Platform - Billing

Linode strives to provide transparent and uncomplicated pricing structures and billing policies. As a supplement to our Pricing page, read through this guide to understand how we bill for services and how you can pay for these services. For instructions on how to manage your billing in the Cloud Manager, see the Manage Billing in Cloud Manager guide. If you have a question that isn’t answered in either of these guides, don’t hesitate to contact Support.

Understand How Billing Works

Linode uses a hybrid hourly billing model that is simple and flexible. It enables you to continuously add, modify, and remove services throughout the month. After the month is over, you receive an invoice for the hourly usage of each service up to the monthly cap. Here are some important billing considerations:

• Every paid service offered by Linode has a predictable monthly rate (also called the monthly cap) in addition to a flexible hourly rate.

• When a service is added, charges accrue on the account at the hourly rate up to the monthly cap. These accrued charges are displayed on the Billing Info tab within the Account page of the Cloud Manager*. Usage is always rounded up to the nearest hour.

• Linode uses a monthly billing cycle. An invoice is automatically generated on the first day of each month and includes the previous month’s usage.

If your services stay the same month over month, your bill remains predictable. You are never billed more than the monthly rate for each service, excluding network transfer overages. If you use a service for just part of the month, hourly billing enables you to only be charged for the time the service is present on the account.

*Review the Viewing Current Balance section of the Manage Billing in Cloud Manager guide to monitor your account balance and accrued charges throughout the month.

Example Billing Scenarios

Here are a few examples of common billing scenarios you might encounter. For these examples, we will assume the month is 30 days (720 hours). We will also be using a 4GB Dedicated CPU Compute Instance, which has an hourly rate of $0.054/hour and a monthly rate/cap of $36.

A Service is Present on an Account for the Entire Month

You create the Compute Instance prior to the start of the month and it remains on your account for the entire month. Calculating the service fees at the hourly rate for 720 hours (again, assuming a 30 day month), the total would have come to $38.88. Since this exceeds the monthly cap for this service, you are instead charged the predictable $36 monthly rate.

A Service is Present on an Account for Almost the Entire Month

You create the Compute Instance on the second day of the month, half-way through the day. It remains on your account for the remainder of the month and, in total, was used for 684 hours. Calculating the service fees at the hourly rate, the total would have come to $36.94. Since this still exceeds the monthly cap for this service, you are instead charged the predictable $36 monthly rate.

A Service is Present on an Account for Just Some of the Month

You created the Compute Instance mid-way through the month and deleted it exactly 5 days later. In total, it was used for 120 hours. Calculating the service fees at the hourly rate, the total is $6.48. Since this is less than the monthly cap, you are indeed billed at the hourly rate and charged $6.48 for your usage.

A Service is Resized During the Billing Cycle

Resizing a service, such as a Compute Instance, effectively creates a new billable service. Each of these billable services will appear as separate line items on your monthly invoice. For instance, you create a 4GB Compute Instance prior to the start of the month and resize it to an 8GB Compute Instance mid-way through the month. Your invoice will have two services as separate line items corresponding with the two different Compute Instance sizes that existed on your account during the billing cycle. Each line item will reflect the hourly rate for the time the service was active (up to the monthly cap).

Mid-Month Billing

You may receive a mid-month bill from Linode if you reach a certain threshold of Linode services used within a single month. For many users, this amount will initially be $50.00. That amount can be adjusted over time by accruing a positive account history. In general, a history of on-time payments to Linode will increase the threshold amount.

Will I Be Billed For Powered Off or Unused Services?

Charges will accrue for any service present on an account, even if it is powered off or otherwise not actively being used. This includes Linode Compute Instances that have been powered off as the data is still maintained and resources (such as RAM and network capacity) are still reserved. To avoid additional charges for a service you no longer need, remove the service from your account.

Data Center-Specific Pricing

In general, Linode plans and services are billed at the same, flat rate across data centers. However, services and network transfer in some newer data centers may be billed at separate rates due to higher region-based infrastructure costs.

For more information about pricing in these regions, refer to our Pricing page.

Payments

When an invoice is generated on the first of the month (or mid-month), Linode automatically attempts to charge the account’s default payment method. In addition to these automatic recurring payments, you can make one-time payments to add funds to your account, which will then be used to pay future invoices.

Manual Payments

At any time, you can make a manual one-time payment to add funds to your account. This is used to pay a past-due balance or to pre-pay for services, which adds a positive account balance that will be used towards future invoices. Review the Making a One-Time Payment section of the Manage Billing in Cloud Manager guide for instructions when submitting a manual payment.

Refunds

A refund can be requested for any positive account balance (excluding promotion credits). You can also receive a full refund as part of our cancellation policy if you cancel within the first 7 days. To learn more about this cancellation policy, see the Cancel Your Account guide.

To request a refund, contact the Support team with the reason for your request. Refunds can only be considered for payments made within the last 180 days. Once the request is approved, the refund is issued to the original payment method. A $5 processing fee is deducted from all refunds, with the exception of cancelling an account within the first 7 days.