Storage and traffic

This page explains how storage and traffic are calculated in Sånn.

Combined quota

Storage and traffic share a combined quota. This means there’s a direct trade-off between how much you store and how much streaming traffic is available.

At the end of each billing period, two values are calculated automatically:

1. Storage – the total amount of data stored in your binder
2. Traffic – the bandwidth used to stream your videos that month

The sum of these two values makes up the total usage for the period.

Example

With a quota of 5 TB:

	Value
Total storage	100 GB
Available for streaming	4.9 TB

The formula is simple:

Available bandwidth = Quota - Stored data

The less you store, the more bandwidth is available for streaming – and vice versa.

What counts as storage?

All content you upload to your binder counts against the storage quota:

• Videos – the original file (usually MP4) plus the converted version (see below)
• Documents – PDFs, Word files, and other uploaded files
• Images – images uploaded as standalone content or as thumbnails
• Subtitles – WebVTT files linked to videos

How videos are processed

Videos go through a special process that affects your storage usage:

1. When you upload a video, the original file (usually an MP4) is stored. This counts against your quota.
2. The video is then sent to Infomaniak VOD for conversion to HLS and DASH format – also known as adaptive streaming (multi-bitrate).
3. The converted version is stored at Infomaniak and also counts against your total quota.

This means a single video can take up more space than just the original file alone.

Why are videos converted?

Adaptive streaming splits the video into many small segments at different qualities. This provides several benefits:

• Automatic quality adjustment – quality adapts to the viewer’s bandwidth and screen resolution
• More stable playback – streaming is less vulnerable to unstable networks, for example on public transport
• Better content protection – it’s harder to download the content by grabbing the MP4 link directly

What counts as traffic?

Only video streaming counts as traffic:

• Streaming videos by your users
• Downloading videos

Traffic from images and documents does not count against the quota.

Monthly reset

• Traffic resets to zero on your billing date each month
• Storage does not reset – it persists until you delete files

After the reset, the full quota is available again for the new period, minus what is already stored.

What happens if you exceed the quota?

If you’re approaching or exceeding the quota, you have several options:

1. Delete content you no longer need – especially videos, which take up the most space
2. Upgrade your plan for more capacity