Per-GB pricing
Per-GB pricing is the eDiscovery billing model that meters data volume: a one-time charge per gigabyte processed, a recurring charge per gigabyte hosted each month, and frequently a further per-gigabyte charge to produce or export. The bill therefore tracks how much data exists rather than how much work is done on it.
Also called: per-gigabyte pricing · volume-based pricing · per GB rates · volume pricing
Updated October 2, 2026
How does per-GB pricing work?
A per-gigabyte quote is normally a hosting rate, and hosting is one meter of several. The full stack for a single gigabyte usually runs: processing charged once on ingestion, hosting charged every month the matter stays open, and export or production charged per gigabyte produced, with format conversion and OCR added where documents are imaged.
Two variables decide what that costs, and neither is the rate. The first is which volume is measured. Raw collected volume includes everything de-NISTing and deduplication will discard; promoted volume is what survives culling. The second is duration. Processing is charged once and hosting is charged every month, so on a matter of any length the recurring line dominates and a comparison based on processing rates compares the smaller half of the cost.
The structural criticism of the model is that the unit measures storage while the work is measured in documents. A gigabyte of scanned images is roughly 15,500 pages; a gigabyte of plain text is closer to 678,000. Both attract the identical hosting charge, while the page count behind them differs by more than forty to one. Review, which RAND’s study puts at about 73 percent of production cost, scales with what is inside the gigabyte rather than with the gigabyte. The pages-per-gigabyte guide sets out the full table.
The alternative models are per-user subscriptions, flat platform rates and hybrid arrangements. Each moves the meter somewhere else rather than removing it, and each has a volume and duration at which it wins.
What does per-GB pricing look like in practice?
The published ranges, applied to one gigabyte over an eighteen-month matter:
| Fee | Basis | Published range | Times charged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processing | one-time per GB | per GB, one time | once |
| Hosting | per GB per month | $5 to $15 | 18 |
| Export and production | per GB produced | varies by provider | per production |
Sources: the ranges are those collected in the Fee Field Guide from the ComplexDiscovery pricing survey. The point is the third column rather than the second: at the midpoint of both ranges, eighteen months of hosting is roughly twenty-eight times the processing charge on the same gigabyte. The per-GB cost guide works the arithmetic through and the cost calculator runs it on your own figures.
How does per-GB pricing show up on an eDiscovery invoice?
Per-GB pricing is not one line but a pattern across several. Per-GB processing, per-GB monthly hosting and export and production are the core; ingestion, data enrichment and ECA or culling fees frequently add further per-gigabyte charges for steps inside the same pipeline.
The incentive worth naming is that a provider paid per hosted gigabyte has no particular reason to help you shrink the number it is paid on.
Worth asking: is each per-GB fee charged on raw or reduced volume, does deduplication run before the measurement, do rates step down as volume grows, and what is the combined per-gigabyte cost from raw data to reviewable document.
Sources
- ComplexDiscovery, eDiscovery Pricing Survey (semi-annual, conducted with EDRM), on hosting and processing rate distributions.
- RAND Institute for Civil Justice, Where the Money Goes (Pace & Zakaras, 2012), on review as about 73 percent of production cost.
- Pages-per-gigabyte figures:
src/data/volume.json, from published analysis of ~2,000 hosted matters and industry conversion tables. - Fee ranges and documented rates: the Fee Field Guide dataset.
Related terms
Hosting · Processing · Review platform · Culling · Deduplication · Early case assessment
eDiscovery at one flat monthly rate
$3,250 a month on a 12-month agreement. No per-user fees and no per-GB hosting charges.
Common questions
What is a typical per-GB rate?
Published ranges run roughly $5 to $15 per GB per month for hosting, with ComplexDiscovery's semi-annual pricing survey reporting a majority of respondents under $10 per GB per month and a tail of higher-priced outliers above that band. Processing is a one-time per-gigabyte charge whose published range depends on which volume it is measured on. Neither figure includes user licenses, productions or project management, which is why a single quoted rate rarely predicts a bill.
Is per-GB pricing charged on raw or reduced volume?
Both models exist and the difference is large. Metered on raw collected volume, you pay to process and host system files and duplicates that de-NISTing and deduplication remove before anyone looks at them. Metered on the promoted set, you pay for what reaches review. Ask which volume the meter reads and whether deduplication runs before or after that measurement.
What does the per-GB meter actually measure?
Storage, not work. The meter counts gigabytes held, so a gigabyte of scanned images and a gigabyte of plain text attract the identical charge even though the page counts behind them differ by more than forty to one. Review effort scales with what is inside the gigabyte rather than with the gigabyte itself, which is why a per-gigabyte total is a poor proxy for what a matter will cost. Whether that makes the model a poor fit for a particular matter is worked through in the cost per GB guide.