usage, we reserve the right to throttle or suspend service."
Key words: "reserve the right to throttle." Translation: there is a real cap; we will decide when you hit it.
Typical implementations:
- CPU-second cap per 24-hour window — e.g., 28,800 CPU-seconds per day (= 8 full hours on 1 core)
- Entry-process limit — concurrent connections, typically 20–40
- Sustained-throughput cap — e.g., 10 GB per hour
- Monthly soft-cap — e.g., 2 TB per month before the host investigates
How throttling actually gets applied
Throttling is rarely a bandwidth-specific technical control — it is usually a CPU or connection limit that has bandwidth as a side effect:
- Your site starts serving 50 concurrent requests due to a traffic spike.
- CloudLinux LVE kicks in: only 20 concurrent entry processes are allowed. Excess requests queue.
- Queued requests time out after 30 seconds, returning 503 errors to users.
- From the user's perspective, your site is "slow." Technically, the CPU limit is enforcing the bandwidth cap.
This means "unmetered bandwidth" can be practically exceeded long before any bandwidth number is hit. You do not need to transfer 1TB to be throttled — you need to serve a lot of concurrent requests.
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See Hosting PlansReal thresholds on popular hosts
Documented or leaked thresholds on budget shared plans, 2026:
| Host | Advertised | Practical throttle point |
|---|---|---|
| HostGator Hatchling | "Unmetered" | ~50k visits/month |
| Bluehost Basic | "Unmetered" | ~25k visits/month |
| GoDaddy Economy | "Unmetered" | ~50k visits/month |
| Hostinger Premium | "Unlimited" | ~100k visits/month |
| SiteGround StartUp | "10k visits/month" | ~10k stated, enforced ~15k |
| LaunchPad Host Starter | "25k visits/month at 2GB/month outbound" | ~25k stated, burst to 50k OK for short periods |
| LaunchPad Host Growth | "100k visits/month at 10GB/month outbound" | ~100k stated |
The SiteGround and LaunchPad Host approach — stating the number — is rarer, but increasingly common among hosts that want to differentiate on transparency.
What happens when you hit the cap
Three possible host responses:
- Silent throttle. Your site gets slower, visitors experience timeouts, and you do not get an email. You discover it from analytics or user complaints. Common at budget shared hosts.
- Throttle with notification. Email within 24 hours explaining what happened. Includes recommendations to upgrade or optimize.
- Suspension. Site is offline; you get an email saying "we suspended for excessive usage." Requires opening a support ticket to restore. This is the forced-upgrade path — see the related article on that.
The silent throttle is the worst experience because you do not know it is happening. Analytics showing a plateau or decline despite growing marketing effort is often the symptom.
What honest bandwidth disclosure looks like
Hosts that publish actual numbers:
- SiteGround: "10,000 visits per month" on StartUp, "100,000" on GrowBig, etc. Clearly labeled. Overage triggers email, not suspension.
- Cloudways: Measured in total outbound bandwidth GB — 1–4TB depending on plan. Stated in GB.
- Kinsta: Visits per month (25k / 100k / 250k / etc.) and bandwidth allocation stated separately. Overage is priced, not penalized.
- LaunchPad Host: Visits per month + outbound GB per month, stated on the pricing page. Overage is billed at $0.10/GB, not suspension. You have to opt in to overage billing; default is throttle-with-notification.
The principle: a customer deserves to know what they are buying. "Unmetered" is not a number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Check Google Analytics 4 or your server logs. A small personal site is typically 500–5000 visits/month. A mid-size blog or business: 10k–50k. Anything higher puts you near the throttle zone on budget shared hosts.
A visit is one user arriving; a pageview is each page they load. One visit = 2–5 pageviews typically. Hosts usually measure visits (uniques per day) for capacity planning.
Significantly yes. Cloudflare's CDN serves cached HTML and assets directly, so the origin server (your host) only sees cache-miss traffic. 80% of requests are handled by Cloudflare, which reduces your host-side bandwidth and CPU usage proportionally.
Yes — mostly via CPU, not bytes. Each WordPress page load hits PHP and MySQL. A static page uses zero CPU. Caching (page cache or CDN) converts dynamic sites into effectively static for most visitors.
Depends on the host. The best ones email proactively when you hit 70% of your plan's limit. Budget hosts typically do not warn until you're throttled or suspended.
Most small business sites stay under 10 GB/month outbound. Unless you serve video or large downloads, bandwidth is not the constraint — CPU from WordPress queries is.
Email notification at 80% of limit. Throttle-with-notification at 100%. Option to bill overage at $0.10/GB if you opt in. No suspension without 48-hour notice and support engagement.
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See Hosting PlansRelated tools, articles & authoritative sources
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