What are egress fees?

Egress fees are what a cloud provider charges to send your own data out of their network to the internet or another cloud. Storing and uploading data is usually cheap or free; getting it back out - especially to leave - is where the meter runs. Because the fee scales with how much data you have, it grows into a switching barrier exactly when you most want to move.

Why do egress fees act as vendor lock-in?

The more data you accumulate on a provider, the more expensive it becomes to leave - so the cost of switching rises over time even if the alternative is cheaper to run. The UK Competition and Markets Authority found in 2025 that egress fees are a major disincentive to switching, and the EU Data Act bans switching and egress charges from January 2027. Some providers (Cloudflare R2, Backblaze with conditions) already charge $0 egress specifically to remove that barrier.

How accurate are these numbers?

The calculator uses published, tiered per-GB egress pricing dated in the tool, computed entirely in your browser. Cloud pricing changes often and varies by region and destination, so treat the result as a well-grounded estimate for internet egress, not a quote - always check the provider's current pricing page before making a decision.

Free tool · Runs in your browser · Dated pricing

What does it cost to leave?

Storing data is cheap. Getting it back out is where your provider makes leaving expensive. Enter how much data you'd need to move and see the real egress bill to walk away — per provider, and who charges $0.

Data to move out

Currently on

Why the exit bill is the real lock-in

Compute and storage you can shop around on. Egress is different: the more data you keep on a provider, the more it costs to take it with you when you go — so your switching cost rises the longer you stay, even when a cheaper home exists. That's not a side effect; it's the mechanism. A regulator put it plainly: egress is, in providers' own words to the CMA, “the most important obstacle to switching.”

The fix isn't a coupon — it's owning the exit. When your data and runtime live on infrastructure you control, there is no egress toll to leave, because there's no gate. That's the whole premise behind running your backend on your own servers.

Related free tools

Cloud lock-in checkerHow locked in are you?Bill-shock predictorWill your bill surprise you?Migration scaffold generatorDockerfile + runbook to leave Self-hosting cost estimatorYour cost on a box you own

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No gate, no toll.

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What does it cost to leave?

Egress to move that data out, by provider

Why the exit bill is the real lock-in

No gate, no toll.

Get the portability playbook