@wtraylor If you are looking to use a server for only 35 minutes consider using http://instantserver.io/ powered by Digital Ocean servers.

@e.swanson take a snapshot of the droplet, then at anytime you can create a new droplet from that snapshot.

Hi,

I also just found out that you are billed for instances that are powered off.
That's completely what you wouldn't expect.

I have a proposal: How abut having a (non-reserved) power off state, where just the storage/harddisk is billed.

Please take our feedback seriously.

Thanks!
Chris

I don't understand how everyone is surprised that yes, your server is off, but it's also reserved with a set of dedicated RAM, IP address, and a mounted disk. In order to turn it on at a moments notice it must remain reserved just for you. That cloud server cannot be used for anyone else during that time period so yes, of course you're going to be charged when it's powered down since DO is not able to rent it out to anyone else. This is no different then how RackSpace handles their cloud servers as well. The Power Down button isn't there to somehow confuse you, you need that button to save a snap shot or restart your server in the event it becomes unresponsive. I think a lot of users here are just new to the idea of cloud servers and understanding the unique nature of them.

You are billed hourly for your utilization up to the monthly price per Droplet.

Our pricing actually goes to three decimal places hourly so for 512MB its: $0.015/hr

Which equates to $10.80, but to make it easier once you exceed $10 for the month you are billed a flat $10.

We always bill whichever is lower, either the hourly rate or the flat monthly rate.

Thanks for the question. Our pricing for a 512mb server is actually $0.015 per hour. If you keep the server through the month we cap the price at $10... So you'll never pay more that $10 per month for a 512mb server!

do i am billed by plan or by droplet? i mean if i sign up for the $80/mo, 4GB Memory, 4 Cores, 160GB Disk cloud plan can i share those resources on a x number of droplets or ill have to sign up for every droplet that i want to make?

You are billed per virtual server, so if you spin up an $80/mo virtual server that is what you get billed for.

You can spin up 4 x 1GB virtual servers at $20/mo, or 1 x 4GB server for $80/mo, either way the pricing equates to the same amount.

It appears CPU utilization plays no role whatsoever in billing. If the droplet is sitting idle or calculating the millionth digit of pi, it's all the same if it's running. Is that correct?

Yes-- that is correct.

Does that mean, if you power off/don't use a server for an hour, you will not be billed for it for an hour?

You are charged while your droplets are off. Your diskspace, CPU, RAM, and IP address are all reserved while your Droplet is powered off. If you want to save a Droplet for future use take a snapshot of it and then destroy it. You'll be able to create a new Droplet from the snapshot image anytime to bring it back online.

In regards to the last question, wanted to get more details. If I turn off a droplet, do I still get charged? I know EC2 does not charge for terminated machines. Is the only option to Destroy it? If so, how long does it take to bring it back online from a snapshot image?

What's the point in having an hourly charge if you're still charged the same rate when it's offline...
Unless there's a separate rate?
In which case ummm... I'd kind of appreciate knowing what the rate is DigitalOcean, if it's not too much freaking trouble for you guys... I'm sure you stereotypically don't mind a bit telling people how much they're up for after it's been billed, but somehow letting people know beforehand is suuuuch a chore!

Thanks for the info theupson. It always bothers me with telecommunications and IT companies how these kinds of details aren't made clear until they arrive on your bill in a wopping great "idiot tax". If it were more personalised you might get a caption down the bottom that reads: "Oops looks like you didn't know how much we charge for that, hehehehe...."

I'm going to leave an image on my storage space for a while so I can reverse engineer some information about if and how Digital Ocean is billing for images. I'll post my findings in this thread.

So I've done a test by leaving a "snapshot image" on my account for a couple of months and I haven't been billed for it yet.
Perhaps after a certain threshold of snapshot image size there'd be a point at which it's billed. My image is only a few gig.

@doomicle Snapshots/backups will first be billed on July, 2013. We are not billing for images yet.

If I create a droplet and destroy it in less than an hour, then do it again multiple times in under an hour, will I be billed only one hour's time, or will I be billed one hour per each droplet I created?

@wtraylor: You will be billed one hour per each droplet you create.

So if I want to have a droplet on cold standby, ready to deploy if my main server goes down, is there some way I can do this without being billed?

You should really make it clearer that I'm being billed even though my server is off.
I just wasted $50 before realizing this.

@ophir.prusak: It is clearly stated on the pricing page that powered off droplets still count against your balance:

Q: Am I charged while my Droplet is in a powered-off state?
A: Yes. Your diskspace, CPU, RAM, and IP address are all reserved while your Droplet is powered off. If you want to save a Droplet for future use take a snapshot of it and then destroy it. You'll be able to create a new Droplet from the snapshot image anytime to bring it back online.

https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing

+1 for more clarity of what "power off" means. I just wasted a lot of money on this too. When I’m charged by the hour and there is a way to "power off" droplets I just kind of expect that I won’t be charged while they are powered off. Of course once you realize that’s not the case you can find out there is a logical reason for it but then you’ve kind of already wasted the money. Why not just make it clear from the start? Classic case of dishonest user interface design, in my opinion. Just my $0.02.

Can i associate different credit cards with different droplets?

@waqas: Currently, no.

I'm slightly confused by the billing as a new comer to the realm of virtual servers/web development.. if I sign up for a $20/mo plan, what dictates if I'm charged more than that $20/mo? Sorry if I sound like a complete noob.. I'm sure someone else will stumble on this question eventually. Cheers.

@rle: You will only be charged more than $20/mo if any of the following happens:

• You use more than 3TB bandwidth; or
• You take a snapshot of your droplet (2c/GB/month); or
• You enable automatic backups ($4/mo for a $20/mo droplet)

Otherwise, you should only be charged $20/mo.

I just got screwed by this as well... so I had multiple servers and just turned them off... didn't see until the end of the month and have just wasted $45...

This is very dodgy in my opinion. How the hell am I being charged for a service I'm not using? Included in the monthly/hourly price is bandwidth, power etc and I've used only disk space.

What a joke. And no that isn't clearly stated, it's at the bottom of the page and I'm sure I've read multiple times that you only need to power it down to not be charged.

You can say that it's clearly labelled but you know and they know that everyone is going to fall for it.

I guess I will have to add my name to the list of customers who thought that we arent supposed to be charged for something that we are not using. I did not realized this until today but DO has been charging me like this for a while.

It is not the amount that hurts, but realizing how you made this part of your business model and even rationalize it.

Another disappointed customer.I created a small droplet to test some docker stuff 2 months ago.Powered off after a day or 2,thinking I would not be charged for taking server offline.Now I owe you $3! Anyway,perhaps it was mentioned somewhere about powered off droplets being billed,but it most definitely could be made alot clearer.

If you are charged for taking a snapshot of your droplet (2c/GB/month) - please could you clarify that "per GB" per GB of what? the actual size of the droplet? if you droplet is only 512MB in size does that then mean you dont get charged?

You get charged for the size o the snapshot, not the droplet's plan. E.g. if you are only using 5GB of disk space on a 512MB droplet, you will be charged only for 5GB.

Hi. I'm also new to vs and signed up for the basic plan to kick around / learn. If I buy the $5 plan, what are the circumstances where I will have to pay more than $5 at the end of the billing period?

@brent: Currently, none. Once we start billing for bandwidth and images, you will be billed for any extra bandwidth used, snapshots (if you have any), and backups (if they are enabled).

Another disappointed customer. It's not clear we are charged for powered off droplet. I discovered after the bill. Looking for alternatives now.

I just have one question, could you please include a note under the "Power off" tab that you will still be charged for Droplet while powered off?

Totally stupid and actually ripping off customers by charging them when the droplet is not running. They know people are used to EC2 and would leave the droplet stopped thinking they will not be charged and then DigitalOcean will show them their ripoff mindset.

@InstaSynch , i think you are wrong...Amazon does not charge for EC2 shutdown instances, they do charge for EBS as it is reserved...i ended up here looking for this information, but assuming that most people here are new to the cloud server infrastructure just because this service uses a different billing method is just wrong, for instance Heroku does not charge for a single Dyno, and you can have free database and backups...each service has its own billing rules.