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Billing & pricing

Platform Q&A for pay-as-you-go, invoices, pricing formulas, snapshot charges, and tax. Full product guides: Billing overview, Pricing formulas.

What is “pay-as-you-go” billing?​

Pay-as-you-go means customers are charged only for the time a service is actually running. When the service is stopped (for stoppable services) or deleted, charging for that metered capacity stops from that moment.

In CMP, pay-as-you-go maps to the Hourly billing cycle.

Does the platform support a Pay-As-You-Go pricing model?​

Yes. With Hourly billing:

  • Usage is measured from service creation until deletion (and respects stoppable-service rules where enabled)
  • There is no fixed monthly commitment for the hourly service itself
  • There are no separate minimum monthly charges or overage policies beyond actual usage
  • Invoices still roll up on a monthly calendar for reporting (prepaid wallet deductions can happen in real time; see Prepaid)

Applies to prepaid, postpaid, and manual payment modes for how settlement works — the metering model is the same.

If I choose hourly billing and delete my service after a few days, what do I pay?​

Only for the hours the service was active. Billing stops when the service is deleted.

The minimum billable unit is one hour. Partial hours are charged as a full hour. If a VM runs into the next hour for only 10 minutes, that hour is still charged in full.

Example: VM created Monday 10:00 AM, deleted Wednesday 2:10 PM → you pay through the hour that includes 2:10 PM (that partial hour counts as a full hour). An invoice for hourly usage is generated at month-end (or as configured for the account’s payment mode).

See also Hourly billing.

If I choose monthly (or quarterly/yearly) billing and delete mid-period, do I get a refund?​

No. For monthly, quarterly, yearly, and similar fixed cycles, the customer is charged for the full billing period from create (or renew) through the end of that period. Early deletion does not reduce or refund unused days.

Example: Monthly service created on the 10th → invoice covers 10th through end of month. Deleted on the 15th → full period is still owed.

CMP has no automated refund for unused time on fixed cycles. For disputed or goodwill cases, an admin may grant free credits (typically via coupons) — that is a manual commercial adjustment, not a system refund of the committed period.

Related guides

Customers who need day-level flexibility should use hourly billing where the service type allows it.

How is current usage calculated?​

Current usage = this month’s unpaid invoice amount + this month’s ongoing usage.

Customers and admins can review details under the account’s Account Statement / Usage Details.

How do I calculate package pricing (hourly / monthly / yearly)?​

Define monthly first (most intuitive), then derive other cycles.

CycleFormula
HourlyMonthly ÷ (30.5 × 24)
MonthlyHourly × (30.5 × 24)
YearlyMonthly × 12

Example: Monthly = $30

  • Hourly = 30 ÷ 732 ≈ $0.041 / hour
  • Yearly = 30 × 12 = $360 / year

See Pricing formulas for the full reference.

Can we disable hourly billing system-wide and force only monthly/yearly?​

For these service types, hourly is mandatory and cannot be disabled:

VM_SNAPSHOT, BS_SNAPSHOT, BACKUP, BS_BACKUP, BANDWIDTH, ACCOUNT_TEMPLATE, ISO

For other services (for example VM, LB, Kubernetes, block storage), hourly can be disabled in principle, but you must validate impact on staging first — many packages are already sold on hourly. Treat a full system-wide disable as a controlled change with StackConsole support if needed.

How is snapshot cost calculated (for example €0.20/GB per hour)?​

Instance / volume snapshot pricing is typically per GB per hour of stored snapshot size for as long as the snapshot exists.

Example: Snapshot size = 10 GB at €0.20 / GB / hour → 10 × 0.20 = €2.00 per hour, continuing until the snapshot is deleted.

Exact rates come from your rate card packages and may differ per zone/provider.

Is there a way to generate invoices without tax (POC / internal / promo)?​

Yes. Enable Is Tax Exempted? on the customer:

Path: Clients → [customer] → Billing Setup → Is Tax Exempted? → save

Invoices for that customer are generated without tax.

Why are Stripe charge attempts visible on a manual payment account?​

If the customer adds a card, CMP can convert the account from manual to postpaid. After that, unpaid invoices may be auto-charged.

See Manual — converting to postpaid.

Stripe charged a small amount (for example 1 real) to activate the card. Is it refunded?​

Yes. That is typically a temporary authorization hold. Stripe (or the gateway) releases/refunds it automatically after verification. It is not a permanent CMP product charge.