# Billing FAQ ## What's your billing model? It's a consumption-based billing model. Essentially, it’s a lot like a prepaid mobile phone plan, where payment is made in advance (prepaid principle). You prepay for credits, which are then balanced against the consumption of services. This results in no minimum contract terms or any other liabilities. ## How am I billed? Billing for **Compute, Kubernetes, Object Storage**, and other related services is based on a hourly basis. Our automatic system gathers usage data every hour after which we deduct the usage from your account balance. Monthly prices are displayed for easier comparisons and they are approximations assuming a 30 day month. ## Do you charge for stopped virtual machine instances? Yes. Instances in a stopped state continue to reserve dedicated system resources (CPU, RAM, Storage, IP) and therefore incur charges until you destroy the instance. If you wish to no longer accumulate charges for a virtual machine, please use the delete button in the control panel. ## What payment methods do you accept? Currently we accept MasterCard, Visa and American Express. If you are an Enterprise and Bank Transfer (PO approach) is your only method, please contact us. Bitcoin as payment method will be supported soon. ## What currency do you charge in? As a Swiss company, CloudBit only charges in Swiss franc (CHF). 1 CHF is usually equal to 1 USD. [Here](https://www.google.com/search?q=1+CHF+in+USD\&cad=h) you can check the current and historical exchange rates. ## What is the minimum amount for adding credit to my account? There’s a minimum amount of 10 CHF you can add. That's about 10 USD. ## What is Auto-recharge and how does it work? If enabled, Auto-recharge automatically adds credit to your accounts balance when it falls below a certain amount. If disabled, the customer is responsible for manually recharging the credit. ## Can I test the service before paying for it? Yes. We offer all customers 20 CHF worth of free credits that you can use to try the service before making any payments. Certain functionalities are however restricted before the first payment to prevent abusive behaviour. ## Can I get a refund if I don't use the service? We do not issue refunds for unused services or credits. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://doc.cloudbit.ch/platform/pricing/billing-faq.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.