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Spend cap

Pay for what runs, never more than you planned

Compute is billed by the hour from state changes, not samples, so a paused instance stops costing compute the moment it pauses. A spend cap keeps overage out of your invoice, and a monthly limit stops new spend before it surprises you.

See pricing Usage and billing

How it works

Spend cap, step by step

  1. Step 01

    Meter

    Running hours come from instance state transitions. Disk, egress and backup storage are measured per hour and rated per meter.

  2. Step 02

    Cap overage

    With the spend cap on, disk, egress and backup storage above your plan's allowance are recorded but not billed. Solo starts with it on.

  3. Step 03

    Set a monthly limit

    Choose a monthly limit for the org. New instances and resizes that would take the month over it are refused.

  4. Step 04

    Get warned

    Quota alerts arrive at 80, 90 and 100% of your plan's limits, in the portal and by email.

What you get

  • Hourly compute by size

    Each running instance costs its size's hourly price. One instance of the smallest paid size is covered by the plan's compute credit.

  • Pause to stop compute

    Paused instances keep their storage and stop compute billing. Idle free databases pause on their own.

  • Overage held at the allowance

    While the cap is on, usage above the included disk, egress and backup allowance is not charged. Switch it off when you want to grow past it.

  • A hard monthly limit

    Creates and resizes are checked against month-to-date spend plus their monthly estimate. Running instances keep running.

  • Usage you can export

    Group usage by team, cost centre, instance or meter in the portal, with zb usage, or as a monthly cost report.

  • Spend alerts at your threshold

    Email when month-to-date spend crosses the percentage of your limit that you choose. The threshold is already stored with the limit.

    On the roadmap

Try it

Set the monthly limit from the portal under Billing, or through the API.

shell
# Refuse new spend above $100 this month
zb api PUT /v1/orgs/{org}/spending-cap -d '{"cap_cents": 10000, "alert_percent": 80}'

# Where the money goes, month to date
zb usage --by instance
zb cost-report --month 2026-09 --csv

Plan availability

Generated from the same plan catalogue that billing and the API use.

  • Free

    $0 /mo
    Included

    Never billed: hard limits, no overage

  • Solo

    $25 /mo
    Included

    On by default, you can switch it off

  • Team

    $599 /mo
    Included

    Available, off by default, plus team budgets

  • Enterprise

    Custom
    Limited

    Team budgets and contract terms instead

Usage prices and the compute credit are on the pricing page, generated from the same catalogue as billing.

Compare every plan on the pricing page

Documentation

Questions

What happens when I reach my monthly limit?

Creating instances or resizing up is refused with an error that says why. Running instances keep running, and you can raise or remove the limit at any time.

Can I turn the spend cap off?

Yes. On Solo it is on by default and you can switch it off. On Team it is available and off by default.

Can the free plan charge me?

No. The free plan has no card and no overage: it enforces hard limits instead.

How is compute measured?

From the times an instance starts, pauses, resizes and stops, not from sampling, so the hours on your invoice match the hours it ran.

Related features

All features

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