As of March 2021[update], TorIX has 259 unique autonomous systems[1] representing 285 peer connections and peak traffic rates of 1.344 Tbps,[2] making it the largest IXP in Canada.

TorIX initially started by Bill Campbell and Jason Lixfeld in 1997 the RACO facility in suite 604 at 151 Front Street West.

Peers connect to the Layer 2 fabric using IPv4 & IPv6 addresses provided by TorIX to communicate with each other using the BGP routing protocol.

[5] Membership[6] is open to all companies capable of connecting to the exchange at 151 Front Street West or Equinix TR2, and have their own Autonomous System Number (ASN).

For those that do not, and who wish to join the exchange, companies are asked to provide a Letter of Authority from their ISP permitting them to advertise their IPv4 or IPv6 prefixes.

High-profile members of TorIX include Google, Akamai, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo!, Telus, Zayo Group, CANARIE, CBC, CenturyLink, CloudFlare, Cogeco, DigitalOcean, Distributel, Dropbox, Eastlink, Fastly, iTeraTEL, Limelight Networks, LinkedIn, Microsoft, ORION, OVH, Primus Canada, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications, StackPath, TekSavvy, Twitch, Cogent Communications, Frontier Networks, Freedom Mobile and Vianet Inc.

Compared to commercial Internet transit pricing in Canada, the per-megabit cost of being a typical TorIX peer works out to cents-on-the-dollar, versus tens of dollars per megabit.

[7] Most commercial Internet transit agreements require a minimum traffic commitment level, which the customer must pay regardless if their usage is below that point.

If usage exceeds the contracted commitment level, the customer usually pays based on an agreed per-megabit charge.

For example, Internet traffic between two points in the same province that used different last mile ISPs may travel extensive physical distances, including to and from other countries, which would negatively impact latency-sensitive applications.

These fees are used to offset the costs of running the exchange, including vendor support contracts, spare optics and hardware upgrades.