Manage Network Usage and Subscription Limits in Redis Cloud Essentials

Redis Cloud Essentials is a cost-effective, production-grade Redis offering with strict limits on bandwidth, throughput, and client connections that are enforced at the subscription level. These limits are shared across all databases in a subscription, which can result in performance degradation or throttling when usage exceeds plan thresholds. This article provides comprehensive guidance on Essentials Plan Limits, Monitoring Network Usage, Managing High-Traffic Databases, Migrating and Upgrading Subscriptions, Security and Access Control, and Common Troubleshooting Steps. Helpful reference links and upgrade paths to Redis Cloud Pro are included in the Additional Resources section.

Essentials Plan Limits and Resource Allocation

• Pre-defined Quotas Per Plan:

  • Monthly network bandwidth (e.g., 100 GB to 2,000 GB depending on size)

  • Maximum ops/sec

  • Concurrent client connections per database

• Shared Limits:

  • All databases within a single Essentials subscription share the total bandwidth and ops/sec quotas.

  • Connection limits are per database and cannot be increased.

• Security Support:

  • CIDR allowlist is supported to restrict IP access.

  • VPC peering is not supported in Essentials (available in Pro).

• Alerts and Throttling:

  • Alerts are sent at 80–85% usage thresholds.

  • Performance may be throttled or connections dropped when limits are exceeded.

• Plan Table Example:

Monitoring Network Usage

Where to view usage:

• Redis Cloud Console → Subscriptions → Overview

• Displays:

  • Current month’s bandwidth usage

  • Aggregate ops/sec consumption

Limitations:

• No real-time metrics

• No per-database visibility

• No egress vs. ingress breakdown

• No historical usage trends

To track usage nearing quota:

• Use the Configuration tab in the console to set alerts.

For deeper monitoring, including Prometheus and Grafana integration, upgrade to Redis Cloud Pro.

Managing High-Traffic Databases

Noisy Neighbor Problem:

• All databases share subscription-level quotas.

• A single high-traffic DB (e.g., one that frequently reads large values or serves high-volume caches) can consume most of the bandwidth and ops/sec, degrading performance for all others.

Best Practices:

• Isolate high-traffic databases into separate subscriptions.

• Group similar-usage, low-traffic databases together.

• Consider upgrading heavy-use databases to Pro for better performance and visibility.

Migrating Databases and Upgrading Plans

Steps to migrate a database:

1. Create a new subscription sized appropriately for the workload.

2. Create a new database under the new subscription.

3. Migrate the data using:

   • Redis Cloud internal tools (e.g., DUMP/RESTORE, SYNC)

   • External replication or custom scripts

4. Update the application configuration to use the new database endpoint.

Read more about Upgrade database from Redis Cloud Essentials to Redis Cloud Pro

Subscription Management: Upgrades and Downgrades

Upgrading:

• Self-serve via the console

• No downtime—endpoints and data remain intact

Downgrading:

• Requires reducing usage below target plan limits (e.g., bandwidth, ops/sec)

• New Essentials subscriptions (as of Jan 2024) allow only one database per subscription

Upgrade to Redis Cloud Pro if you need:

• Unlimited network usage (egress billed separately)

• VPC peering or private networking

• Real-time metrics, observability tools, custom alerts

• Advanced features like Active-Active replication

Security and Network Access Control

• CIDR allowlist:

  • Available in Essentials

  • Applied per database to restrict allowed IPs or ranges

• Not supported in Essentials:

  • VPC peering

  • Private cloud networking

  • IPsec tunnels
    Read more about Configure CIDR allow list 

Common Issues and Troubleshooting

Performance Tips:

• Use command batching and pipelining

• Avoid inefficient commands (e.g., KEYS *, unbounded LRANGE)

• Use UNLINK over DEL for large deletions

• Minimize payload sizes where possible
  Read more about Using Commands

Additional Resources

Redis Cloud Essentials plans

Upgrade database from Redis Cloud Essentials to Redis Cloud Pro

View and Upgrade Redis Cloud Essentials plan