What are Data Volume Units?
What are Data Volume Units?
A Data Volume Unit (DVU) is the standard unit of measurement for all usage on the Datastreamer platform. Every action in a Data Stream, running Jobs, retrieving content, and applying enrichments, is counted in DVUs.
DVUs give you a single metric for tracking and estimating usage across all components and sources.
How DVUs are Counted
DVU usage in a Data Stream accumulates from two sources of activity:
| Activity | DVUs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Job Run | 1 DVU | Charged each time a Job executes |
| Content Documents | 1 DVU per 100 documents | The first 100 documents in a Job Run are included at no extra charge |
Content documents are the individual items retrieved from a source: posts, comments, articles, and similar content. Each item counts as one document.
The first 100 documents in any Job Run are included. Only documents beyond 100 incur additional DVUs.
Examples
| Job Run Result | DVUs Charged |
|---|---|
| 0 documents | 1 |
| 50 documents | 1 |
| 100 documents | 1 |
| 101 documents | 2 |
| 200 documents | 2 |
| 350 documents | 4 |
| 1,000 documents | 10 |
The formula: 1 (Job Run) + max(0, ceil((documents - 100) / 100))
DVUs are always rounded up to the nearest whole number.
Enrichments & Direct Integration
Enrichments (sentiment, entity recognition, categorization, etc.) or direct integration add DVUs at their own per-component rates. These do not draw from the same DVU pool as the rest of your Data Stream.
For the DVU rate of a specific enrichment, see that component's documentation.
Viewing DVU Usage
DVU usage is visible at any time in the Billing Dashboard. You can filter by pipeline, Job, or billing tag to break down where usage is coming from.
The DVU Count API lets you query DVU usage for any specific Job programmatically.
Estimating Usage
Use the Cost Estimation Calculator in Portal to project monthly DVU usage based on your expected Job frequency and document volumes.
For tips on reducing DVU usage, see Optimizing Your Datastreamer Usage.
Reducing Costs with Commits
Committed Usage Discounts let you pre-purchase DVUs each month at a discounted rate. Commits apply across all sources in your Data Streams.
To discuss pricing, contact our team.