GitHub LFS pricing: what metered billing really costs
GitHub retired its $5 LFS data packs and now meters Git Large File Storage directly: about $0.07 per GiB per month to store, plus about $0.0875 per GiB every time those files are downloaded, after a 10 GiB free allowance on Free and Pro plans. For a repo full of game assets, ML checkpoints, or design files, that turns into two separate bills — one for keeping the files, one for every clone that touches them.
What large-file storage costs at each size
Storage cost per month for the amount your repo actually holds, across the major hosts. Azure DevOps is missing from the table for a good reason — see below.
| LFS library size | StorageBites (planned) | GitHub | Bitbucket | GitLab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 GB | $4 | ~$6 | $10 | ~$45 |
| 500 GB | $4 | ~$34 | $50 | ~$245 |
| 1 TB | $8 | ~$71 | $100 | ~$510 |
| 5 TB | $40 | ~$358 | $500 | ~$2,555 |
GitHub's meter is $0.07/GiB-month after 10 GiB free; Bitbucket sells 100 GB blocks at $10/month; GitLab sells 10 GiB add-ons at $60/year against a 10 GiB per-project free quota. Fair note: below roughly 70 GB, GitHub's storage meter is cheaper than our planned $4 floor — at that size the difference is entirely bandwidth.
Bandwidth: the bill nobody budgets for
Storage is charged once a month. Bandwidth is charged on every clone, fetch, and CI run that pulls LFS objects. On GitHub's meter ($0.0875/GiB downloaded), a 50 GB asset repo that CI clones twenty times a month moves 1 TB — about $87/month in bandwidth alone, more than the storage cost of a repo twenty times its size. StorageBites' infrastructure doesn't pay per-gigabyte egress, so the plan is simple: bandwidth is free, metered at $0, forever. Clone as often as your CI wants.
The total bill: storage + bandwidth together
What a month actually costs once both meters run. GitHub totals show storage + bandwidth; figures assume the Free/Pro allowances (10 GiB storage, 10 GiB bandwidth) and uncached full clones — CI caching lowers the bandwidth line, so treat these as the ceiling:
| Scenario | Data moved | GitHub total | StorageBites (planned) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 GB repo · 10 CI clones/mo | 0.5 TB | ~$46 ($3 + $43) | $4 |
| 100 GB repo · 20 CI clones/mo | 2 TB | ~$180 ($6 + $174) | $4 |
| 500 GB repo · 20 CI clones/mo | 10 TB | ~$908 ($34 + $874) | $4 |
| 1 TB repo · 5 CI clones/mo | 5 TB | ~$508 ($71 + $437) | $8 |
The honest free option: Azure DevOps
Microsoft offers genuinely free Git LFS storage on Azure DevOps Services, with no published cap. If you're willing to host your repository in Azure Repos, that's the cheapest LFS there is, and this page won't pretend otherwise. The trade: your code, PRs, and workflow move to Azure DevOps — the free LFS can't be pointed at from a GitHub-hosted repo — SSH doesn't work on LFS-tracked repos there, and uploads cap at one hour. If staying on GitHub matters, free-on-Azure isn't on the menu; pointing your LFS endpoint somewhere cheaper is.
Keep the repo on GitHub. Point the big files at us.
Git LFS was designed to let the large-file store live anywhere: a one-line .lfsconfig in your repo redirects LFS uploads and downloads to any server, while code, issues, and pull requests stay exactly where they are. StorageBites Git LFS is that server: sign in with GitHub, get an endpoint URL, commit the config, push. Planned pricing: $4/month per 500 GB stored, scaling automatically with your repo — no tiers to pick, no cap, no bandwidth charges.
Common questions
How much does GitHub LFS cost now that data packs are gone?
GitHub replaced the old $5 data packs with metered billing: about $0.07 per GiB per month for LFS storage and about $0.0875 per GiB of download bandwidth, after a free allowance of 10 GiB storage and 10 GiB bandwidth on Free and Pro plans (250 GiB on Team and Enterprise). A 1 TB asset library runs roughly $72 a month in storage alone, and every full clone of it adds roughly $90 in bandwidth.
Why is bandwidth the real cost of Git LFS?
Storage is billed once a month; bandwidth is billed every time anyone — or any CI runner — clones or fetches your LFS files. A 50 GB repo that CI clones 20 times a month moves 1 TB, which is about $87 a month on GitHub's meter, on top of storage. Teams usually discover this line item after the first big CI bill, not before.
Is Azure DevOps Git LFS really free?
Yes — as of July 2026 Microsoft still offers Git LFS storage free on Azure DevOps Services, with no published cap. The catch is that it only works for repos hosted in Azure Repos: you can't keep your repo on GitHub and use Azure's free LFS. Azure Repos also doesn't support SSH for repos with LFS-tracked files, and uploads are limited to one hour. If migrating your whole repo and workflow to Azure DevOps is acceptable, it's the cheapest option there is.
Can I keep my repo on GitHub and store LFS files somewhere cheaper?
Yes. Git LFS lets any repo point its large-file storage at a different server with a one-line .lfsconfig file (lfs.url). Your code, issues, and pull requests stay on GitHub; only the large binaries live elsewhere. That's exactly what StorageBites Git LFS will be: sign in with GitHub, get an LFS endpoint URL, add it to .lfsconfig, and push.
What will StorageBites Git LFS cost?
The planned price is $4 per month for each 500 GB actually stored, scaling automatically with your repo — 300 GB pays $4, 1 TB pays $8, 5 TB pays $40 — with no cap and no bandwidth charges. Clones, fetches, and CI pulls are free because our infrastructure doesn't charge us per-gigabyte egress. It isn't built yet: the waitlist below is how we decide to build it.