Bandwidth explained: what happens when you exceed it
Bandwidth is the amount of data your website sends to visitors each month. Every time someone loads a page, downloads a file, or watches a video on your site, that counts against your plan's bandwidth allowance. This guide explains what happens when you run out and what your options are.
How bandwidth works
- Every visit to your site transfers data: the page itself, images, files, and video all count.
- Your hosting plan has a monthly bandwidth allowance. You can see your usage in cPanel: How to Check Resource Usage and Statistics for my website
- Bandwidth resets each month. It is not a debt that carries over.
What happens when you exceed it
When your site uses more bandwidth than its allowance:
- You receive a notice that the limit has been reached.
- The site may be temporarily restricted or taken offline until the month resets or the limit is addressed.
- Your site itself is fine - nothing is deleted, and normal service returns once the limit is resolved.
Your options
- Wait for the monthly reset if the spike was temporary.
- Buy a temporary bandwidth pack to keep the site running for the rest of the month: Disk Space and Bandwidth Packs
- Upgrade to a plan with a higher allowance if high usage is normal for you: Upgrading Your Hosting Package
How to use less bandwidth
- Compress images before uploading. Photos straight from a phone can use ten times the bandwidth they need.
- Move video to YouTube or Vimeo. Video is usually the single biggest bandwidth user: Why is my website slow? A checklist before you ask us
- Turn on hotlink protection so other websites cannot use your images without permission: Hotlink Protection
- Use caching so repeat visitors do not re-download everything on every visit.
Disk space is a different limit
Bandwidth is about data moving in and out; disk space is about how much your account can store. For disk limits see: Disk Space Quotas Explained.
If your site regularly hits its bandwidth limit, tell us what you are hosting and we can recommend the most cost-effective fix - it is often something simple like moving your video.
