Billing_
Pay for what you run, by the second, never more than the monthly price. One invoice a month, VAT included, nothing charged up front.
How charges work
- Every machine, app and database is billed per second from the moment it is created until you delete it, with a 60-second minimum.
- The hourly rate is the monthly price divided by 672 hours (28 days). A resource that runs all month reaches its monthly maximum after 28 days; the rest of the month is free. The cap applies per resource per UTC calendar month.
- Stopped machines are still billed: their CPU, memory, disk and address stay reserved. Deleting stops charges immediately. A failed build is not billed.
- Transfer is metered and shown, but not billed. Private-network traffic is free.
- Prices on the site include VAT. Nothing is added on top: an invoice charges exactly the amounts shown.
| Resource | Monthly maximum (inc VAT) | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh 4 machine or database | £8 | £0.0119 |
| Fresh 8 machine or database | £16 | £0.0238 |
| Fresh 16 machine or database | £30 | £0.0446 |
| App Small | £5 | £0.0074 |
| App Medium | £10 | £0.0149 |
| App Large | £20 | £0.0298 |
| App XL | £40 | £0.0595 |
The £8 credit
When you first save a card, £8 of credit is added to your account. It is used against your usage before your card is charged and expires after 60 days. That covers a Fresh 4 for a whole month, or a Fresh 16 for about eight days. Each account and each card can receive it once. The dashboard's This month tile shows what is left.
Invoices and payment
- A card is saved through Stripe Checkout before the first resource is created. Nothing is charged when you save it. Fresh never sees your card number.
- Usage is invoiced on the 1st of each month for the previous month and charged to the saved card. Heavy usage can trigger an earlier invoice once unbilled usage reaches £50.
- Invoices list each resource with its billed time, the amount accrued and its monthly cap, with VAT included. Credit is applied first.
- Manage payment methods and invoices on the Billing page opens Stripe's customer portal, where you can change the card and download past invoices.
The Billing page
Billing, on the right of the top bar (owners only), shows month-to-date usage per resource (billed time, accrued amount, monthly cap), available credit, the estimated next invoice, and past invoices with their status. The dashboard shows the same running total in its This month tile and billing panel, and what each machine, app and database has cost so far in its Running now table.
If a payment fails
- The account becomes past due: you cannot create new resources, and the Billing page shows the unpaid invoice with a link to pay it or update the card.
- After 7 days unpaid, the account is suspended: machines, apps and databases are powered off, and app sites show an "unavailable" page.
- After a further 7 days, suspended resources are deleted.
Paying the invoice at any point before deletion restores service. We email the owners and anyone with the Billing role at each stage.
Refunds
Because billing is per second and you can delete at any time, there is nothing to refund for unused time: you simply stop being charged. If you believe an invoice is wrong, contact support within 30 days with the invoice number. Our terms describe refunds in full, and the beta SLA describes service credits.