What is Pay-As-You-Go? How to manage balance?
Pay-As-You-Go is a flexible pricing model where you pay for the services you use on a per-usage basis, without any long-term commitment or upfront cost. This means that you are charged based on the resources you consume, such as active tunnels in the case of Localtonet.
How Does It Work?
Each tunnel on your account consumes a portion of your balance when it is in the "Start" state, meaning the tunnel is active and operational. If a tunnel remains active without interruption, it will gradually decrease your balance.
On average, if a tunnel runs continuously for one month without being stopped, it will reduce your balance by approximately $2. This means the longer a tunnel remains active, the more it will impact your balance.
How to Manage Your Balance?
- Monitor Active Tunnels: Regularly check which tunnels are active. You can pause or stop tunnels that are not in use to prevent unnecessary consumption of your balance.
- Optimize Tunnel Usage: Consider whether all your active tunnels are necessary. If a tunnel isn’t required, stopping it can help conserve your balance.
- Check Balance Frequently: Keep an eye on your balance to avoid any surprises. You can receive notifications when your balance is low.
- Use Auto-Charge Feature: You can enable the Auto-Charge feature from your balance page. By setting a minimum amount, it will attempt to automatically recharge your balance if it falls below a certain threshold. For example, if your balance drops below $1, it will attempt to recharge by a specified amount, such as $x. This helps ensure your tunnels continue running without interruption.
Examples
Example 1: Single Tunnel Scenario
Suppose you have one tunnel in the "Start" state, running continuously for one month.
This tunnel will consume approximately $2 of your balance over the month.
Example 2: Two Tunnel Scenario
If you have 2 tunnels in the "Start" state, both running continuously for one month, they will consume a total of $4 from your balance.
Each tunnel will consume about $2, so together they will consume $4 in total.
Example 3: 15-Day Period
If you have 2 active tunnels running continuously for 15 days, each tunnel will consume about $1 in 15 days.
In this case, 2 tunnels will consume a total of $2 of your balance over 15 days.
By managing the active status of your tunnels, you can efficiently control your Pay-As-You-Go costs and keep your balance under control.
Comments (4)
Hello!
I have only 1 tcp/udp tunnel active 24/7 for quite a few weeks now, but I noticed that the price somehow fluctuate on some days. Most of the days I was charged $0.0672, but on some days there were $0.0700 charge, and sometimes even $0.0756 (is it supposedly a $0.0028 per active hour?).
I do have a script that restarts the tunnel every 6 hours to be in sync with my local server auto reboot. Though, sometimes I have to restart the tunnel a couple more times due to some jinxed configs I added to my server. Are those extra stop-start operations on the tunnel the cause for this price fluctuation?
Hello,
Yes, you will be charged for the duration that your tunnel is in Start mode. These values are approximate, and 1 tunnel running continuously for 1 month will consume approximately $2 of credit.
Thank you for your reply.
I do understand that they're approximate, but I'm just wondering about how these charges came to be, and how they are this varied according to my balance history when the factors that should matter stayed the same (1 tunnel, 24 hours active time). Clicking details on the differing charges show that they all come from the one and the same tunnel id that I have.
Hello,
The calculations used do not include fixed periods, so small differences in cents may occur. Therefore, 1 Tunnel per month consumes approximately $2 in credit when operating continuously.
Please log in to post a comment.