TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Process
- Important information about billing on IBM Cloud
- How to stop charges on IBM Cloud/ How to clear your billing?
Introduction
IBM Cloud billing can be viewed from the IBM Cloud website. Note that, billing is in arrears, not in real time.
Some products/services are free, but many have ongoing charges that continue until you remove them. You may want to remove any products/services that generate any future billing going forward. There is no commonly accepted term to describe this, and this document refers to it as “clearing your bill”.
Process
- Log into the IBM Cloud console.
- If you have multiple accounts, select the one you want to manage via the pull-down menu.
- From the Console, select Manage > Billing > Usage. There are several areas on the screen that show your usage and invoices.
Important information about billing on IBM Cloud
How billing works on IBM Cloud
- Billing for Classic and VPC are shown in separate places.
- Classic Infrastructure & Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
- What’s the difference between Classic & VPC, for billing?
- Classic has hourly and monthly billing, suspend billing features.
- VPC has hourly, suspended billing, sustained usage discounts.
- Where to get updates about Classic & VPC billing?
How Ingram Micro bills for IBM Cloud
- Quoting/ordering methods
- IBM Passport Advantage (PPA)
- Ingram Cloud Marketplace (CMP)
- For annual subscriptions
- Via PPA: Ingram Micro bills the partner shortly after receiving the partner’s order
- Via CMP: is part of the partner’s consolidated CMP monthly invoice
- For Pay-As-You-Go accounts
- Via PPA: Ingram Micro bills the partner after receiving the bill from IBM for usage (in arrears)
- Via CMP: Ingram Micro bills the partner after receiving the bill from IBM for usage (in arrears), is included in the consolidated CMP monthly invoice.
How billing can get “Left Behind & Running”
- Suspended Billing
- Is not available on all servers/services.
- Suspended billing does NOT necessarily stop ALL billing.
- E.g. storage and networking can still bill while the server is properly turned off.
- How to properly turn off a server and suspend its billing.
- Shutting down via the OS commands does NOT stop billing.
- Must shut down via the cloud console or via API.
- Storage
- Ex. you deleted the server but not the storage, and storage remains.
- Services
- You must delete the service, not just shut it down or otherwise not-use it.
- Learn more about which servers/services support suspended billing
About “Clearing Your Billing”
- What does it mean to “clear your bill”?
- Is a way to reset your billable charges going forward.
- Does NOT nullify any existing bills/charges.
- Benefits of clearing your bill
- Removes billable infrastructure/services that you no longer require.
- Is a way to “start fresh”.
How to stop charges on IBM Cloud/ How to clear your billing?
- Cancel all devices you have under Classic Infrastructure
- Cancel all Service Instances.
- Cancel all Billing Items
