Supporting OSF Usage

Many researchers use OSF as a long-term data repository, electronic lab notebook, or as the collaboration tool for their team’s research and wish to determine cost of services. The OSF usage tiers help you quickly calculate the anticipated cost of storage and usage.

How to use the OSF usage tiers

The OSF usage tiers are levels of storage available for purchase to support your project needs. See the table below to view additional storage options and their associated costs.

Grants and project budgets

Use the OSF usage tiers to calculate costs for including the OSF infrastructure as a line item in your grant proposal, Data Management Plan (DMP), or project budget.

Additional OSF storage

Research projects that exceed the 50 GB OSF public storage limit or the 5 GB private storage limit will require extra capacity. Use the OSF usage tiers to determine the price of your additional storage.

Include OSF as your repository in funding proposals and budget requests

You only need to purchase additional storage if your materials needs exceed the free storage allotment available on your OSF content (more info on OSF Storage can be found here).
List Open Science Framework (OSF) in your proposal request
Include the line item in your budget, "OSF repository cost"
Include in the budget justification of your proposal “Costs associated with sharing and preserving research outputs, such as data, code, materials, papers, and preregistrations on OSF”.

Calculating the costs for sharing and preserving scholarship on OSF is based on the storage volume of contents stored. COS calculates one-time storage fees up to 1 TB, with additional storage tiers available upon request. Determine the appropriate amount of OSF storage for your project or proposal using the table below. Please contact our team at billing@cos.io to request a quote should you anticipate your project will exceed 1 TB of data.

Additional Storage Amount	Tier Cost
0 - 100 GB	$500
101 - 250 GB	$1,000
251 - 500 GB	$2,000
501 - 750 GB	$3,000
751 GB - 1 TB	$4,000
Above 1 TB	Request cost

What's included in the cost?

Data hosting for sharing, access, discovery, and downloading

Data storage on Google Cloud Platform, keeping 3 types of hashes (MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256), coldline backups kept indefinitely

A contribution to COS’s Preservation Fund which ensures read access to hosted data for 50+ years

A portion of OSF maintenance to ensure performant access

FAQs

Including OSF in Your Grant

My funding agency requires a DMP with my grant proposal and I plan to name OSF as my data management platform. How can I calculate the appropriate cost of service?

View the table above to estimate the total anticipated amount of storage your project will require and then include the corresponding amount in your proposal. Your Funder will likely have requirements about what to include in a DMP, but we can also provide suggested language overviewing OSF storage amounts and coverage details. Please contact us if you have storage questions.

Calculating Additional OSF Storage Expenses for Individual Projects

My research project exceeds the 50 GB public project OSF Storage cap but I would still like to use OSF to collaborate and share my data. Can I pay extra to keep my data on OSF, and if so, how much will it cost?

Yes. View the table above to estimate the total anticipated amount of storage your project will require. Then, complete this form with your indicated amount to request an invoice.

Will I still be charged the full amount if I do not reach the storage amount indicated?

Yes, COS will charge the total amount of the anticipated storage tier that corresponds with the OSF Storage requirements of your research project. Unused funds will help support the ongoing storage, hosting, maintenance, and preservation costs of OSF. If you require additional space, we will work with you to increase the allotment and adjust the fee.

Will I be charged more if my project exceeds the total anticipated amount of storage and I’ve already paid for a lower tier?

Your project will be capped at the originally agreed upon storage amount, and you will not be charged without your consent. If you wish to increase your storage amount above the originally agreed upon amount, you must submit a new invoice to request the next tier of OSF storage allotment. Please see the table above to calculate anticipated storage costs above your originally agreed upon tier.

I’d like to give back to OSF. How do I do that and what would be the right amount?

Thank you for your contribution! View the questions above for more information about how to include OSF in your next grant proposal. If your project will use OSF storage, we appreciate your support of ongoing costs for COS. If your project will use storage above the caps, you are encouraged to use the storage multiplier to add this to your grant proposal to cover those costs and increase your storage amount to support your project needs.

What happens if I stop paying?

The fees are for data storage on Google Cloud Platform, keeping 3 types of hashes (MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256) for every file, coldline backups kept indefinitely, a portion of OSF maintenance to ensure performant access, a contribution to COS’s Preservation Fund which ensures read access to hosted data for 50+ years, and data hosting for sharing, accessing , discovery, and downloading. When you purchase a storage tier and pay the fee, your project cap will be set at that limit and you can use that storage amount on OSF without a recurring fee. Once that storage limit is met, you won’t be able to upload additional content without increasing your limit by paying for an additional storage tier.

Hero image: Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash