Billing

Paying for STRG is meant to be simple: you pay for the data you keep stored, and nothing else. Everything to do with it lives on the dashboard's Billing page - your cards, your billing details and your invoices - and this page explains how each part works and why it is there.

What is billed

You are billed for the data you store, and nothing else. Uploads, downloads and listings are free however often they happen, so a busy app and a quiet archive holding the same data cost the same. Prices are exclusive of VAT, which is added on top where it applies - VAT has the details.

Here is how each kind of usage is treated:

Stored data	Billed
Requests (uploads, downloads, listings, every other API call)	Free
Data transferred in (ingress)	Free
Data transferred out (egress)	Free

Stored data is measured to follow what you actually keep, day by day:

• Over time, prorated per day. Usage is measured continuously and priced a day at a time, so data kept for part of a month is billed for the days it was stored.
• Decimal units. 1 TB is 10^12 bytes.
• Every object version counts. Versioning is always on, so overwriting or deleting an object keeps its earlier versions - which is what makes an accidental overwrite recoverable. Those versions stay billed until they are removed, either by deleting them by version ID or with a lifecycle policy that expires them for you.
• Locked versions stay billed until their retention ends, since they cannot be deleted before then. Object Lock explains how retention works.
• Parts of unfinished multipart uploads count too, until the upload is completed or aborted. A lifecycle policy can abort uploads left incomplete, so forgotten ones tidy themselves away.

Your usage so far

The dashboard's home page keeps a running view of what you store and what it is costing, so you can see an invoice coming well before it is issued:

Tile	What it shows
Stored now	The size of your buckets, summed, as of the latest daily storage report. Sizes arrive the day after something is stored
This period	An estimate for the end of the current billing period: what the days reported so far cost, plus each region's last reported day repeated for every day still to come. The amount so far is shown beneath it. Until a day of the period has been reported, it shows "-"
Last period	How much you stored on average over the previous billing period, and what it cost

The estimate is a guide rather than an invoice, and its amounts are before VAT.

A card is required

Before your first bucket or access key, we ask for a card. It is there to prevent abuse - in the dashboard's words: "A card is required to prevent abuse: a $1 hold checks it and is released at once, and nothing is charged until there is storage to bill."

Here is what adding a card involves:

The $1 hold	Placed to check the card and released straight away. It is never charged
What the form asks for	The card number, expiry and security code. With no billing address on file yet, it also asks for your whole billing details - the country is the one required field - and saves them before the card: a tax ID that is refused stops it before the card is checked or charged. With billing details on file, it asks for none of them, and the card is added with your saved billing address
3-D Secure	When your bank asks for confirmation, the dialog waits for it ("Waiting for your bank's confirmation…")
A refused card	A card can be refused; a different card is the way forward

Creating a bucket or an access key without a card on file leads to a pointer to add one first. In the dashboard, the form is replaced by that message and an Add a card button, which opens the card dialog right there; once the card is verified, the form is back. Through the S3 API or an AI agent, the answer points to Billing. Buckets and keys you already have keep working - a card is needed for creating new ones.

Managing cards

Keeping more than one card on file means an invoice still gets paid when one card can't be charged - an expired card, say. On Billing, under Cards:

• Add card opens the card dialog. A card shows Being verified until the check completes, normally within seconds.
• Every card you add becomes the default once it is verified, and your other verified cards are tagged Backup.
• Backups step in when the default cannot be charged. An invoice and Pay now charge your default card first, then each backup, newest first, until one pays.
• Make default on another verified card makes it the default instead.
• You can have up to 3 cards. A fourth is turned away with "You can have up to 3 cards. Delete one to add another."
• Adding a card you already have replaces it. The old copy is removed once the new one is verified, and does not count towards the 3.
• The trash icon deletes any card but the default. Your default card can be removed once another card has been made the default.

A card that can't be charged

When a bank declines a charge in a way that retrying cannot change, the card is tagged Can't be charged, and Billing shows why under your cards. We never charge such a card again, and it cannot be made the default, until your bank updates it - a renewed or reissued card, for example - or you add it again.

Each reason comes with a straightforward fix:

Reason shown	What helps
"Your bank asks to confirm payments with this card. Add it again to confirm it."	Adding the same card again and confirming with your bank. It replaces the old copy
"This card has expired. Add your new card."	Adding the new card
"This card can no longer be charged. Add another card."	Adding another card

Billing details

Your billing details are what your invoices show, and they decide which VAT applies. Under Billing details you set the billing address (the country is required, every other field is optional), an optional company name, and an optional tax ID. Save billing details saves all of them together.

Your tax ID

One tax ID can be on file, and there is no type to pick: the field is labelled by the country selected in the form, so it always asks for the right kind of number.

Country	The field
An EU member state	European VAT number
Elsewhere	The country's invoicing number - for example Canadian GST/HST number, Switzerland VAT number, Japanese Tax Registration Number (Tōroku Bangō), United Kingdom VAT number
A country with no tax ID type	No tax ID field

• Changing it is a matter of entering the new number and saving; removing it, of emptying the field and saving.
• It is the selected country's. Switching to a country your tax ID on file does not fit empties the field, and the form says it is removed when you save.
• An EU VAT number starts with the member state's code - its country code, but EL for Greece. A German number (DE…) cannot be saved with an address in Austria: the save is refused, and the field says the number must start with the country's code. Switching the form to another member state empties a VAT number on file of a different one, which is removed when you save.
• A VAT number from an EU member state other than Austria means no VAT on your invoices: the form says "With a VAT number, your invoices carry no VAT: it is reverse-charged." VAT explains why.
• A number that is refused refuses the whole save, so nothing is ever half-saved: the address and company name stay as they were, and the reason is shown on the field.

After it is saved, an EU VAT number, a UK VAT number or an Australian ABN is checked against its issuing register, and the field says "Being verified.", "Verified." or "Could not be verified against the register - please check the number." If the register rejects it:

• You get an email asking you to check it and update your billing details.
• A red banner on every dashboard page names the number and the register - for example "We could not verify your VAT number <number> against the EU's VAT register. Please update it in your billing details." - with an Update billing details button that leads to them.
• Nothing else changes: the tax ID stays on file, your invoices show it as before, and it still decides their VAT.

The banner disappears once you save a new number.

On your invoices

The details are shown on your invoices, and your billing address and VAT number decide their VAT. A change applies to invoices issued after it, not to ones already issued.

Invoices

Invoices are issued for your billing period and charged to your card automatically, so there is nothing to remember to pay. Here is how invoicing works:

Billing period	Monthly, starting on the day of the month your account was created. In a month without that day, the period starts on the month's last day
When an invoice is issued	After the period ends, once its usage is final - usually within a few days. A period in which you stored nothing has no invoice
Payment	Charged automatically when it is issued: to your default card, then to each backup in turn if it cannot be charged
Email	Each invoice is emailed to you with its total and the invoice attached as a PDF, plus a link to Billing. If the PDF cannot be attached, the email says instead that the invoice and its PDF are on Billing
On Billing	Under Invoices, newest first. Each shows its period, its status (Draft while it is being issued, then Due, Paid or Void) and its total, VAT included, with the VAT beneath it. The PDF icon opens the invoice as a PDF, which has the full breakdown - a line per region - and its VAT

VAT

Prices are net: VAT is added on top. STRG is established in Austria, so which VAT applies depends on your billing address and VAT number:

Your billing address	VAT on your invoices
Austria	Austrian VAT, with or without a VAT number
Another EU member state, with a VAT number in your billing details	None: the invoice is reverse-charged, and you account for the VAT yourself
Another EU member state, without a VAT number	Your country's VAT
Outside the EU	No VAT is added

• It is decided when an invoice is issued, from the billing address and VAT number on file then. A VAT number you save applies to invoices issued after it, not to ones already issued.
• A VAT number the register could not verify still counts. It stays on file and is used for your invoices, and you are asked to check it (Your tax ID has more).
• How it is shown: on Billing, under an invoice's total - for example VAT (20%) $1.36, or VAT reverse-charged in place of an amount - and on the invoice's PDF. An invoice with no VAT shows no VAT line. The total includes the VAT, and it is what is charged and what the email shows.

Paying

Invoices are charged automatically, so there is usually nothing to do. When there is, an invoice that is due has a Pay now button on Billing, which charges your default card for it, then each backup, until one pays.

Closing your account

You can close your account yourself from Account settings, once everything owed is paid - that page has every check made first. Usage reported after it closes is still invoiced and charged to the card on file.

Questions

We're happy to help with anything about billing at support@strg.com.