Understanding billing

BareMeta bills persistent servers by the UTC calendar day they exist and ephemeral instances by the minute. This guide explains exactly how billing works, what you'll be charged for, and how to keep costs predictable.

How billing works

• Billing starts when you create a server — the moment it's provisioned, the clock starts.
• Billing stops when you delete a server — not when you power it off.
• Persistent servers are billed from the monthly plan price, by active day — each UTC calendar day the server exists in the month counts, including the create and delete days. The invoice is that fraction of the plan price, rounded up to the nearest penny.
• Ephemeral instances are prepaid per minute — metered against your credit balance at 15p/hour, with no monthly invoice for that usage.

Pricing

The authoritative price for a new server is the amount shown in the New Instance flow before you launch it. Persistent plan prices currently start at £5.00/month for Starter. This page does not duplicate the full plan table, because a second handwritten copy drifts from the billing engine; the live card is on baremeta.cloud and in the launch flow.

Ephemeral instances are prepaid and metered per minute against your credit balance at 15p/hour. Invoices and dashboard estimates use the billing records created when each resource is provisioned. Review the launch summary before creating a server, and contact billing support if a historical estimate does not match what you accepted at launch.

Each server's public IPv4 address, assigned when the server is created, is included in its plan price. Additional public IPv4 addresses cost £3.00/month each, billed by active day like servers.

Included bandwidth

The included server port speed depends on the selected plan. 10 Gb-capable networking is a paid upgrade and is only available when it is explicitly shown in the launch flow or agreed in writing.

What happens when I power off my server?

Powering off (stopping) a server does not stop billing. The server still reserves storage, IP mappings, and capacity on the platform. Think of it like parking a car — you're not driving it, but it's still taking up a space.

If you want to stop all charges, delete the server. Make sure you've backed up anything important first, as deletion is permanent.

Account credit

Your Billing page shows a credit balance. Credit is prepaid by card (minimum top-up £10) and pays for ephemeral instances by the minute. It never expires, and unused credit is refunded on request. Any credits we add to your account are listed there with their expiry date and are applied to your next invoice.

Backups & snapshots

Backups are optional and priced as a percentage of the server's monthly price, so they scale with the size of the server you protect:

Snapshots are included at no extra charge, up to three per server. See Backups and snapshots.

Invoices

You'll receive a monthly invoice by email summarising your usage for the previous month. Invoices are also available in the dashboard under Billing.

Each invoice shows:

• Each server with days billed and cost
• Total and VAT status. BareMeta does not currently charge VAT because we are not VAT registered.
• Payment status

Controlling your costs

• Set a spending cap to limit what a month can cost
• Delete servers you're not using — the most effective way to reduce your bill
• Right-size your servers — start small and scale up only if needed
• Use the Starter plan for development — you don't need a Large server to write code
• Check your dashboard regularly — the VM list shows all running servers and their costs

Spending cap

You can set a monthly spending cap on the Billing page. No cap is set unless you set one.

• At 80% of the cap we email you a warning.
• At 100% your account is suspended: servers are throttled to 1 Mbps and some account access is restricted. Spend is checked hourly, so it can go slightly past the cap before this happens.
• The suspension lifts within about an hour once your spend for the month is below the cap. That happens at the start of the next billing cycle, or sooner if you raise the cap above what you have spent.
• Removing the cap does not lift a suspension. If you want no cap at all, contact support to restore service.

Set the cap with headroom.

Payment issues

If an invoice remains unpaid, we'll notify you by email. Here's what happens:

• Day 3 overdue — Payment reminder email
• Day 7 overdue — Further reminder before suspension
• Day 14 overdue — Account is suspended and servers are throttled to 1 Mbps until payment is resolved
• After suspension — VM data is retained for at least 14 days unless legal, security, or abuse obligations require faster action