[tor-relays] Re: Hibernate vs 10 Mbps throttle when bandwidth cap exceeded

[Dan via tor-relays <tor-relays@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think I'm qualified to answer whether it's better to have more monthly traffic or more consistent speed, but my gut says the network probably likes it better to have consistent speed.

If you want to minimize the time your relay hibernates, there are 2 other options you can set documented at https://support.torproject.org/relays/performance/bandwidth-shaping/

I will note that I'm not sure how effective the RelayBandwidthRate and RelayBandwidthBurst settings are. I have a relay that is limited to 10 TB of bandwidth and I have RelayBandwidthRate set to "3.5 MBytes" with RelayBandwidthBurst set to "4.5 MBytes".  Over the last 6 months, here's how much data was transferred according to vnstat:

* 2025-08 - 2.48 TB
* 2025-09 - 2.65 TB
* 2025-10 - 3.05 TB
* 2025-11 - 2.33 TB
* 2025-12 - 2.21 TB
* 2026-01 - 1.74 TB

I'll probably experiment with unsetting these values and just setting AccountingMax.



On Friday, February 13th, 2026 at 10:19 PM, forest-relay-contact--- via tor-relays <tor-relays@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello.
> 
> Many server providers have a monthly bandwidth limit. It's easy enough
> to deal with that by using the AccountingMax option so that Tor will
> hibernate when it reaches the bandwidth cap to avoid service suspension.
> 
> I run a relay on a provider that, rather than suspending the service,
> simply throttles the bandwidth to 10 Mbps until the next month when the
> 8 TB/month traffic cap is reset. I run through that traffic in just half
> a month, so the relay is only operational 50% of the time. But 10 Mbps
> is not nothing. What should I do here? I can think of a few options:
> 
>   1. Set AccountingMax and let the relay hibernate like normal, ensuring
>      that, whenever it is on, it can achieve maximum performance. The
>      "free" 10 Mbps bandwidth can then be used for other things, such as
>      I2P which does not have a ramp-up period.
> 
>   2. Keep the relay running, relaying up to 1.5 TB/month extra for free,
>      but with the caveat that the relay suddenly becomes overloaded each
>      time it reaches the 8 TB mark until the consensus weight falls.
> 
>   3. Shortly before the bandwidth cap is exceeded, automatically adjust
>      the torrc to include "MaxAdvertisedBandwidth 10 Mbits", and remove
>      it when the bandwidth cap resets.
> 
> What is a reasonable thing to do here?
> 
> Regards,
> forest
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