Guide · Fine-Print Index data
Per-second vs per-hour VPS billing
Per second, per minute or per started hour: how the billing unit changes what a short-lived server costs, with worked examples and the unit each of 20 providers uses.
The short answer
Of the 20 hourly VPS providers we checked on , 5 bill by the second, 3 by the minute and 12 by the hour. Hourly billing usually charges every started hour in full, so a five-minute run can cost a full hour.
The unit matters for many short runs. For a server that runs for days, the hourly rate and the monthly cap decide the bill.
Billing unit, provider by provider
Each provider’s rule in our words, with the page it comes from. The data is part of the Hourly VPS Fine-Print Index, where you can compare the other billing fields too.
Per second (5)
| Provider | What the provider says | Monthly cap | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOceanDroplets (bundled plans) | Per secondPer second, with a minimum charge of 60 seconds or $0.01, whichever is higher (effective Jan 1, 2026). | 672 hoursbundled plans; v5 Droplets uncapped | digitalocean. |
| ExoscaleStandard instances | Per secondPer second (rates are quoted per hour); minimum charge not published | None stated | exoscale. |
| Google Compute EngineE2 VMs | Per secondPer second after a 1-minute minimum (vCPU, memory, GPUs) | None statedno sustained-use discount on E2 | cloud. |
| Oracle Cloud (OCI)Flex VMs, pay as you go | Per secondPer second after a 1-minute minimum for VM instances (bare metal: 1-hour minimum) | None stated | docs. |
| OVHcloudPublic Cloud instances | Per secondPer second after an initial 1-minute minimum; never rounded up to the hour. Prices are shown per hour for readability. Billing starts when the instance reaches ACTIVE. | No capseparate monthly billing option instead | docs. |
Per minute (3)
| Provider | What the provider says | Monthly cap | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| IONOS Cloud CubesCloud Cubes | Per minutePer minute ('We charge by the minute for the time your cloud server is active'). | 30-day priceequals 720 h at the hourly rate (our arithmetic) | ionos. |
| KamateraHourly cloud servers | Per minutePer minute for hourly servers ('Hourly servers are billed by the minute'). Monthly servers are prepaid per month. | None stated | kamatera. |
| Microsoft AzureB-series VMs | Per minutePer full minute - leftover seconds are not billed | None stated | azure. |
Per hour (12)
| Provider | What the provider says | Monthly cap | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akamai (Linode)Shared CPU Linodes | Per hourPer hour; usage is always rounded up to the nearest hour. Invoiced monthly in arrears. | Monthly priceabout 667 h on Nanode (our arithmetic); G8 and GPU uncapped | techdocs. |
| Atlantic.NetCloud VPS, on-demand | Per hourPer hour, post-paid (billed in arrears); 'no minimum fee'. | 672 hoursthen the monthly rate | atlantic. |
| AWS LightsailLightsail bundles | Per hourPer hour (fixed hourly price per bundle); treatment of partial hours not published | Monthly pricethe bundle's monthly price is the maximum | docs. |
| Cherry ServersCloud VPS | Per hourHourly ('pay per use' from team balance); rounding of partial hours and minimum charge not published | None stated | cherryservers. |
| CivoCompute instances | Per hourPer hour, rounded up to the next full hour | None statedmonthly prices are shown at 730 h | civo. |
| Hetzner CloudCloud servers | Per hourPer hour, always rounded up: a server that exists for a few minutes is billed one full hour. | Monthly priceabout 624 h on CX23 (our arithmetic) | docs. |
| LightNodeHourly VPS | Per hourPer hour; a partial hour is billed as a full hour | 672 hoursper calendar month | doc. |
| RamNodeCloud VPS | Per hourPer hour the instance exists; an instance deleted within its first hour is charged for that partial hour | Monthly pricehours to reach it differ between RamNode pages | ramnode. |
| ScalewayCPU Instances | Per hourPer hour of uptime for CPU Instances; each resource is billed for a minimum of 60 minutes. | None stated | scaleway. |
| UpCloudCloud Servers | Per hourPer hour, billed by the starting hour; prepaid balance is debited hourly. | 672 hoursthen the monthly rate | upcloud. |
| VultrCloud Compute | Per hourPer hour; minimum billing unit is one hour. | 672 hoursCloud Compute; VX1 and GPU uncapped | vultr. |
| X-ZoneServersHourly VPS | Per hourPer started hour | Monthly priceabout 715 h on Nano (our arithmetic) | x-zoneservers. |
How each billing unit works
- Per second. The provider measures how long the server existed, to the second, usually with a minimum charge of one minute. A 7-minute run is billed as 420 seconds. One provider in the table also sets a minimum charge in money per server.
- Per minute. The same idea in minutes. Providers treat the last part-minute differently: one provider in the table bills full minutes only and drops the leftover seconds; others do not say.
- Per hour. Usually every started hour is billed in full. A server that exists for 61 minutes is billed for 2 hours; one deleted after 5 minutes is billed for 1 hour.
The price on a pricing page does not tell you the unit. Providers that bill by the second still quote prices per hour because they are easier to read, so check the billing rule, not the price label.
Worked examples
Every example uses the same made-up rate of $0.036 per hour, so that only the billing unit changes. That is $0.0006 per minute or $0.00001 per second. It is not any provider’s price.
| Run | Per second (1-minute minimum) | Per minute | Per started hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| A 7-minute test | 420 s = $0.0042 | 7 min = $0.0042 | 1 h = $0.036 |
| A 61-minute job | 3,660 s = $0.0366 | 61 min = $0.0366 | 2 h = $0.072 |
| Ten separate 7-minute runs | 4,200 s = $0.042 | 70 min = $0.042 | 10 h = $0.36 |
| 3 days nonstop | 259,200 s = $2.592 | 4,320 min = $2.592 | 72 h = $2.592 |
Hourly billing rounds each run up to the next full hour, so the extra cost per run is always less than one hour’s price. It adds up when you start many short-lived servers, and it disappears for servers that run for days.
A money floor changes the smallest runs. If a provider charges at least $0.01 per server, the 7-minute test above costs $0.01 instead of $0.0042, even though it bills by the second.
When the unit matters, and when the rate matters more
- The unit matters for many runs under an hour: CI and test runners, short benchmarks, scaling out for a burst of traffic, or scripts that create and delete servers on a schedule.
- The rate matters more once a run fills most of its last hour. A provider that bills by the second at $0.036 per hour charges $0.108 for a 3-hour job; one that bills by the hour at $0.030 per hour charges $0.09.
- The monthly cap matters most for servers that run around the clock. Many providers stop hourly charges at a monthly price; the tables above show which ones and after how many hours.
For everything else on an hourly bill, from prepaid credit to cancelling early, read how hourly VPS billing works. If your server will run for weeks, hourly vs monthly VPS shows where a monthly plan starts to cost less.
How HourlyVPS handles it
We bill by the hour, in whole cents, with a partial first or last hour rounded to the nearest cent. Our hourly billing fits servers you keep for hours or days; if most of your runs last a few minutes, compare the providers above that bill by the second or the minute. These are the rules that apply:
Billing unit
Billing is by the hour: every hour a server exists is charged at the plan’s hourly rate. The price tapes and cost tables on this site count every started hour as a full hour, so they show the most a duration can cost; the cost calculator charges a partial hour to the nearest cent, as the bill does.
Whole cents
Charges are deducted in whole cents: a full hour costs exactly the hourly rate, and a partial first or last hour is rounded to the nearest cent, never more than a full hour.
Hourly billing
Every server is billed by the hour: the plan’s hourly rate is deducted from the server’s prepaid balance for every hour it exists, powered on or off, until you delete it.
One product per plan
Each plan is one product, so there is no billing mode to pick or switch: the same server is billed by the hour whether you keep it for an hour, a day or all month, and the monthly cap applies by itself.