Path A — Auto-recharge ON
Recommended. Adds a “suspension” grace window before any destruction.Auto-recharge attempts a top-up
Balance drops below your configured threshold → Suji charges your card for the configured top-up amount. On success, balance refilled and life continues.
Card declines → VMs suspended
If the recharge attempt fails (card declined, expired, monthly cap, etc.), running VMs are powered off and flagged as
suspended.Important: suspension does not stop billing. The cloud provider still charges Suji for the powered-off server (the disk and IP stay reserved), and billing continues against your remaining credit. Your balance keeps decreasing.The user gets time equal to (remaining balance ÷ hourly rate) to fix the card.Fix card → click Resume
Update your payment method, then click Resume. The VM powers back on in ~60 seconds. Same disk, same IP, same subdomain, no data loss.
Path B — Auto-recharge OFF
No grace window. Balance hits €0 and the terminate flow runs immediately.Balance approaches zero
Suji sends low-balance warning emails. The Billing page in the dashboard shows a persistent banner reminding you that auto-recharge is off.
Balance hits €0 → terminate + retain snapshot
The next metering pass after balance ≤ €0 runs terminate for every active VM in the org:
- Stop the VM gracefully.
- Take a cold snapshot of the disk.
- Mark the snapshot
type='termination', retention 7 days. - Delete the cloud server (provider billing stops here).
- The instance row is marked
deprovisioning; Suji tears down the tunnel + DNS.
Within 7 days → top up + restore
Top up to a positive balance, then go to Snapshots in the dashboard and restore the termination snapshot into a new VM. The new VM gets a new IP but the data is intact.Note: snapshot storage continues to bill against your credit during retention. With no VM running, the burn rate is tiny (a few cents/GB/month). It can push your balance slightly negative — that’s expected, the top-up clears it.
Side-by-side
| Auto-recharge ON | Auto-recharge OFF | |
|---|---|---|
| Card fails | Suspension (VM powered off, billing continues) | N/A — no card to fail |
| Balance hits €0 | Terminate (cold snapshot + delete VM) | Terminate (cold snapshot + delete VM) |
| Snapshot retention | 7 days | 7 days |
| Cost during suspension | Billed at the regular hourly rate against your remaining credit | N/A |
| Cost during snapshot retention | Per-GB-month storage rate (tiny — balance may go slightly negative) | Same |
Recommendation
Enable auto-recharge. It gives you the suspension grace window between “card failed” and “balance gone”, which is usually plenty of time to fix the card. Without it, a single missed top-up means immediate VM destruction (recoverable via snapshot for a week, but more work). You set this up in Billing → Payment methods → Auto-recharge. Pick a threshold (when to top up) and an amount (how much to add).Notifications
We email you as your balance runs low — when you have only a few hours of runway left, or you’ve dropped below your auto-recharge threshold — and when a VM is suspended or an auto-recharge attempt fails. Add additional notification recipients in Organization → Notification preferences.What about volumes and other billable resources?
Every stored resource gets the same 7-day retention treatment at €0: volumes (attached or detached) are detached and kept intact, and manual/migration snapshots are marked for deletion. Everything in retention is still billed at the storage rate. Top up within the window and the retention marks are lifted automatically — your snapshots and volumes are kept. After 7 days without a top-up, they’re deleted and billing stops. Per-resource lifecycle rules at €0:| Resource | At balance = €0 | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Running / suspended VM | Cold snapshot + delete cloud server | 7 days |
| Volume (attached or detached) | Detached + marked for retention | 7 days (kept if you top up in time) |
| Snapshot (manual or migration) | Marked for retention | 7 days (kept if you top up in time) |
| Snapshot (termination) | N/A (this is the retention) | 7 days from creation |
| Outbound traffic overage | Already billed monthly; no retention concept | — |