Subscriptions

kubestart clusters are billed as subscriptions through Stripe. This page explains how billing works and what happens in various subscription states.

Billing periods

When you create a cluster, you choose a billing period:

Period	Discount
1 month	—
3 months	5% off
6 months	10% off
12 months	15% off

Longer prepaid periods cost less per month. The full amount for the selected period is charged upfront.

Auto-renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period. You can cancel auto-renewal at any time from the dashboard — your cluster remains active until the current paid period ends.

To re-enable auto-renewal, toggle it back on before the current period expires.

Subscription states

Your cluster’s status on the dashboard reflects its subscription state:

State	Meaning
Active	Payment is current, cluster is running normally.
Past due	Payment failed. The cluster is suspended (paused, not deleted). It resumes automatically when payment succeeds.
Cancelled	Auto-renewal is off. The cluster runs until the end of the paid period, then is deleted.

Past due payments

If a payment fails (e.g., expired card, insufficient funds):

Stripe retries the payment automatically over several days.
While payment is outstanding, your cluster is suspended — workloads are paused but not deleted.
Once payment succeeds, the cluster resumes automatically.
Update your payment method on the dashboard to resolve payment issues immediately.

Cancellation

When you cancel a subscription:

Auto-renewal is turned off immediately.
Your cluster continues running until the end of the current paid period.
After the paid period ends, the cluster and all its data are permanently deleted.

Changing packages

To upgrade or downgrade your package, contact support. Package changes take effect at the next billing cycle.

Create a Cluster — package details and pricing.
Fair Use Policy — usage rules and enforcement.