NOTE: This article is written for our Classic Cloud Control Panel. You can access this interface from the New Cloud Control Panel by clicking your username in the upper-right of the control panel and choosing the previous control panel from the menu.

After logging in to the Control Panel and Generating Your API Key, you may be wondering about how billing for our Cloud Services works.

When using Rackspace Cloud products, you only pay for the services that you use.  This means that the bill you receive will be for services used in the previous month.  Your 30-day billing cycle begins on the day that you activate your account.  If you start to utilize our services in the middle of your billing cycle, your first bill will only be for a partial month but will still be presented on your scheduled bill date.  

One important fact to keep in mind is that your Cloud Servers and Cloud Load Balancers will be billed for uptime as long as they remain in the 'Active' status – even if they are not being actively utilized.  This is because we have allocated resources for your exclusive use which cannot be reserved by other customers.

This article will provide you with an overview of the billing resources available to you through our website and your Control Panel.  You can use the following resources to help you manage and track the billing for your account: 

Pricing Pages and Cost Calculator

Each of the product pages on our website contains the most current pricing list, and each also has a cost calculator to assist you in estimating your monthly charges.  

Reports

• In the Control Panel, under the tab labeled "Your Account" you will find the Reports section.  In the image below, you can see that the Reports section opens to the Cloud Sites tab.  

• You will only see the Cloud Sites and Client Billing tabs if you are using the Cloud Sites product, otherwise the Reports section opens to the Cloud Servers usage tab.  On the Cloud Servers, Cloud Load Balancers, and Cloud Files tabs, you will see a usage summary for your products during the current billing period, up to and including the current day.  

Billing Overview

• Also under the "Your Account" tab, you will find the Billing section.  This will open by default to the Billing Overview tab.  Here you can easily see important information like your total outstanding balance, the date of your most recent invoice, and which credit card is being used for payments on the account.

Current Invoice

• The next tab to the right, Current Invoice, shows you your most recent account invoice in detail.  You will be able to see the date of the invoice, amount due, and itemized charges for services.  You will also be able to download your invoice in .PDF format for easy printing.

Billing History

• Under the Billing History tab you will see any adjustments to your account, including payments and credits.

Billing Settings

• Finally, under the Billing Settings tab, you can update your billing information and change the credit card attached to the account.

• These resources are always available to you through our website and through the Control Panel and we hope you find them useful in managing the billing for your account.  If you are unable to find the information that you are looking for by using these resources, or if you ever need a detailed billing inquiry, you can contact our Billing Support team for a Fanatical response to any billing questions you have.  We are available Monday - Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST, toll-free at 877-934-0410, or internationally at 210-581-0410.

Next, we'll look at the rest of the resources located under the Your Account tab.  These include locations for managing your contact information and your API key.