Do I pay for linodes that are stopped?
I know that i pay 5usd per month for my linode and that it's calculated by the minute, but happens when i stop a linode but not delete it? and then restart. ow is this billed?
8 Replies
watrick
Linode Staff
Yes. You will be invoiced for a Linode regardless of whether it is powered on or not. Linode is still maintaining space on a host for your data and reserving resources even when the Linode is powered off.
We have more about this in our documentation on How Linode Billing Works, specifically:
If My Linode is Powered Off, Will I Be Billed?
@watrick Any plans to change that? One of the things about developing solutions on AWS (and some other CSPs) is that, other than for storage (and add-ons like EIPs or ELBs), if I turn a VM off, I at least stop accruing compute-charges. And, while automation is great for getting back to a desired state, the execution-time for such automation still means getting to a "where I left off" state typically takes longer than simply powering back on.
jyoo
Linode Staff
@ferricoxide - We don't currently have plans to change this, but I've made a note of your feedback so that it can be considered in the future. That said, if you're looking to keep a server's data while not being charged for it, Linode Images can be a good option - especially if you aren't committed to keeping the same IP address.
Thanks for the reply. Currently, I only really use Linode for personal domain-hosting. That said, because most of my work is with the 900lb gorilla CSPs, it caught me a bit off-guard when working through my CentOS7→CentOS8 migration that I was billed for my tesing CentOS8 Linode even though it was powered off for 90% of its lifetime. Fortunately, it was only a $10 surprise.
Yeah, I shoulda paid as much attention to the billing documents as I was the StackScripts documents, but, "oh well". =)
The hotel will still charge you for a room even if you don't sleep in it ;)
caker
Linode Staff
Could also use block storage volumes to persist your data. Linodes can even boot via remote block storage volumes, too (without any local disks). You'd only be paying for the storage in between.
@ferricoxide --
You write:
One of the things about developing solutions on AWS (and some other CSPs) is that, other than for storage (and add-ons like EIPs or ELBs), if I turn a VM off, I at least stop accruing compute-charges.
In Linode-land, there are no compute-charges so when you spin up a Linode, you are charged for resource consumption at the data center. This is the same as AWS (by your own admission).
Unless you have an extremely busy site, network bandwidth is not going to be an issue (and a switched-off Linode is not going to be consuming net bandwidth anyway).
Amazon charges you for just thinking about turning on your instance ;-)
-- sw
Amazon charges you for just thinking about turning on your instance ;-)
Well, thanks. I heard a billing notification alert on my phone the second I read this sentence.