English ▼
Skip to page content Skip to main navigation
e.g. "templates" or "datastore"

# Billing and Budgeting Resources

Each App Engine application can consume a certain level of computing resources for free, controlled by a set of limits. Developers who need resources above these free limits can switch to a paid app using Google Checkout to set a daily resource budget. When you convert to a paid app you will spend a minimum of $2.10/week. This allows you to purchase additional resources when needed. App Engine will always be free to get started, and after you've created a paid app, all usage up to the free limits will remain free.

This document describes enabling and managing your App Engine billing settings. More information can be found in the FAQ.

- Billable Resource Unit Costs
- Enabling Paid Apps
- Disabling Billing
- Setting a Daily Budget
- Changing Your Daily Budget
- Billing Status
- Changing the Billing Administrator
- Billing History
- A Note About Taxes

## Billable Resource Unit Costs

Important: Currently, you do not see the instance classes you use in your billing line items. Instead, you will see the appropriate multiple of instance hours. For example, if you use an F4 instance for one hour, you do not see "F4" listed, but you will see billing for four instance hours at the F1 rate.

The cost for computing resources is as follows:

Resource | Unit | Unit cost
--- | --- | ---
Outgoing Bandwidth | gigabytes | $0.12
Frontend Instances (`F1`) | Instance hours | $0.08
Frontend Instances (`F2`) | Instance hours | $0.16
Frontend Instances (`F4`) | Instance hours | $0.32
Discounted Instances | Instance hours | $0.05
Backend Instances (`B1` class) | Hourly per instance | $0.08
Backend Instances (`B2` class) | Hourly per instance | $0.16
Backend Instances (`B4` class) | Hourly per instance | $0.32
Backend Instances (`B8` class) | Hourly per instance | $0.64
Stored Data (Blobstore) | gigabytes per month | $0.13
Stored Data (Datastore) | gigabytes per month | $0.24
Stored Data (Task Queue) | gigabytes per month | $0.24
Channel | Channel opened | $0.00001 ($0.01/100 channels)
Recipients Emailed | email | $0.0001
XMPP | XMPP stanzas | $0.000001 ($0.10/100,000 stanzas)

There are three types of low-level Datastore operations:

Operation | Cost
--- | ---
Write | $0.10 per 100k operations
Read | $0.07 per 100k operations
Small | $0.01 per 100k operations

These low-level operations map to API-level operations as follows:

High-Level Operation | Low-Level Operations Required
--- | ---
Entity Get (per entity) | 1 Read
New Entity Put (per entity, regardless of entity size) | 2 Writes + 2 Writes per indexed property value + 1 Write per composite index value
Existing Entity Put (per entity) | 1 Write + 4 Writes per modified indexed property value + 2 Writes per modified composite index value
Entity Delete (per entity) | 2 Writes + 2 Writes per indexed property value + 1 Write per composite index value
Query | 1 Read + 1 Read per entity returned
Query (keys only) | 1 Read + 1 Small per entity returned
Key allocation (per key) | 1 Small

## Enabling Paid Apps

To set up a paid app:

1. Sign in to the Administration Console at https://appengine.google.com. Google Apps users can sign in at https://appengine.google.com/a/your_domain.com.
2. Select the application for which you would like to purchase resources
3. Click Billing Settings from the left menu.
4. Click Enable Billing and follow the steps in Setting a Daily Budget, below.

Paid apps cost a minimum of $2.10/week, and this amount counts toward your resource usage for that week. If you spend more than $2.10 in resources, you will be charged for those resources until your maximum daily budget is exhausted.

## Disabling Billing

Any application administrator can disable billing by following these steps:

1. Sign in to your App Engine account.
2. Click the name of the application that you want to disable billing for.
3. Navigate to the billing settings page by clicking "Billing Settings" in the left nav.
4. Click "Disable Billing" under "Billing Status."

Note that any application administrator can disable billing but only the billed administrator who authorized weekly charges using Google Checkout can cancel this authorization.

Note: If you are disabling your app, you should be aware that disabling the app does not automatically disable billing. If you disable your app but do not also disable billing, your app can continue to incur billing costs even though you disabled your app.

## Setting a Daily Budget

Your Max Daily Budget controls the amount of extra resources you're willing to purchase each day. You'll never be charged more than allowed by your maximum daily budget, plus any applicable taxes.

To specify your daily budget:

1. Enter the Max Daily Budget in U.S. dollars. This represents the most you're willing to pay over a 24-hour period (starting at 12am PT each day). You'll only be charged for what you actually use.
2. If desired, enter the number of Discounted Instance Hours you wish to commit to using every week. This setting is optional. If you commit to a certain number of instance hours here, Google charges you a lower rate for those hours. You will be charged for all hours you commit to, regardless of whether you use them. If you use more hours than specified here, you are charged the full rate for those extra hours.
3. Select your country of residence. Your country of residence determines any applicable taxes.
4. If applicable, enter your VAT ID.
5. Click the Google Checkout button. You'll be redirected to Google Checkout. From there, follow the prompts to enter your payment information and authorize a charge limit using Google Checkout.

Once you click the Google Checkout button in the step above, your application's billing status changes to Activating Billing, and remains in this state for up to 30 minutes. No changes can be made to your budget during this time, even if the Google Checkout steps were not completed. Your status changes to Billing Enabled once confirmation is received from Google Checkout.

## Changing Your Daily Budget

You can make changes to your budget settings at any time. To do so, visit your application's Billing Settings page in the Administration Console.

### Increasing Your Daily Budget

When you enable billing for your application, you agree to allow App Engine to charge your Google Checkout account up to a certain amount each week, as determined by your initial Maximum Daily Budget. If you later decide to raise your daily budget above this value, you'll need to authorize a new weekly charge limit with Checkout in order to complete this process.

To do so, make your changes in the Billing Settings page, then click the Google Checkout button. Follow the prompts to authorize a new weekly charge limit. Increases in daily budget will take effect 15 to 30 minutes after Google Checkout confirms the authorization.

### Decreasing Your Daily Budget

Decreasing your budget does not require a new Google Checkout charge authorization. Budget decreases will take effect within 15 minutes. If a decrease in budget adjusts your limits below or near your current resource usage for the day, we may not be able to immediately enforce the lower limits. In this case, your charge for this day may exceed your new budget.

### Changes Made by Other Application Administrators

Developers who have been invited to your account have the ability to change the daily budget and its allocation, but only up to the amount of the Google Checkout weekly charge limit authorized by the billed administrator. To raise the daily budget beyond this limit, a developer will need to take over billing responsibilities and authorize a new weekly charge limit.

## Billing Status

Your current billing status will be displayed on the Billing Settings page. Possible values are:

Value | Description
--- | ---
Free | No Checkout account has been linked to this App Engine account. You'll be able to use resources up to the free resource limits.
Billing Enabled | An active Google Checkout account is linked to this App Engine account and a weekly charge limit has been authorized.
Activating Billing | It can take approximately 30 minutes for the credit card charge confirmation to be returned by Checkout. During this time, your status will show as Activating Billing, and no further billing-related changes can be made.
Charge Issued | Your Checkout account is being charged for the resources used above the free levels. You'll only be charged for resources that you actually consume.
Payment Due | We were unable to process the last payment. In order to return to a Billing Enabled state, a new billing administrator must assume payment responsibilities and pay any outstanding balance.
Payment Overdue | We were unable to process your last payment, and the due date for this payment has passed. Your limits may be reset to the free levels.
Manual Review | Your account is being manually reviewed, usually because you have recently disabled billing, or you have requested a manual review. Changes cannot be made to any of the billing settings while your account is in this state.

## Changing the Billing Administrator

Any developer who has access to an application's Administration Console can take over billing responsibilities. This will relieve the currently-billed administrator of responsibility for charges. The new developer will be responsible for any outstanding balance on the application's account.

To take over billing responsibilities, click Take over billing from the information frame at the top of the Billing Settings page. Follow the instructions to enter your payment information and authorize a new Google Checkout weekly charge limit.

## Billing History

Your Billing History page shows all account activity related to paid resource charges. Any billing events, including budget modifications and billed administrator changes, will be reflected here.

The Billing History page also includes daily usage reports, detailing the resources used by your application, and any charges incurred.

## A Note About Taxes

Some countries require that we charge taxes for purchases of App Engine resources. If taxes apply in your country of residence, your Google Checkout charge limit will be adjusted to accommodate any applicable taxes. Your daily budget does not include the tax amount. Amounts shown on your Billing History and Billing Settings pages do not include taxes, and the final charge to your account, including taxes, may be larger than your daily budget amount.