Colocation Pricing Guide

Pricing by Rack Size

Rack space is sold in "U" (rack units — 1.75 inches each). Here's what the market looks like in 2026 across different provider types.

These ranges represent typical all-in monthly rates excluding egress. Seattle-area pricing is elevated due to commercial real estate costs and labor. Quincy, WA pricing is structurally lower because of cheap Grant County PUD hydroelectric power and no metro real estate overhead.

What's Typically Included

A standard colocation quote should include all of these. If any of these are absent, ask why — or expect a separate line item.

• Rack space — stated U count in a shared or dedicated cabinet
• Power — included to a stated wattage (typically 250W–1000W+ depending on U count)
• Network uplink — shared 1Gbps with a throughput cap, or unmetered on an ISP network
• Static public IP — at minimum 1 IPv4 address
• VLAN isolation — your traffic logically separated from other customers
• Physical security — controlled access to the facility and your rack

What's Often NOT Included

• Egress / bandwidth overages — charged per GB by many providers
• Remote hands — often billed hourly ($50–$150/hr) at commercial facilities
• Additional IPs — typically $3–$10/mo each beyond the first
• Cross-connects — physical fiber connections to other carriers or customers in the same facility
• Power overages — if your hardware draws more than your rated wattage

Hidden Costs to Watch For

The sticker price on a colocation plan can be misleading. These are the most common sources of bill surprise:

Egress / Bandwidth Fees

This is the single biggest hidden cost in colocation. Some providers advertise a low monthly rate but charge $0.01–$0.10 per GB of outbound data. If you're running a file server, game server, media server, or any application moving significant data, this adds up fast.

Setup / Installation Fees

Some commercial facilities charge $50–$500 for initial rack installation. This covers the technician time to receive, rack, and cable your hardware. Columbia Colocation: $0 setup fee.

Minimum Contract Terms

Many enterprise facilities require 12–36 month contracts, with early termination fees. A month-to-month arrangement costs more per month but gives you flexibility. Know what you're signing before you ship hardware.

Remote Hands Billing

At commercial facilities, a technician visiting your server for a reboot or cable check is often billed at $75–$150/hr with a 1-hour minimum. If you have hardware that needs occasional physical attention, this is a real ongoing cost. At small, ISP-operated facilities, this is often included in the monthly rate because the staff managing the facility handles these requests directly.

How Location Affects Price

Location is the biggest driver of colocation pricing variation within a region. The same 1U of rack space with the same network connectivity can cost 2–4x more depending on where the facility is located.

Why Seattle Data Centers Cost More

Commercial real estate in Seattle and Bellevue is expensive. Data centers occupy large, climate-controlled industrial buildings — and in the Seattle metro, those buildings are expensive to build, lease, and operate. Additionally, commercial power rates in King County are higher than in Grant County. These costs flow directly into the rack space pricing.

Why Quincy, WA Is Cheaper

Grant County PUD provides hydroelectric power at some of the lowest commercial rates in the United States. This is why Microsoft, Sabey Data Centers, and multiple hyperscale operators have built major facilities in Quincy. The power cost advantage translates directly into lower operating costs, which translate into lower prices for customers.

The latency tradeoff is real but small: 10–20ms from Seattle to Quincy vs. under 5ms for a Seattle-area facility. For the overwhelming majority of workloads — web servers, databases, backup targets, game servers, storage — this difference is imperceptible. The cost difference (often 2–4x) is very much perceptible.

How Colocation Compares to Cloud Cost

For stable, 24/7 workloads, colocation consistently beats cloud pricing. The comparison gets even more favorable when egress fees are included in the cloud side.

The economic breakeven point for buying hardware and colocating vs. renting cloud VMs is typically 12–18 months. After that point, cloud is almost always more expensive for predictable, stable workloads.

Columbia Colocation Pricing

For reference — here's our current pricing as of 2026. Founder pricing is available for the first 24U deployed and is locked for 24 months from install. All plans include power, unmetered bandwidth on Grant County PUD fiber, static IP, VLAN isolation, and $0 egress fees.

Bare metal server rental (dedicated Dell PowerEdge, 8c/16t, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, iDRAC): $99/mo flat, $0 setup, month-to-month.

Object storage (S3-compatible, no egress): $7/mo (500GB) to $200/mo (20TB).

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