How OCI prices the two paths
Internet egress on OCI bills per GB above a monthly free allowance that is large by hyperscaler standards, commonly cited as 10 TB per month, and the per GB rate beyond it is materially lower than the equivalent on AWS, Azure, or GCP. That makes OCI egress cheaper before any private connection enters the picture.
FastConnect instead charges a flat monthly rate per port for a dedicated private connection, with no per GB egress charge on traffic that rides it. You are trading a usage meter for a fixed cost.
The breakeven that decides it
Because FastConnect is a fixed port cost and internet egress is per GB, the breakeven is the volume at which the metered bill equals the port charge. Below the breakeven, internet egress plus the free allowance is cheaper and simpler; above it, the flat port price wins and stops scaling with traffic.
OCI's generous free allowance pushes the breakeven higher than on the hyperscalers, so the honest answer for many mid volume workloads is that plain internet egress is already cheap enough. FastConnect earns its keep on sustained high volume, on hybrid connectivity, and where predictable latency and a private path are requirements in their own right.
When FastConnect is the right call
Choose FastConnect when monthly egress sits well above the breakeven, when you need a private low latency link to on premises or another provider, or when a fixed predictable network cost matters more than squeezing the last dollar. Choose internet egress when volume is modest, traffic is bursty, or the workload lives entirely in OCI and the free allowance covers most of it.
Support Rewards, which offset Oracle support fees with a share of eligible OCI spend, can further change the math on an Oracle heavy estate, so weigh the whole bill, not just the network line.
A worked example
Indicative figures, verified against the client's billing data, anonymized. A European SaaS company compared paths at two egress volumes.
| Monthly egress | Internet egress | FastConnect port (flat) | Cheaper path |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 TB | Within or near free allowance | Flat port charge | Internet egress |
| 40 TB | Per GB above allowance | Flat port charge | Roughly even, review |
| 120 TB | Per GB, scales with volume | Flat port charge | FastConnect |
| Hybrid link required | Not a private path | Private low latency link | FastConnect |
Your next step
Pull your monthly egress volume, compare it to the FastConnect port price, and let the breakeven decide. For the full method read the OCI cost optimization guide, and for neighbouring detail see OCI networking costs explained and the OCI optimization review playbook. To apply it, our OCI cost optimization service turns the comparison into verified savings, and you can request a free trial.
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