Colocation pricing, as published

A colocation bill has three parts that matter: power, space and connectivity. Rate cards bundle them in different ways, which is why two prices for "a full rack" can differ by a factor of four and both be fair.

Amps versus kW

Providers in the US often describe power as a circuit: 20 A at 120 V, 30 A at 208 V. Volts times amps gives the circuit's rating in volt-amperes. What you can actually draw continuously is less. Electrical codes such as the US National Electrical Code size branch circuits so that continuous load stays at 80% of the breaker rating, and the published cards in our data follow that rule to the decimal:

So when a quote says "30 A", ask for the usable kW and whether the figure is per feed. Redundant A+B feeds double the circuits but not the power you may draw: each feed has to carry the full load if the other fails. Outside North America, voltage changes the arithmetic. Tokyo rate cards are written on 100 V circuits, where 10 A is 1 kVA, while other cards in our data, from Melbourne to Izmir and Montreal, state 230–240 V.

Committed versus metered power

Some providers include power in the monthly fee up to the allocation (all-in). Others charge a space-and-capacity fee and meter the energy you actually use. In our data HOSTKEY in Amsterdam meters electricity at EUR 0.50 per kWh on top of its rack fee, HA Hosting in Sheffield includes 84 kWh a month and charges GBP 0.40 per kWh above it, and MIRhosting sells all-in per kW. Wholesale is committed: CBRE's figures cover the reserved capacity and exclude the metered energy, which the tenant pays on top. Metered billing rewards racks that run well below their allocation; all-in billing rewards racks that run close to it.

Cross-connects

A cross-connect is a physical cable from your rack to another customer, a carrier or a cloud on-ramp in the same building. It is billed monthly per connection, usually with a one-time install fee. Not one operator in our dataset publishes a cross-connect price, so it is the line most likely to surprise you. Ask for the monthly and one-time charge per cross-connect, and whether fibre and copper differ.

Setup fees

14 published prices carry a setup fee, 9 state that setup is free and 44 do not say. Where a fee exists it ranges from a fraction of a month to more than two months of service:

Term discounts

No operator in our dataset publishes a discount schedule for one-, three- or five-year terms. What the cards do show is that term is already priced in. Psychz's cheapest Dallas product is a half cabinet that requires a one-year term. Exabytes Singapore lists a 1U at SGD 172.80 on annual billing against SGD 191.84 billed monthly, about 10% less. Dominios Chile gives one month free on annual payment. SiteHost's Auckland rack prices assume a 36-month term. Treat any longer term as something to negotiate against a written number, not a standard percentage.

Bandwidth and IPs

Small-footprint cards bundle a port, a traffic allowance and a few IP addresses, which is a large part of what a 1U price buys. Larger cards increasingly include a 1 or 10 Gbps port with "unmetered" or fair-use traffic. Compare like with like: a per-kW figure means little if one offer includes unlimited transfer and the other 100 Mbps.