> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.advinservers.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Billing Works

> Hourly charges, monthly invoices, credit, and the difference between prepaid and postpaid.

New cloud accounts use postpaid billing: you use resources and pay for that usage on a monthly invoice. Older accounts may also have prepaid teams, where you pay ahead for a fixed period. The team menu at the top of the sidebar shows which mode the selected team uses.

> [card] [Postpaid billing](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/postpaid-billing.md)
>
> Hourly charges, credit limit, overdue dates.

> [card] [Prepaid billing](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/prepaid-billing.md)
>
> Paying ahead, renewals and cancelling unused time.

## The monthly invoice

We bill by calendar month in UTC. The invoice is finalized on the 1st of the following month and is due on the 7th. Usage from November, for example, is finalized on December 1 and due December 7. Small balances may carry forward to a later invoice.

Deleting a resource stops its future charges. You still owe for time you already used.

## What keeps billing

A server reserves CPU, memory, storage and addresses while it exists. **A stopped server still costs money.** Delete it when you're done, after saving anything you need.

| What you do | What happens to charges |
| - | - |
| Stop, restart or reinstall a server | Charges continue. |
| Delete a server | Future server charges stop. Usage already incurred is still due. |
| Detach a paid floating IP | Charges continue while you keep the IP. |
| Delete a server but keep its snapshot | Snapshot charges continue. |

To stop everything, see [Cancel Services and Stop Charges](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/cancelling-services.md).

## Hourly price and monthly cap

Each resource has an hourly price. Part of an hour counts as a whole hour. The monthly price caps what that resource costs on the same plan for the month, so an unchanged $8 monthly plan never costs more than $8 for the full month. Keep it for part of the month and you pay for the billed hours instead.

The cap applies to each resource, not to your whole account. Extra resources, plan changes and one-time fees are separate.

## Credit and limits

| Term | What it means |
| - | - |
| Account credit | Money already on your account. It pays invoices and prepaid purchases. See [Account Credit](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/account-credit.md). |
| Postpaid credit limit | How much postpaid spending you can commit to. It isn't money to spend. See [credit limit](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/postpaid-billing.md#credit-limit). |
| `MRC` | Monthly recurring cost of the postpaid resources you currently keep. |
| `Current Charges` | Usage you've incurred so far this month. |

`MRC` and `Current Charges` answer different questions, so they usually don't match.

## Common questions

> [accordion] Does saving a card turn on automatic payments?
>
> No. Save a method, make it the default, then turn on `Automatic Payments` on the Billing page. See [Automatic payments](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/invoices-and-billing.md#automatic-payments). The exception is payment verification during [new account setup](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/account-verification.md), which turns it on for the verified method.

> [accordion] Will postpaid replace my existing prepaid services?
>
> No. Enabling postpaid leaves them alone. You can [move eligible prepaid services](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/postpaid-billing.md#move-a-prepaid-service) into a postpaid team, but that change is permanent.

> [accordion] What happens if I don't pay?
>
> The bill stays due. An overdue postpaid invoice can suspend every server on your account, prepaid ones included, and services may later be deleted. See [Overdue invoices](https://docs.advinservers.com/guides/postpaid-billing.md#overdue-invoices) and [Suspended Server](https://docs.advinservers.com/troubleshooting/suspended-server.md).


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