# Help on understanding how Egress work **URL:** \ **Category:** Product Discussions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893 "2024-01-10T15:55:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ptlhost](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/ptlhost/32/7825_2.png) [@Ptlhost](https://forum.storj.io/u/Ptlhost)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893/1 "2024-01-10T15:55:31Z")
Hi, i send my question to support and they said unless i add a payment method they cant help me and i have to come to the forum. This is what i asked as i am new to s3 storage below. Any help will be appreciated I have signed up for you free account and is new to s3 storage. I will be using it for doing backups from my websites and cloud vps and looks like i will need to upgrade to 1tb storage at a later stage What i want to know is how do **Egress work** Does it include the upload of files or is it just the download of files or if i should stream a file lile video/audio. i do know the storage is separate on its own Sorry for this question but i want to make sure i understand it correct Thanks Johan ---
**Author:** ![Knowledge](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/knowledge/32/10681_2.png) [@Knowledge](https://forum.storj.io/u/Knowledge)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893/3 "2024-01-10T16:19:32Z")
Egress in the case of billing is when someone pulls the data from Storj. Ingress is when you put data on Storj. If you are uploading data to a Storj bucket, that is Ingress. If you are downloading data from a Storj bucket, that is Egress. ---
**Author:** ![Roxor](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/letter_avatar/roxor/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@Roxor](https://forum.storj.io/u/Roxor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893/4 "2024-01-10T16:32:48Z")
To add to what others said: if you’ll be using Storj for backups… this works in your favor. You may upload backups to Storj many many times (daily, weekly, monthly, on-demand, whatever) and that is free. You always pay for the amount of data you store every month… but you only get charged extra bandwidth fees when you download your files (like restoring from a backup). You don’t restore very often. Hopefully never! 😉 So you’d have low/zero extra bandwidth fees. But… if you streamed files out of Storj all the time, that’s another story. That could cause bandwidth fees to grow and your monthly costs would go up. ---
**Author:** ![Ptlhost](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/ptlhost/32/7825_2.png) [@Ptlhost](https://forum.storj.io/u/Ptlhost)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893/5 "2024-01-10T20:12:40Z")
Thank you for explaining. i will mainly use it for backup ---
**Author:** ![bre](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/bre/32/69_2.png) [@bre](https://forum.storj.io/u/bre)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 7:48am UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/help-on-understanding-how-egress-work/24893/6 "2024-01-11T07:48:54Z")
Welcome to the Forum @Ptlhost ! This page will help you do your egress calculations when you are ready to upgrade your account > **[Understanding Storj Pricing Structure - Storj Docs](https://docs.storj.io/dcs/pricing)** > > Guides users on Storj's cost and billing system, explaining different metered services like object storage, egress bandwidth, segments, and their respective prices.