Not fully understanding pricing - help!

1

Let me give a hypothetical.

If I’m paying $7/month for the starter plan for a single web application I roll out to the public and set the number of instances to 100, I want to understand what I would pay in the situation where:

  • 29 days I am the only one using the app
  • 1 day where I get hammered with traffic and need all 100 instances for 1 hour

What am I getting charged for the month?

And does Render auto-scale those instances on demand then auto spin down after no activity?

2

Hi there,

The answer depends on whether you are manually scaling those instances to 100 for the entire month, or whether you are using auto-scaling. See our docs for more details: https://docs.render.com/scaling.

Ultimately, you will only be charged a prorated amount (per second) for the instance type multiplied by the number of instances, adjusted for the number of seconds at each number of instances.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Mike

Render Support Engineer, MT (UTC-6, UTC-7 in Winter)

3

How about both scenarios - manual and auto to help me understand

How would my above web service hypothetical play out for (1) manual scaling on the $7/month plan and (2) auto scaling on the $19/month team plan?

Please correct me where I am wrong, but according to my calculation, if it is manual scaling with the starter plan, my hypothetical would play out like this:

  • 29 Days with 1 Instance. Since I’m running 1 instance, it costs $7 for the month.
  • 1 Day with 100 Instances for 1 Hour: Render will charge for those additional instances based on the time they are active:
    • 100 instances for 1 hour = (100 instances x $7/month) prorated to 1 hour.
    • Hourly cost per instance: $7 / 720 = $0.0097 per instance per hour.
    • 100 instances for 1 hour: $0.0097 x 100 = $0.97

Total Cost for the Month:
Base cost (1 instance for 30 days): $7
Additional cost (100 instances for 1 hour): $0.97
Total: $7.97

The obvious downside being I have to manually turn those instances on then off and pay for the time I manually allow them to run, correct?

And per the team plan, it would be the same cost except an extra $19/month with benefit of auto-scaling so I don’t have to manually flip the switch for additional instances as dictated by demand???

4

Hi there,

  1. If the instance total was manually set to 100 for the entire month on Starter with the free Individual plan, the monthly total would be $700 (100 instances * $7).
  2. If auto-scaling was turned on and it adjusted up to 100 for only one day on Starter, the monthly total would be roughly $7 (for 29 days @ 1 instance) + $23 (for 1 day @ 100 instances) + $19 (per team member) ~= $49.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Mike

Render Support Engineer, MT (UTC-6, UTC-7 in Winter)

5

I almost have it. Help me understand how you got the $23 from 100 instances that were auto-scaled and ran for 1 hour each

6

Hi there,

Apologies, I misread your initial post as 1 DAY at 100 instances, not 1 hour. For 1 hour, that $23 would be divided by 24, and thus reduced to ~$1.

Regards,
Mike

Render Support Engineer, MT (UTC-6, UTC-7 in Winter)

7

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