# What Vercel Blob actually costs, and where egress hides

> Storage is cheap. Advanced operations and data transfer are the lines that grow. How each is counted, why private delivery can cost more, and the habits that keep the bill flat.

The Vercel Blob bill has more lines than "GB stored". Here is what each one
counts, using Vercel's published Pro example rates for `iad1`. Prices are
regional; check your store's region.

| Line | Counts | Example rate |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | Monthly average store size, sampled every 15 minutes | $0.023 per GB-month |
| Simple operations | `head()`, and URL reads that miss the cache | $0.40 per million |
| Advanced operations | `put()`, `upload()`, `copy()`, `list()` | $5.00 per million |
| Blob data transfer | Bytes downloaded from the store | $0.05 per GB |

Plus standard CDN lines: an Edge Request per URL access, and Fast Origin
Transfer on cache misses. `del()` is free.

Hobby includes 1 GB of storage, 10,000 simple operations, 2,000 advanced
operations and 10 GB of transfer a month, then stops. Blob stays off until the
30-day window passes. It does not bill you, it just stops working.

## Advanced operations grow fastest

- Every upload is one. A multipart upload is one to start, one per part, one
  to finish.
- Every `list()` call is one. A page that lists a user's files on every view
  burns them per view. Store keys in your database and query that.
- **The Vercel dashboard counts.** Refreshing the Blob browser runs `list()`.
  A teammate clicking through folders shows up on your bill.

## Egress: public vs private

Uploads are free when they are client uploads. Downloads are not.

- **Public blob:** the browser fetches from the store. You pay Blob data
  transfer (about 3x cheaper than Fast Data Transfer on average).
- **Private blob streamed through a function:** you pay Blob data transfer
  into the function, then Fast Data Transfer out to the browser. Two lines for
  the same bytes, plus function time.
- **Private blob via a presigned URL:** the browser fetches from the store
  with a signed, expiring URL. No function in the path.

Vercel's own guidance: avoid serving files over 100 MB through private stores
unless traffic is low, and put large public media in a public store.

## Cache hits are the cheap path

A cache hit is not a simple operation and has no Fast Origin Transfer.
Immutable pathnames and a long `cacheControlMaxAge` (one month is the
default) keep most reads as hits. Two ways to lose that:

- **Overwriting at the same pathname**, which forces misses and stale reads.
- **Blobs over 512 MB**, which are never cached. Every read is a miss.

## Habits that keep it flat

- Client uploads for user files. No transfer charge in, no function time.
- New pathname per version. Never overwrite a hot file.
- Delete orphans. Storage is averaged over the month, so a cleanup shows up
  gradually, not instantly.
- No `list()` on request paths.
- Resize images before storing them if they are shown small.
- On Pro, set a Spend Management amount so a runaway loop pages you instead
  of surprising you.

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