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See Every Byte: Usage Monitoring for FoundryDB Files

· 3 min read
FoundryDB Team
FoundryDB Team
Engineering @ FoundryDB

You could always store bytes in a FoundryDB Files bucket. Now you can watch them. Files usage monitoring is live, and it turns a bucket from a place your objects go into something you can actually observe: watch a bucket grow after a launch, wire a live usage widget into your own app, or alert on a storage trend before it becomes a surprise. See how much you are storing, what it costs, and how that has moved over time, in the console and, just as importantly, through the API, the SDK, and the MCP server.

Three ways to look at a bucket​

Current. Open a Files service and the detail page now shows the bucket's footprint right now: stored bytes, object count, and the prorated monthly cost that footprint implies. No mental math, no exporting a bill. The number you are storing and the number you will pay, side by side.

Live. The current view reflects the last metering tick, which is perfect for everyday use. When you need up-to-the-second truth (right after a big upload, or a bulk delete you want to confirm), hit "refresh for live usage" and the platform pulls a fresh reading straight from the storage provider instead of the last recorded sample. It is the same thing the API exposes as live=true.

Over time. A storage-over-time chart lets you pick a window (24h, 7d, 30d, or 90d) and toggle between Storage (bytes) and Objects (count). It is backed by a time series we retain for two years, so the 90-day view today becomes the year-over-year view later. This is where a bucket tells you its story: steady growth, a spike after a migration, or the sawtooth of a job that writes and prunes.

Built to be consumed​

The console is only one reader. Everything above is driven by a single endpoint, so you can build the same views (or entirely different ones) into your own product:

GET /file-services/{id}/usage?range=30d&granularity=day&live=true

Pass range (for example 30d or 24h), granularity (hour or day), and live=true when you want a fresh provider reading rather than the last metering tick. The same data is one call away in the Go SDK via GetFilesUsage, and available to your AI assistant through the MCP server tool get_files_usage. Want an in-app storage meter for your customers, a weekly footprint digest, or a threshold that pages you when a bucket crosses a line? The data is right there to build on.

Billing has not changed​

To be clear: this is visibility, not a new charge. Files still bills the same way it always has, prorated per GiB-month on the exact bytes you store, at roughly EUR 0.05 per GiB-month, with no per-bucket minimum and zero egress fees. Usage monitoring simply lets you see that bill forming in real time instead of discovering it at the end of the month.

Open a Files service and check the new usage section, or call GetFilesUsage and start building. Your buckets have a story to tell, and now you can read it.