For standard cPanel users (not WHM administrators), bandwidth usage can be monitored using several built-in statistics and analytics tools available inside cPanel.

These tools help users:

• Monitor monthly transfer usage
• Identify traffic spikes
• Analyze visitor activity
• Detect bots or abuse
• Understand which services consume bandwidth

Main Bandwidth Statistics Tools in cPanel

1. Bandwidth Interface

Primary bandwidth monitoring tool.

Location

cPanel → Metrics → Bandwidth

What It Shows

Monthly Usage

Displays total transfer usage for the current month.

Service Breakdown

Bandwidth separated by:

• HTTP
• HTTPS
• FTP
• SMTP
• POP3
• IMAP

Daily Graphs

Visual daily traffic usage.

Best For

• Quick monitoring
• Identifying spikes
• Checking hosting quota usage
• Understanding protocol usage

Understanding the Categories

Service	Meaning
HTTP	Non-secure web traffic
HTTPS	Secure SSL website traffic
FTP	File uploads/downloads
SMTP	Outgoing mail
POP3	Email downloads
IMAP	Email synchronization

2. AWStats

Advanced web traffic analytics.

Location

cPanel → Metrics → AWStats

What AWStats Provides

Visitor Statistics

• Unique visitors
• Hits
• Pages viewed
• Bandwidth consumed

Detailed Reports

• Top URLs
• Downloaded files
• Referrers
• Search engines
• Countries
• Browsers
• Bots/crawlers

Bandwidth Analysis

Shows:

• Which pages consume most bandwidth
• Largest downloaded files
• Bot bandwidth usage

Why AWStats Is Important

The Bandwidth interface only shows totals.

AWStats explains:

WHAT caused the bandwidth usage.

Example:

• Large image downloads
• Video traffic
• Bot crawling
• Excessive API requests

3. Webalizer

Simplified web analytics tool.

Location

cPanel → Metrics → Webalizer

What Webalizer Shows

• Visits
• Hits
• Referrers
• Daily traffic
• Monthly trends

Less detailed than AWStats but easier to read.

4. Raw Access Logs

Advanced traffic investigation.

Location

cPanel → Metrics → Raw Access

What Raw Logs Contain

Server access records:

• Visitor IPs
• Requested URLs
• File downloads
• Bots
• HTTP status codes
• Bandwidth transfers

Best Use Cases

Detect:

• Abuse
• DDoS attempts
• Hotlinking
• Bad bots
• Excessive downloads

5. Resource Usage (CloudLinux Hosting)

Available on many shared hosting providers.

Location

cPanel → Metrics → Resource Usage

What It Monitors

Not bandwidth directly, but related performance:

• CPU usage
• Memory
• I/O
• Entry processes

Useful because:
High bandwidth often correlates with high resource usage.

Typical Bandwidth Investigation Workflow

Step 1 — Check Total Usage

Open:

Bandwidth

Look for:

• Sudden spikes
• High HTTPS traffic
• FTP/mail anomalies

Step 2 — Analyze Source

Open:

AWStats

Check:

• Top pages
• Top downloads
• Bots
• Referrers

Step 3 — Investigate Suspicious Activity

Open:

Raw Access Logs

Search for:

• Repeated IPs
• Excessive requests
• Large file downloads

Common Causes of High Bandwidth

Cause	Symptoms
Viral traffic	Sudden visitor increase
Large images/videos	High HTTPS usage
File downloads	Large transfer spikes
Bots/crawlers	Many hits, few visitors
Hotlinking	Image traffic from external sites
Backup transfers	FTP spikes
Spam email	High SMTP usage

How cPanel Users Can Reduce Bandwidth

Optimize Website Assets

Compress:

• Images
• CSS
• JavaScript

Use:

• WebP
• AVIF

Enable Compression

Use:

• GZIP
• Brotli

Use CDN

Cloudflare:

• Reduces server bandwidth
• Caches static files

Enable Caching

Examples:

• LiteSpeed Cache
• WP Rocket

Disable Hotlinking

Location:

cPanel → Security → Hotlink Protection

Prevents external websites from embedding your images/files.

Block Bad Bots

Methods:

• Cloudflare firewall
• robots.txt
• Security plugins
• .htaccess rules

Important Technical Notes

Bandwidth Is Usually Reset Monthly

Hosting providers typically:

• Reset usage every billing cycle
• Apply quotas/limits monthly

HTTPS Usually Dominates Usage

Modern websites mostly use HTTPS traffic.

Bots Can Consume Significant Bandwidth

Search engines and AI crawlers may account for large portions of traffic.

AWStats helps identify them.

Recommended Tool Usage

Need	Best Tool
Quick monthly usage	Bandwidth
Detailed analytics	AWStats
Simple overview	Webalizer
Security investigation	Raw Access
Server performance	Resource Usage

Practical Example

Scenario

Bandwidth suddenly increased from:

20 GB → 120 GB

Investigation

Bandwidth Tool

Shows:

• HTTPS spike

AWStats

Shows:

• Large PDF downloaded thousands of times

Raw Access Logs

Shows:

• Requests from same IP range

Conclusion

Possible:

• Bot scraping
• Shared download link
• Hotlink abuse

Best Practice for cPanel Users

Weekly Monitoring

Check:

• Bandwidth
• AWStats

Monthly Review

Analyze:

• Growth trends
• Top bandwidth consumers
• Bot traffic

Immediate Investigation If:

• Usage doubles unexpectedly
• Hosting warns about limits
• Website slows down
• SMTP traffic spikes