Introducing Usage-Based Billing: Soft Limits, No Service Cutoffs

Today, we are beginning the rollout of usage-based billing on top of every FiveMesh subscription.

Starter, Growth and Pro still have a predictable monthly price. Each plan now includes a monthly allowance for CDN storage, CDN requests, CDN bandwidth, Cache requests and Cache bandwidth. If a community uses more than an included amount, FiveMesh keeps serving traffic. Once overage charging is enabled, only the additional usage will be charged.

Usage tracking starts today. Overage charging does not. We are targeting mid-to-late August 2026 to enable it, after an observation period in which we can validate the allowances and rates against real production usage.

There is no automatic CDN shutdown in the middle of an event. Cache does not stop delivering resources while players are connecting. A busy day does not turn into an infrastructure incident because a counter crossed 100%.

That is what we mean by a soft usage limit.

Why we made this change

Infrastructure usage is not perfectly flat.

A FiveM server can have a quiet week followed by a major update, an event or a surge of new players. A phone script can suddenly produce more photos and videos. A resource release can increase Cache traffic while players download a new pack. Even a healthy, well-operated server can have months that are busier than expected.

Hard limits handle those moments badly. They force a server owner to choose between paying for unused capacity every month or accepting that an important service might stop when it is needed most.

Pure pay-as-you-go pricing has the opposite problem. It can make a normal invoice difficult to predict and turns every request into something a team feels it has to watch.

We did not choose the allowances from an abstract infrastructure spreadsheet. We reviewed how FiveMesh customers use CDN and Cache today and combined that with several months of relevant usage from sCloud. That history helped us estimate what normal operation looks like across small servers, active communities and unusually demanding workloads.

The commercial goal is straightforward: an ordinary server should receive enough included capacity that usage billing stays out of the way, while a server consuming far more infrastructure than its subscription includes should contribute to that additional cost. This keeps us from quietly subsidizing exceptional usage through every other customer's subscription.

We wanted a calmer model:

1. A subscription provides a clear base price and a large amount of included usage.
2. Normal monthly operation stays inside that subscription for most communities.
3. If traffic goes beyond the allowance, service continues without interruption.
4. Once charging is enabled, only the usage above the included amount is billed as overage.
5. If higher usage becomes normal, the next plan can provide better value and more operational capacity.

The result keeps FiveMesh predictable for everyday use without making infrastructure fragile during growth.

Tracking starts now, charging starts later

As of July 30, FiveMesh is tracking all five usage resources against the new plan allowances. Customers can use the billing dashboard to see how their real activity compares with the included amounts.

Overages recorded during this initial observation period are not being charged. We plan to enable overage charging in mid-to-late August 2026, and usage from before activation will not be retroactively added to an invoice.

We will monitor usage every day during this period and continue monitoring it after charging begins. We will look at how often customers approach an allowance, which resources create the largest differences between communities, how temporary traffic spikes behave and whether the plan recommendations remain sensible.

The current allowances and overage rates are carefully researched starting values, but they are not necessarily the final word. If production data shows that an allowance is too restrictive or a rate needs refinement, we can adjust it before charging begins. Any adjustment during this rollout is intended to make the model more generous or more accurate for customers, not to create a surprise charge.

We would rather spend a few weeks measuring the system openly than pretend the first numbers can never be improved.

Subscriptions first, usage second

Usage-based billing does not replace subscriptions.

Your plan still determines the monthly base price, the number of registered servers, organization capacity, Voice capacity, analytics retention and support level. It also provides the included CDN and Cache usage that will be consumed before any future overage is charged.

If you stay within every included allowance, your bill remains the plan price. There is no per-request charge hiding underneath the subscription.

Once charging is enabled, overage will start only after an allowance has been used. For example, Starter includes 1 TB of CDN bandwidth. If a workspace delivers 1.4 TB during a future billed cycle, only the additional 0.4 TB will be charged:

Starter subscription          €9.00
Included CDN bandwidth        1.00 TB
Measured CDN bandwidth        1.40 TB
Billable overage              0.40 TB × €3.00 = €1.20
Estimated total               €10.20

During the current observation period, that same workspace still pays the €9 Starter subscription. The €1.20 overage is visible as a preview, not added to the invoice.

The same principle applies independently to storage, requests and Cache traffic. Crossing an allowance does not retroactively make all of that month's usage billable.

What each plan includes

All three plans include FiveMesh CDN, FiveMesh Cache and FiveMesh Voice. The main differences are the amount of infrastructure included, the number of servers and team members the plan can support, analytics retention and support.

The prices below use EUR, our default billing currency. FiveMesh also displays subscription and overage pricing in the other supported billing currencies.

	Starter	Growth	Pro
Monthly subscription	€9	€29	€49
Registered servers	1	Up to 3	Up to 5
Additional organization members	4	9	19
FiveMesh Voice capacity	1 server	Up to 3 servers	Up to 5 servers
CDN storage	50 GB	200 GB	500 GB
CDN requests	5 million	25 million	100 million
CDN bandwidth	1 TB	5 TB	20 TB
Cache requests	5 million	25 million	100 million
Cache bandwidth	2 TB	10 TB	50 TB
Analytics retention	7 days	30 days	90 days
Support	Standard	Standard	Priority

Starter is designed for one production server. It includes the complete CDN and Cache products, Voice capacity for that server and enough monthly infrastructure for many communities to operate without an overage.

Growth increases every usage allowance substantially while adding room for up to three servers and a larger organization. It is a good fit for growing communities, small server networks and teams that need more history or expect regular traffic beyond Starter.

Pro is for larger or more demanding operations. It raises the included CDN and Cache usage again, supports up to five servers and nineteen additional organization members, keeps analytics for ninety days and includes priority support.

Plan prices and included usage are not promises that every server has the same traffic profile. A media-heavy roleplay server and a lightweight development server can have very different requirements even with similar player counts. The pricing calculator can estimate all three plans from player activity or from exact monthly usage.

Why most servers should barely notice the limits

The included allowances are meant to cover real operation, not to create an overage at the first sign of traffic.

Even Starter begins with 50 GB of CDN storage, 5 million CDN requests, 1 TB of CDN delivery, 5 million Cache requests and 2 TB of Cache delivery each month. These are separate allowances: using Cache bandwidth does not consume the CDN bandwidth allowance, and CDN requests do not reduce the Cache request allowance.

For many single-server communities, that leaves meaningful room for inventory images, phone media, loading-screen assets and repeated resource downloads before an overage appears. Growth and Pro then multiply those allowances for servers with heavier media, larger resource packs, more player joins or multiple environments.

Most communities should experience usage billing as continuity, not as a different monthly bill. They keep using FiveMesh, stay within the amount included in their plan and pay the same subscription price.

We also do not want usage to be mysterious. The billing dashboard shows each metered resource against its included allowance, identifies when usage is approaching or exceeding the allowance and provides a projected overage where a useful projection can be made. During the observation period, this gives customers and our team a shared view of the numbers without creating a charge. The public pricing page shows the same initial rates and includes a calculator before you subscribe or change plans.

Initial overage rates

The current overage pricing is the same regardless of plan. A higher plan provides more included usage before these rates apply.

Metered resource	EUR overage rate
CDN storage	€0.10 per additional GB
CDN requests	€1.00 per additional million requests
CDN bandwidth	€3.00 per additional TB
Cache requests	€1.50 per additional million requests
Cache bandwidth	€3.00 per additional TB

These are the rates currently used by the pricing calculator and billing preview. They will not be charged during the observation period and may be revised before overage charging begins. If a rate changes, we will update the pricing page and communicate the final rates before they affect an invoice.

This makes the tradeoff visible. A short traffic spike can remain a small overage on the current plan. If the same usage repeats every month, moving to Growth or Pro may include more of it for a lower total cost while also unlocking more server, team and retention capacity.

For unusually large communities, networks or workloads, a custom plan can provide tailored limits, retention, onboarding and optional service terms.

A soft limit is not a service cutoff

When CDN or Cache usage reaches an included allowance, the service remains available.

That distinction matters operationally. The moment a community exceeds its expected traffic is often the worst possible moment to disable delivery. It may be launch day, a large content update, a creator event or simply an unexpectedly successful month.

FiveMesh records the additional usage while your players continue to receive assets and resources. During the observation period, the dashboard previews the cost without charging it. After activation, usage above the allowance will use the final published rate.

Soft limits apply to the five metered usage resources:

• CDN storage
• CDN requests
• CDN bandwidth
• Cache requests
• Cache bandwidth

Plan capacity is different. Registered server slots, organization members and Voice server capacity are fixed by the selected plan; usage overage does not automatically add another server or team seat. Those capacities can be increased by upgrading the subscription or discussing a custom plan with us.

Growth and Pro are not only for multiple-server networks

The server count is an allowance, not a requirement.

A community does not need to operate three servers before Growth makes sense, and it does not need five servers before choosing Pro. A single production server can require more infrastructure than several small servers combined.

Growth or Pro may be the better fit for one server when:

• A large, active player base generates more CDN or Cache traffic.
• Phone media, screenshots or user uploads require more CDN storage.
• Large resource packs and frequent player joins create substantial Cache bandwidth.
• Developers and staff need more organization seats.
• The team needs longer analytics retention for operational comparisons.
• Priority support is important to the operation.
• The higher included usage costs less than remaining on a lower plan with regular overage.

Choose a plan based on the operation you run, not only on how many server IDs you register. The right plan is the one that gives the community enough included usage and operational capacity at a sensible total monthly cost.

What changes for existing customers

Existing subscriptions keep their normal base price and gain the included allowances for their plan. Usage within those allowances is covered by the subscription. For now, usage beyond them is tracked and shown as an overage preview without being charged or automatically suspending CDN or Cache.

The billing dashboard is now the place to follow current usage, included amounts and projected cost. If traffic changes, you can compare plans from the FiveMesh pricing page before deciding whether an upgrade is worthwhile.

We plan to enable charging in mid-to-late August 2026 after reviewing the observation data. We will publish any adjustments to the initial rates or allowances before that happens.

You do not need to upgrade simply because a meter briefly crosses its allowance. A small, temporary overage is exactly what this model is designed to handle once charging begins, and it is only a preview during the current observation period.

Infrastructure that can keep up

FiveMesh exists to make FiveM infrastructure easier to operate.

That means pricing should behave like infrastructure too: predictable during normal operation, visible when demand changes and resilient enough not to disappear during a spike.

Subscriptions provide the predictable foundation. Generous included usage covers the normal month. Soft limits keep CDN and Cache working when a community grows past that foundation. Daily monitoring and a charge-free observation period give us time to confirm that the limits are fair before the initial overage rates become billable.

You can review every allowance, estimate your workload and compare Starter, Growth and Pro on the pricing page.