What you pay for
Billing is hourly. One rule covers almost everything: you pay for a resource while it is allocated to you, running or idle. Credits cover charges first, so you owe money only once they run out.
Virtual machines, status by status
A VM has four states, and what you pay depends on which one it is in.
| Status | Compute | Disk | Public IP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Running | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Stopped (keep your spot) | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Deallocated (release your spot) | Free | Paid | Kept: paid · Released: free |
| Deleted | Free | Free | Free |
- Stopped keeps your machine's place on the hardware reserved, so it powers back on instantly. Because we hold that capacity for you, a stopped VM still bills the same as a running one. Stopping saves you the wear, not the money.
- Deallocated hands the compute back: the machine is scheduled nowhere, so you pay for its disk only, at the full rate (the free 25 GB is a perk for a live machine, not for parking one). You choose what happens to its public IP: release it for free and get a fresh one on start, or keep it reserved (billed like any reserved address) so your DNS keeps pointing to the same place. Starting the machine again re-provisions it and needs free capacity at that moment, so it is best-effort, not instant.
Traffic
Each VM's allowance goes into one shared pool for your whole account, and it builds up by the hour: a machine that runs a few hours earns a few hours of allowance, one that runs all month earns the full amount. Your machines draw from that pool together. Inbound is always free and never counts. You pay overage only once your total outbound passes the pool you have earned, at a flat rate per terabyte.
| Traffic | Allowance per VM / month | Overage |
|---|---|---|
| External (outbound to the internet) | 5 TB | €0.99 per TB |
| Internal (between your VMs) | 50 TB | €0.19 per TB |
Everything else
Same rule: billed while it exists, running or not; free once you delete it.
| Resource | What you pay for |
|---|---|
| Block volumes | Size per hour, for as long as the volume exists |
| Public / floating IP | Per hour while it is reserved to you |
| Load balancers | The balancer, plus its listeners and backends |
| Backups & snapshots | The compressed size you keep stored |
| Routers | The first router is free; extra routers per hour |
What we do not bill
- Port speed. Your port is unthrottled multi-gigabit. There are no speed tiers to buy: you pay for traffic volume past the allowance, never for the speed itself.
- Inbound traffic is always free, and it does not count against your allowance.
- The first 25 GB of an R1 root disk on a live machine, and your first router.
- A Deallocated machine's compute: you pay for its disk only.
- Anything you have deleted.
Credits come first
The soonest-to-expire credit is spent first, so a short promo burns before a longer grant. New accounts start with welcome credit, and you top up with a promo code under Billing → Credits. See Trial accounts for what free credit unlocks, and Suspension & recovery for what happens when the balance runs out.