# Traffic metering

Traffic metering is the accounting a provider applies to per-GB products: which bytes are counted (request and response, headers, TLS overhead), in which direction, at what granularity, and which are excluded (failed connections, gateway errors). Small differences in these rules change a bill noticeably at scale, so the metering policy belongs in the documentation, not in a support answer.


## Questions the policy must answer

- Both directions or download only?
- Are headers and TLS handshakes counted?
- Are connections that fail before the destination billed?
- Is the gateway's own overhead (retries, exit replacement) billed?
- Where can usage be read: per day, per network, per sub-user, and through the API?


## Reconciling

Compare the provider's daily usage with your client's own byte counts; a persistent gap points at retries, redirects or media you did not expect to load.


## How it works at ProxShift

ProxShift counts every byte that crosses the gateway in both directions, headers and TLS included, does not bill connections that fail before the target, and exposes usage per day, network and sub-user in the dashboard and at GET /v1/usage.

Source: https://proxshift.com/glossary/traffic-metering