Jump toUpdate content
Understanding Instance Pricing
Scaleway Instances are virtual machines hosted in the cloud. You can create an Instance, pay for it by the hour, and then delete it and stop paying when you no longer need it.
This page gives more information about Instance pricing, and helps you understand how you will be billed for Instance use.
Overview
As a public cloud provider, Scaleway operates on a “pay as you go” model: you only pay for what you use. The flexibility to provision resources when you need them and delete them when you don’t is a fundamental tenet of cloud computing, and the backbone of our billing model.
Our console tries to make it as easy as possible for you to create and delete Instances and their associated resources based on your fluctuating needs, as well as to estimate your spending and keep track of your budget.
Hourly pricing
Instances are priced by the hour, with different Instance types having different hourly rates. You can check out the current prices for Instances in one of two ways:
- Go to the Instance creation page of the Scaleway console. Note that you must have an account to access this page.
- See the dedicated pricing page of our website.
Instance billing
- Your hourly billing begins when you create the Instance.
- Billing pauses if you power off the Instance, and recommences when you power it back on. Any attached storage or flexible IPs are still billed while the Instance is powered off though - see full details below.
- Billing ends when you delete the Instance.
You can power off your Instance or delete it at any time: no minimum commitment or notice period is required.
At the end of each calendar month you will be invoiced for your hourly billed usage that month.
Flexible IP addresses and storage volumes
Flexible IP address billing
When you create an Instance, by default a flexible IP is created for it at the same time. This gives the Instance a public IP address. A flexible IP address is billed separately to the Instance itself, and has its own hourly rate. You can see the hourly rate for a flexible IP address on the Instance creation page of the Scaleway console, or on the dedicated pricing page of our website.
Your hourly billing for a flexible IP address begins when you reserve the IP address (either during the creation of an Instance, or by creating a new flexible IP address) and ends when you delete the address from your account.
- You can choose to create an Instance without a flexible IP address via the Advanced settings option.
- Billing of an Instance stops when you power it off, but the Instance’s flexible IP remains reserved to your account nonetheless. You will continue to be billed for the flexible IP even if your Instance is powered off, unless you delete the flexible IP.
- When you delete an Instance via the console, you are asked whether you want to also delete its flexible IP. If you delete it, billing for this IP will end. If you keep it in your account, billing continues.
- See the Billing FAQ for more information about the billing of dynamic IP addresses as opposed to flexible IPs.
You can detach a flexible IP address from your Instance and delete it at any time: no minimum commitment or notice period is required.
At the end of each calendar month, you will be invoiced for your hourly billed flexible IP usage.
Storage volume billing
When you create an Instance, you also need to create a certain amount of storage for it, in the form of local or block volumes. Volumes are billed separately to Instances, and have their own hourly rates. You can see the hourly rate for different types of volume on the Instance creation page of the Scaleway console, or on the dedicated pricing page of our website.
Your hourly billing for a storage volume begins when you create the volume (either during the creation of an Instance, or by creating a new volume), and ends when you delete the volume from your account.
Bear in mind the following information about volume billing:
- Billing of an Instance stops when you power it off, but the Instance’s volumes remain in your account. You will continue to be billed for the volume(s) even if the Instance is powered off, unless you delete them.
- When you delete an Instance via the console, you may or may not also want to also delete its volumes. If you delete them, billing for these volumes will end. If you keep them in your account, billing continues.
At the end of each calendar month, you will be invoiced for your hourly billed volume usage.
Estimating your monthly invoice and avoiding overspending
We provide a number of tools to help you estimate your monthly invoice ahead of time, and stick to any budget you may have:
Estimated cost calculator
Whenever you create an Instance in the Scaleway console, we give you an estimated cost calculator to help you see how much you will be charged for the Instance, as well as its storage and flexible IP. This is based on the number of hours (or days, or months) that you anticipate you will use it. You can play around with this calculator as much as you like before creating your Instance.
Remember, entering the time you estimate keeping the Instance into the estimated cost calculator does not tie you into any commitment to use the Instance for a certain amount of time. It is simply a tool to help you estimate your costs.
Current consumption
The Current consumption panel on the main dashboard of your Scaleway console shows you an estimation of your charges so far for the current calendar month. It is broken down by category: Instances, flexible IPs and storage volumes all come under the Compute category. This helps you keep track of how much you’re spending each month.
Billing alerts
The Scaleway console Billing Alerts feature allows you to set up alerting if your monthly consumption reaches a given budget threshold. An alert can be sent to you by SMS, email or API webhook. Receiving alerts like this can remind you to delete your Instances or other resources to avoid going over your budget. Read our dedicated documentation on billing alerts to find out more about setting up this feature.
Paying your invoice
We initiate automatic payment of your monthly invoice via the preferred payment method you configured.
For more information about invoices and payment, check out our dedicated Billing FAQ page.