A cloud relay does not have one universal price: a managed service charges for its plan and permitted use, while a self-managed VPS combines server rental with any outbound traffic charges beyond its allowance. For a continuous OBS loop, the key traffic estimate is the stream bitrate sent from the relay to YouTube, not simply the size of your video file.
At 6 Mbps, that relay-to-YouTube leg amounts to about 1.94 TB over a 30-day month before protocol overhead; at 10 Mbps, about 3.24 TB. Those are calculated estimates, not provider quotes. Compare them with the current terms for the service and region you are considering, then include the work and failure paths you would be taking on.
Start with the two different cost models
A managed relay usually presents a recurring subscription or plan fee. The plan may set limits on the number of destinations, stream duration, prerecorded content, bitrate or monthly usage. A visible subscription price does not by itself confirm that a plan permits an unattended, continuous prerecorded OBS loop. Check the exact current terms before treating it as suitable.
With a VPS, you rent a virtual server and configure it to receive the local OBS feed and forward it to YouTube. The recurring cost can include the server, outbound traffic beyond an included allowance, storage or other selected resources, and applicable taxes or currency conversion. Some providers bundle a traffic allowance; others charge for excess use or specify limits by region and product. Do not treat an allowance as unlimited traffic.
The distinction is useful because the managed plan fee and the VPS rental are not directly comparable until you account for what each includes. A managed fee may cover the relay operation but still impose a usage cap. A low VPS rental can look economical but leave you responsible for configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting, as well as egress charges.
If you are deciding between these routes more broadly, how a VPS compares with a cloud streaming service for 24/7 YouTube is a useful companion. Keep this page’s narrower question in view: how much traffic the relay sends out, and who has to operate it.
Compare the charges, not just the headline fee
Use a comparison such as this before committing. Fill in current figures from the provider’s own regional page and the actual plan terms; there is no single relay total that applies to every channel.
| Cost or responsibility | Managed relay | Self-managed VPS |
|---|---|---|
| Base recurring charge | Subscription tier and billing period | Server type, region and billing period |
| Relay-to-YouTube traffic | Check included transfer, cap and excess-use terms | Compare estimated egress with regional allowance and excess rate |
| Continuous loop | Confirm 24/7 duration and prerecorded-loop eligibility for the selected plan | Configure a forwarding process and restart or watchdog behaviour |
| Encoding | Check whether the service forwards or re-encodes and what output it supports | Forwarding generally uses less compute than transcoding; requirements depend on format and quality |
| Day-to-day work | Less server administration, but plan limits and service support still matter | You manage updates, security, monitoring and recovery |
| Failure paths | Local OBS-to-relay and relay-to-YouTube connections both matter | Local OBS-to-VPS and VPS-to-YouTube connections both matter |
For example, the official Hetzner traffic documentation lists a 20 TB included allowance for certain EU CX, CPX and CAX Cloud Server products, while US and Singapore allowances vary by product. That is an allowance, not a VPS rental price or a promise that every server in every region has the same terms. A 10 Mbps stream’s estimated 3.24 TB in 30 days is below 20 TB by a simple volume comparison, before overhead and other traffic; the specific server, location and current terms still need checking. See Hetzner’s traffic documentation.
Treat every vendor figure as time-sensitive. For any price or traffic allowance you use, note the product, region, billing period and the date you checked it. Hetzner says server prices depend on type and location, and that a cloud server continues to be billed while it exists, even when powered off. Check its current cloud pricing and billing information rather than assuming that stopping a server stops the charge. Deleting a resource may stop server charges, but it also changes how quickly you can restore the stream.
Identify which direction of traffic is billed
A local OBS loop sent to a relay has two network legs. First, your computer uploads the feed to the relay. Second, the relay sends the feed onward to YouTube. These legs use separate connections and may be metered differently by your home internet provider, relay service or VPS provider.
The bitrate calculation in this article estimates the second leg: outbound traffic from the relay to YouTube. Do not add the same video’s incoming leg to the relay’s outbound total unless the provider’s tariff or network design specifically bills it as outbound traffic. Ask the provider what it means by transfer, bandwidth, egress or data out, and whether it measures the incoming leg, the outgoing leg, or both.
For a VPS, regional egress allowances can be materially different even within one provider. A server in a region closer to your viewers is not necessarily the one with the most favourable transfer terms, and the stream’s destination is YouTube rather than every viewer individually. If you are forwarding one encoded feed to YouTube, estimate that output leg; if your setup creates several outputs or re-encodes separate variants, estimate each billable output according to the provider’s rules.
A managed service can also have a usage cap or a definition of billable transfer that is not obvious from its monthly plan price. Ask whether a continuous stream is metered by running time, outgoing volume, channel count or another limit. If the answer is unclear, do not translate a plan’s headline price into a monthly cost estimate until you have the missing terms.
Estimate a month of relay traffic from bitrate
For a 30-day month, the ideal decimal transfer estimate is bitrate in Mbps multiplied by 0.324 TB. This comes from multiplying bits per second by the seconds in 30 days, then converting bits to decimal terabytes. It is an arithmetic estimate, not a measurement from a provider. Real metering can differ because of protocol overhead, how a provider defines a terabyte or gigabyte, and the exact month length.
| Continuous bitrate | Estimated outbound data in 30 days, before overhead |
|---|---|
| 5 Mbps | About 1.62 TB |
| 6 Mbps | About 1.94 TB |
| 10 Mbps | About 3.24 TB |
| 14 Mbps | About 4.54 TB |
For a 31-day month, multiply the 30-day estimate by 31/30. Then leave some margin rather than budgeting exactly to the calculated number: transport overhead and provider-specific metering can push the observed amount up. This margin is a planning precaution, not a universal fixed allowance.
Use the bitrate that you actually intend to send from OBS or the relay, not a generic maximum or the file’s average size. YouTube’s live encoder guidance gives recommendations by resolution, frame rate and codec, including H.264 examples of 6 Mbps for 720p60 and 5 Mbps for 1080p30. Its guidance also covers RTMPS, constant bitrate and keyframe intervals. Match the settings to your source and available upload rather than choosing a bitrate solely to fit a traffic budget.
If a relay forwards the same encoded stream without changing it, its output volume will be driven approximately by the incoming bitrate. That is an engineering inference, not a guarantee about how a specific product works. If it transcodes, changes bitrate or creates multiple outputs, estimate each output separately and ask how it is metered. A lower input bitrate does not automatically mean the service will send only that volume if it produces additional streams.
Check transfer allowances and overage terms
Once you have an estimate, compare it to the allowance that applies to your precise plan and region. Read whether the allowance is monthly, whether it resets on a billing date, what happens after it is reached, and whether excess traffic is charged, throttled or handled in another way. A provider may document an included allowance without making clear in the same place what an overage would cost; find the applicable billing terms before relying on the server for an always-on channel.
For managed plans, confirm that the plan permits the intended duration and prerecorded loop, then check for any transfer cap, fair-use language or output restrictions. A plan may support prerecorded streaming but still have a duration limit or other condition. Restream’s official pricing page shows its own current plan details; its help information explains that channel counts and some features vary by subscription, including prerecorded streaming. Neither point alone establishes eligibility for an unattended 24/7 loop. Check the current prerecorded streaming guidance and ask the service about your exact use case before purchasing.
Do not use a provider’s general “unlimited” wording as a substitute for reading its workload and fair-use terms. Likewise, do not assume an included VPS traffic allowance applies to every location, server family or account. If your estimated monthly output is close to the stated allowance, ask how overhead is counted and decide whether you can tolerate an overage, a cap or an interruption.
Include setup and operation in the cost
The network bill is only one part of operating a relay. A self-managed VPS requires you to establish the forwarding process, preserve OBS-to-VPS connectivity, keep credentials protected, apply updates and arrange a way to detect and restart a stalled process. If transcoding is involved, you also need to check that the server has suitable compute resources. Forwarding an already encoded feed generally demands less processing than re-encoding, but the actual requirement depends on the format and settings.
A managed relay can remove much of the server administration, but it does not remove every task. You still need to configure the source and destination, protect your YouTube stream key, verify that the plan supports the loop, and monitor whether the stream is healthy. YouTube describes a stream key as a password-like credential used by the encoder to send a feed; keep it private and reset it if exposed. See YouTube’s encoder setup guidance.
Neither route fixes a weak local upload connection. With OBS running at your premises, the source must still reach the relay. A relay changes the relay-to-YouTube leg, but a local broadband outage, computer sleep, OBS crash or source failure can stop the incoming feed. YouTube warns that network disruption can break a stream, so leave upload headroom and test the actual path. If your stream health changes after a provider switch, this guide to YouTube stream health warnings after changing broadband can help separate local network symptoms from relay-side problems.
YouTube’s encoder documentation says streams under 12 hours are automatically archived. Do not interpret that statement as permission or a guarantee that one live event can continue indefinitely or that a longer event will be archived as one video. For a 24/7 loop, check current YouTube limits and plan how you will handle event duration and any transition or restart. The official live streaming setup guidance is the place to recheck current eligibility and setup requirements.
Choose the model that fits your local OBS loop
A managed relay is a better fit when your priority is to avoid maintaining a forwarding server and you can confirm that the plan’s duration, prerecorded-content and transfer terms cover your use. You are paying for a defined service rather than only renting compute, but you still need to test the local OBS-to-relay path and understand what happens if a service limit is reached.
A VPS may suit you when you are comfortable administering a server, can select a region and product whose traffic allowance fits your estimate, and want control over the forwarding configuration. It may be a poor fit if you have no one to respond when the process stops, if transcoding needs exceed the server’s capacity, or if an unexpected transfer charge would be difficult to absorb. Do not count a powered-off VPS as cost-free while the resource still exists.
If your loop is a devotional playlist, the operational details may matter as much as the invoice: a 24/7 Hindi bhajan channel workflow using cloud streaming covers the broader channel setup. For this cost decision, write down your intended bitrate, estimate a 30-day output, identify the exact billable leg, and ask the provider to confirm continuous loop eligibility. Then compare the complete monthly charge and the work you will personally own.
Before committing, compare the operating options on the pricing page. When the file and channel are ready, start free — 24-hour trial, no card.
FAQ
Does a cloud relay charge for the full video file size?
Usually the relevant traffic quantity is the data sent continuously from the relay to YouTube, which depends approximately on stream bitrate and duration. The uploaded file’s stored size is a different measure; check separately for any storage or upload charges in the service terms.
Is a VPS cheaper than a managed relay?
There is no universal answer. Compare the VPS rental, its regional outbound allowance and excess traffic terms with the managed plan’s fee, usage limits and eligibility for your loop; also account for the time and skills needed to operate the VPS.
Should I count OBS-to-relay traffic in the VPS egress estimate?
The estimate here is for traffic leaving the relay towards YouTube. The OBS-to-relay leg is incoming to the VPS, but provider definitions differ, so confirm whether and how that leg is metered rather than assuming all traffic is free.
Does the relay keep a local OBS loop online if my internet drops?
No. The local OBS feed still has to reach the relay, so a loss of local connectivity or a stopped computer can interrupt the source. A relay can shift the YouTube-facing output leg, but it cannot make the local source path unnecessary.