Definition
The total amount of outbound traffic from a website*, typically measured in gigabytes (Gb).
Information
* typically excludes email.
The difference between bandwidth and data transfer causes much confusion and is worth noting.
Bandwidth is a rate and data transfer is a total. For example, you might buy bandwidth of 128 kbps for a maximum monthly data transfer of roughly 40 GB.
| 128 kbps | = bits | = bytes |
| per second | 128,000 | 16,000 |
| per minute | 7,680,000 | 960,000 |
| per hour | 460,800,000 | 57,600,000 |
| per day | 11,059,200,000 | 1,382,400,000 |
| per month | 331,776,000,000 | 41,472,000,000 |
| divide by one billion ~41 gigabytes/month |
Note: many hosts use the terms bandwidth and data transfer interchangeably, referring to a monthly data allowance as bandwidth.
see also: Web Hosting Tools
Related Terms
view all terms in the Web Hosting glossary or all terms in the Digital Marketing glossary