Billing method
Public Cloud instances have two different billing methods: hourly and monthly. If you choose monthlybilling, you get a 50% discount compared to hourly billing. Regardless of the billing method chosen (hourly or monthly), you are always billed at the beginning of the month. You will be billed again at the start of the next calendar month.[collapse]
For example: you launch an instance with hourly billing at 08:13 and then delete it at 16:48. You will pay for 9 hours of usage, at the start of the following month.
For monthly billing, you pay upfront at the the start of the month. The first time you launch an instance you get a prorated invoice at the beginning the following month.
Licences
When you choose a Windows operating system, the licence price is included in the instance price, which explains the price difference between a Linux instance and a Windows instance.
Network traffic
Public network traffic is included (excluding the Asia-Pacific regions. Refer to theInstance Public Traffic section). Traffic on private networks is always free.
Instance status
Instances are billed at the price displayed below as soon as they are launched ("Active" status) and billing stops when the instance is being deleted ("Deleting" status). The billing of your instance continues if you launch other actions, such as pause or hibernation.
However, there are some exceptions:
- “Error" status at creation, you are not charged;
- "Shelved" and "Shelved _ offload"status, you are not charged for the instance, but only for the necessary instance backup.
Public Cloud storage is charged per GB. Each GB started is billed. The prices displayed apply for 1GB used for a full month. The hourly rate is obtained by dividing this value by 720 (i.e. the number of hours considered in a month).[collapse]
Every hour, a usage report is made. If the storage volume has changed between two readings, the difference is taken into account when calculating, so that only the actual value of each hour is retained.
