What happens at low balance
Use GET /billing/balance to inspect balance, open_accruals, runway and zero_balance_timeline. Balance already includes open usage estimates: subtracting open_accruals again would create the wrong retention decision.
Timeline
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 72 hours and 24 hours of runway left | Email, console banner and a billing.low_balance event |
| Available balance, after open charges, reaches zero | New starts are refused and running computers are paused with their memory kept. Always-on computers keep their slot for 7 days, free |
| Days 0-14 | Computers and disks are kept and nothing is charged (always-on and storage included). Notices on days 0, 7 and 12 |
| Day 14 | Computers may be deleted, but only if no payment of yours is pending or in review, every notice reached your mail server, and (during the beta) deletion needs a manual confirmation. Otherwise deletion waits 7 more days |
| Then | Computers are stopped and kept aside for 7 more days, shown as suspended (state_reason: low_balance) with scheduled_deletion_at, then purged and shown as deleted |
| Credited top-up leaves positive available funds | Files recover without execution: quarantined computers return stopped, others remain paused if memory survives. Independent restrictions remain. Explicit start/resume needs balance and capacity; a debt-only top-up does not clear retention. |
The same retention clock applies when only stopped computers or account storage remain. A positive residual balance does not start that clock.
Never-funded empty accounts get no retention epoch or deletion notices. Low-balance warning thresholds
re-arm after funding restores runway, even in the same month. Deletion-held reasons describe an actual
decision from eligibility onward, not an early disclosure of preservation details.
The same guarded clock covers private images, even without computers. Snapshots follow their source computer; private images survive ordinary source deletion. Quarantined private images cannot create new computers. Image detail exposes retention_state and scheduled_deletion_at.
For deletion eligibility, accepted means documented acceptance by your destination mail server, not merely submission to our outgoing relay and not proof that you read the message. Missing, deferred or bounced delivery evidence holds deletion.
A legal hold also prevents destruction of held data. It does not override non-destructive stop/pause or turn a refused delete into an accepted one; destructive customer requests return 409 invalid_state. The ordinary purge dates do not apply while preservation is required.
A slot released for low balance is not restored automatically; unreserved always-on/own-storage charges remain paused until explicit capacity admission or a switch to on-demand. Account-storage charges resume when retention clears.
Recovery checklist
Wait for the credited top-up and verify that available funds are positive. A payment that only repays debt does not clear retention. Files recover without execution; inspect the resulting stopped/paused state and obtain fresh authority where old grants were permanently revoked. Independent abuse, spend, suspension and legal-hold restrictions remain.
Explicit start/resume still needs current capacity. A released always-on reservation is not silently restored. Check GET /limits and the computer's reservation before resuming billable use. Watch billing.low_balance plus current computer events, and keep the timeline's notice evidence distinct from a mail inbox/read receipt.
Dory is in development; these pages describe the planned service and may change. Questions: support@computeengines.com.