What is the difference between bandwidth, traffic and port speed?
Short answer
Traffic (often sold as 'bandwidth') is how many terabytes you can transfer per month. Port speed is the maximum rate at any moment, such as 1 Gbps.
Checked October 14, 2026. How we rank
In more detail
A 1 Gbps port running flat out moves about 320 TB in a month, so a 2 TB allowance runs out quickly for media or VPN use. Overage fees range from about $1 to $10 per TB; some hosts throttle instead of billing.