Free tier update: bandwidth and rate limits
Published 2026-04-21 10:03:06.805792 by Carsten Blum
We’ve updated the ftpGrid free tier to ensure a stable and fair experience for everyone using the platform.
What changed?
The following limits now apply to all free accounts:
- Bandwidth: 500 MB per month
- Request rate limit: 1 request per minute
- Storage: 100 MB (unchanged)
- Connections: 1 (unchanged)
Paid plans are not affected by this change.
Why we made this change
Over time, we’ve seen increasing misuse of the free tier for automated workloads, high-frequency polling, and unintended use cases such as real-time relays, continuous synchronization loops, and excessive request activity.
The free tier was never intended for production-style traffic or heavy automated usage. These patterns create unnecessary load on shared infrastructure and can negatively affect the experience for other users.
This update helps us keep the platform stable, predictable, and sustainable while still offering a useful free plan for testing and evaluation.
What the free tier is for
The free plan is designed for lightweight usage, including:
- testing integrations
- small personal or internal use cases
- simple file transfers
- evaluating ftpGrid before upgrading
If your use case involves frequent transfers, recurring jobs, or production workloads, the paid plans are a better fit.
When should you upgrade?
You should consider upgrading if you:
- run scheduled jobs or automated workflows
- transfer files regularly
- need higher bandwidth or storage
- use ftpGrid in production
Our paid plans are built for those scenarios and provide significantly more capacity and flexibility.
Current plans overview
| Plan | Storage | Bandwidth | Accounts | Connections | Protocols |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 MB | 500 MB/month | 1 | 1 | FTP, SFTP, FTPS |
| Lite | 10 GB | 300 GB/month | 5 | 30 | FTP, SFTP, FTPS, HTTPS |
| Pro | 50 GB | 3 TB/month | 20 | 60 | FTP, SFTP, FTPS, SCP, HTTPS |
| Business | 250 GB | Unlimited | 100 | Unlimited | FTP, SFTP, FTPS, SCP, HTTPS |
| Enterprise | 1 TB | Unlimited | 500 | Unlimited | FTP, SFTP, FTPS, SCP, HTTPS |
No surprises going forward
We aim to keep ftpGrid simple and predictable.
As outlined in our Terms of Service, limits and usage policies may evolve over time to ensure platform stability, fair usage, and abuse prevention. Any such updates will be reflected on the website.
Final thoughts
The free tier remains a useful way to explore ftpGrid and test basic workflows.
If you are building something that runs continuously, transfers files regularly, or supports real users in production, a paid plan will be the right choice.
We believe this change will help us maintain a better experience for everyone using ftpGrid.