Egress Fees (Data Transfer Out)

Egress fees are what cloud providers charge to move data out of their network — to the public internet, to another region, or sometimes to another provider. Data coming in (ingress) is usually free; data going out is metered per gigabyte. Why it matters: egress is the classic hidden line item that turns a predictable cloud bill into a surprise. A media-heavy app, a data pipeline shipping to a warehouse elsewhere, or a multi-cloud setup can rack up serious egress charges that dwarf the compute cost. It's also a deliberate lever for lock-in: cheap to put data in, expensive to take it out. Practical note: front large or repeated downloads with a CDN to cut origin egress, keep chatty services in the same region and availability zone, and model egress explicitly when comparing providers. Some newer object-storage vendors advertise zero egress fees specifically to break this trap — factor that into total cost of ownership.