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 | $3 | ~$6 | $10 | ~$45 |
| 500 GB | $10 | ~$32 | $50 | ~$230 |
| 1 TB | $20 | ~$64 | $100 | ~$465 |
| 5 TB | $100 | ~$325 | $500 | ~$2,325 |
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, on a twelve-month commitment you can't scale down mid-year. Our column is 2¢ per GB stored against a $3 monthly minimum, which is why 100 GB shows $3 rather than $2.
Where GitHub wins: if their meter bills you under $3 a month, they're cheaper and you should stay — that's roughly under 57 GB stored if you barely clone, or under 48 GB a month of transfer if the repo is small. Under 10 GiB of each, GitHub is free outright. Above about 57 GB stored we're cheaper no matter what your traffic looks like. And if you're on GitHub Team, 250 GiB of storage and 250 GiB of bandwidth already come with your seats — until you pass that, LFS costs you nothing extra and we can't beat it.
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 $81/month in bandwidth alone, more than the storage cost of a repo twenty times its size. We meter transfer too, because pretending otherwise is how a hosting business quietly goes insolvent. We just meter it at 1.5¢ per GB — about a fifth of GitHub's rate — and your account carries a monthly spending ceiling you set, so a runaway CI job is a paused download and an email, never a surprise invoice.
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 | ~$42 ($3 + $40) | $8.50 |
| 100 GB repo · 20 CI clones/mo | 2 TB | ~$168 ($6 + $162) | $32 |
| 500 GB repo · 20 CI clones/mo | 10 TB | ~$846 ($32 + $814) | $160 |
| 1 TB repo · 5 CI clones/mo | 5 TB | ~$471 ($64 + $407) | $95 |
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: 2¢ per GB stored plus 1.5¢ per GB downloaded, $3/month minimum — no tiers to pick, no seat charges, no per-repo limits, and a spending ceiling you control. Both meters scale continuously with what you actually use, so there is no plan to outgrow.
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 about $64 a month in storage alone, and every full clone of it adds about $81 in bandwidth. Worth knowing: the default behaviour without a payment method on file is not a bill, it's a block — exceed the bandwidth allowance and LFS is disabled on your account until the next month.
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 $81 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?
Two meters and a $3/month minimum: 2¢ per GB stored, plus 1.5¢ per GB downloaded. So 300 GB of assets costs $6 a month to store, 1 TB costs $20, 5 TB costs $100 — and transfer is 1.5¢/GB against GitHub's 8.75¢/GiB, roughly a fifth of the rate. No seat charges, no repo limits, no tiers to pick, and a monthly spending ceiling you set. A 500 GB repo that CI clones twenty times a month — 10 TB moved — is $160 with us against about $846 on GitHub. It isn't built yet: the waitlist below is how we decide to build it.
When is GitHub cheaper than you?
When GitHub's own meter bills you less than our $3 monthly minimum — roughly under 57 GB stored if you barely clone, or under 48 GB a month of transfer if your repo is tiny. Below 10 GiB of each, GitHub is outright free and you should stay there. Above about 57 GB stored we're cheaper regardless of your traffic, and the gap widens fast once CI is involved. If you're on GitHub Team, your first 250 GiB of storage and 250 GiB of bandwidth are already included in your seats, so LFS is free at the margin until you pass that.