Learn about the different billing options for Public Cloud products.
One of the main principles of cloud computing is based on pay-as-you-go billing, where customers pay for what they use.
The standard billing option for renting computing resources is generally based on a contract with a pre-determined length (usually 12 months) and a commitment between two parties during this period. However, cloud computing offers a more flexible billing system — one where you pay at the end of the month for the time during which you have used the resources.
This system is similar to the one used by certain telephone operators, who bill at the end of the month for the number of minutes used. Here, OVHcloud bills the hours for which the server, storage space, or another element of the service is used.
Requirements
- A Public Cloud project in your OVHcloud account
- A Public Cloud instance
OVHcloud Control Panel Access
- Direct link: Public Cloud Projects
-
Navigation path:
Public Cloud> Select your project
Take advantage of reduced prices by committing to 1 to 36 months for your Public Cloud resources. More information can be found on our Savings Plans page.
General design
Our goal is to provide a billing system that matches the way our customers use this service as closely as possible. To achieve this, we needed to make the billing granular. This is why the unit system is usually based on the amount of time, which is counted in hours in this case.
For each resource to be billed, an hour counter starts when the resource is created and stops when the resource is removed. This works per the principle of each hour of use being billed.
For each instance, the billing meter starts when an instance is created.
At the end of the month, each counter is multiplied by the hourly rate for the resource. To get the overall bill total, simply add up all of the counters charged.
Each Public Cloud service is a line item on your bill. An invoice totaling all of your services is generated on the first day of the following month.
Example
NOTE: Usage is billed in hourly increments, rounded up to the nearest full hour. For example, usage from 9:50 AM to 10:10 AM will be billed as one hour.
This example might provide a clear explanation of how this works.
- A user launches a B2-15 instance on the 4th day of the month at 08:40.
- On the 8th day of the month at 10:00, they add a 250GB additional volume (Classic Volume).
- They cancel all of it on the 12th day of the same month at 16:30, once they have finished what they needed to do with these resources.
The prices listed here are not contractual and are only used to provide an example.
For the instance, from the 4th day of the month at 08:40 until the 12th of the month at 16:30, there are 200 hours of resource usage. They are billed at $0.1663 per hour.
For the storage, from the 8th day of the month at 10:00 until the 12th of the month at 16:30, there are 103 hours of resource usage. The Classic Volume costs $0.000066 per GB per hour.
At the end of the month, the bill will total up to:
- 200 hours x $0.1663 per hour
- 103 hours x 250 GB x $0.000066 per hour
i.e., $34.96
| Item | ||
|---|---|---|
| B2-15 Instance | Cost (per hour) | $0.1663 |
x |
Usage (hours) | 200 hr |
= |
Total | $33.26 |
| Additional Volume (Classic) | Size | 250 GB |
x |
Cost (per GB per hour) | $0.000066 |
x |
Usage (hours) | 103 |
= |
Total | $1.70 |
| Bill Due: | $34.96 |
NOTE: Starting April 1, 2026, any services whose usage totals less than $0.01 will not be charged and will not appear on the invoice.
Instructions
View your bills
To view your bills, please follow the steps in our Managing OVHcloud bills guide.
Beginning April 1, 2026, invoices for Public Cloud services will be issued separately from Bare Metal or Hosted Private Cloud offerings.
View your usage
Current usage
You can view your current resource usage (for the ongoing month) by selecting your Public Cloud project, then Billing Control in the left-hand menu, and choosing the Current usage tab.
This tab of the interface is updated every hour.
Here, you can see the cost of your current usage of each service. Clicking on a service will show more details about the cost of each instance.
Estimate your next invoice
NOTE: Estimates are for informational purposes only; the estimate amount will fluctuate any time a service is added or removed, or if there are large changes in usage.
You can also use the Estimate of my next invoice (for the 1st of the next month) based on a forecast of resource usage, taking into account the current status, and predicting usage for the remainder of the month. This tab is also updated every hour.
To view your usage so far this month:
To view an estimate of your next invoice amount:
Instances
The prices of cloud instances (or cloud servers) are listed in the OVHcloud Control Panel before you get started with an instance. You can also view prices on the pricing page.
The bandwidth for instances is not billed.
Each instance model has two different billing methods: hourly and monthly.
Instances, except Gen 3 (B3/C3/R3), can be billed hourly or monthly. You can switch from hourly to monthly, but not monthly to hourly. For instructions on how to do this, please see our Switching from Hourly to Monthly Billing guide.
NOTE: The billing for an instance stops when the instance is canceled. If the instance has a status such as “stopped” or “paused”, the billing counter will continue to work because the instance has not been canceled. With both billing methods, the service is billed by the amount of time during which it is used.
Hourly price
This pricing follows the pay-as-you-go model explained earlier.
These instances are paid for on the first day of the following month, for the hours of resource usage over the previous month.
Shelve (suspend) an instance
For hourly instances, it is possible to shelve an instance to release the resources dedicated to it while keeping the same IP. In this case, the data on your local disk will be stored in a snapshot that is created when an instance is shelved/suspended. Only the snapshot will be billed.
NOTE: This process is only functional for hourly-billed instances; it will not stop the billing of your instance, but it will reduce your cost.
For more information on how to proceed, consult this guide.
Monthly price
For B2/C2/R2 instances, monthly pricing offers a price reduction of around 50% compared to hourly billing. This is typical cloud billing.
When you choose monthly billing (for eligible instances), you are billed for the month's use. If you order a monthly instance mid-month, you are charged a pro-rated amount for the remainder of the month. Monthly billing is charged in arrears, so you are billed after the usage period ends. For more information, please see our FAQ.
Every month is billed, even if the instance is canceled before the end of the month.
Storage
Storage solutions are generally charged based on a GB per month price. To see the price per GB per hour, simply divide the per-month price by 720, the average number of hours in a month. The result of this calculation will be the cost of an element stored per hour.
The calculation is: ( Price per GB per month / 720 ) x number of hours x number of GB
The number of GB per hour corresponds to the maximum number of GB stored for the hour. For example, if a user has 15GB at 16:20, 17GB at 16:40, and 14GB at 16:50, OVHcloud will charge 17GB for the 16:00 - 17:00 period.
The storage prices are available directly on the OVHcloud website.
Additional volumes
The additional volumes are simply billed per GB provisioned, with a different price depending on the range.
Backups of additional volumes
Backups of additional volumes are billed the same way as the volumes themselves.
Snapshots of additional volumes
Snapshots of additional volumes are billed the same way as the volumes themselves.
Instance snapshots and images
Both snapshots and images of instances (excluding the catalog of images supplied by OVHcloud) are billed at a flat rate per GB per month, regardless of the original instance and image type. Go to the pricing page to view prices.
Object storage
Object Storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis according to the average volume stored per hour in each storage class (GiB-hours), with invoicing at the end of the month. Storage is the main billing component — incoming traffic, internal OVHcloud traffic, API calls, and public egress are included.
To align cost with your data access patterns, we offer several S3™*-compatible Object Storage classes (Standard, High Performance, Infrequent Access). For details on these classes, including use cases, performance, and SLAs, see the dedicated guide: Choosing the right Object Storage class.
For Infrequent Access, a minimum storage duration and retrieval fees are applied.
Vouchers (Public Cloud Credit)
You can apply for or check the status of a voucher from the OVHcloud Control Panel by accessing the My account area, choosing My payment methods from the left-hand menu, and selecting the My vouchers tab.
To add a voucher to your account, click Add a coupon or voucher. In the pop-up window, enter your Voucher code and click Add.
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public Cloud support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.
*S3 is a trademark filed by Amazon Technologies, Inc. OVHcloud's service is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated with Amazon Technologies, Inc.