Set a usage budget

Cap and monitor your monthly usage spend so your charges never quietly run past what you planned. You choose the amount, the thresholds at which FastPix alerts you, and whether the budget is a warning or a hard limit.

About usage budgets

Most FastPix charges are usage-based: they depend on how much video you stream, store, encode, and deliver. Usage-based pricing is flexible, but it can be hard to predict.

A usage budget sets a monthly dollar ceiling on your usage and notifies you as you approach it. It works like a spending alert on a credit card. You decide the number, FastPix keeps you informed as you get close, and, if you want, FastPix stops the tab before it goes over.

NOTE:
A usage budget is different from threshold billing. Threshold billing is when FastPix collects payment for usage you’ve already consumed part-way through the cycle. A usage budget is a ceiling you set to cap and monitor that usage.

What you can set

From your dashboard, you control three things:

• Monthly budget. The most you want your variable usage to cost in each billing cycle, for example $500.
• Alert thresholds. The percentages of your budget at which you want an email: 25%, 50%, 75%, 80%, 90%, and 100%. FastPix notifies you as your usage crosses each one.
• Enforcement mode. How strict the budget is:
  • Alert only (default). FastPix notifies you at each threshold and at 100%, but never interrupts your service. The budget is a guardrail, not a gate, which suits teams that want to watch spend without any risk to live service.
  • Hard stop (optional). At 100% of your budget, FastPix suspends all products on your organization to guarantee no further usage. Because this can interrupt live service, you turn it on deliberately and confirm the choice.

Set a usage budget

1. In your FastPix dashboard click the settings (gear) icon in the top navigation to open Organization settings.

2. In the left sidebar, select Usage Budget.

3. Turn on the Budget enabled toggle in the top-right corner.

4. Under Monthly budget, enter the most you want your variable usage to cost in one billing cycle, from $10 to $50,000. The page shows the lowest amount you can set right now, based on what you’ve already used this cycle.

5. Under Alert thresholds, select the percentages at which you want an email: 25%, 50%, 75%, 80%, 90%, or 100%.

6. Under When you reach 100%, choose an enforcement mode: Alert only to be notified without interrupting service, or Hard stop to suspend all products at 100%.

7. Click Save changes. A Budget saved confirmation appears.

Caution:
Hard stop suspends your live service. When usage hits 100%, all products on your organization are suspended (playback, uploads, and live streams stop) until you raise or disable the budget. Service resumes the moment you raise the budget above what you’ve already spent.

Monitor your budget

The Usage Budget page shows a live meter for the current cycle. It displays the cycle dates, the percentage of budget used, and three figures: Used, Remaining, and Monthly budget.

As your usage grows and crosses an alert threshold, your billing contact receives an email, and the meter updates. At 100%, you either get a final alert (alert only) or your products are suspended (hard stop).

Your budget resets at the start of each billing cycle, back to zero used.

Your current budget, usage, alert thresholds, and the lowest amount you can currently set are always shown on the Usage Budget page in Organization settings.

Adjust your budget mid-cycle

You can change your budget any time. Two rules keep this safe and predictable: raising your budget applies immediately, and lowering it has a floor.

Raise your budget

Raising your budget takes effect right away. If you’re on hard stop and your service is suspended for reaching your budget, raising the budget brings your service back immediately. You don’t wait for anything to catch up.

After you raise it, you have the difference (new budget minus what you’ve already used this cycle) of further usage before the next stop.

For example, your service is suspended at about $105 on a $100 budget. You raise the budget to $150. Service resumes right away, and you have roughly $45 more usage this cycle before it is suspended again. The earlier $105 still counts, because it’s the same cycle.

Lower your budget

You can lower your budget, but not below what you’ve already spent this cycle, and in fact not below a little above it. If you’ve used $50 so far, the lowest you can set your budget to is about $55. The dashboard always shows the lowest amount you can currently set.

The small cushion exists because usage is measured in short batches, so a little more usage is often already on its way in. The cushion keeps a freshly lowered budget from being exceeded the moment you set it.

Budget limits

A budget can be set between $10 and $50,000. Within that range, the floor described in Lower your budget applies once you’ve started using service this cycle.

What happens when a hard stop suspends service

If you’ve chosen hard stop and you reach 100% of your budget:

1. Your products are suspended to prevent any further usage charges, and FastPix emails your billing contact.
2. Your account stays fully accessible. Signing in, viewing invoices, updating your payment method, and changing your budget are never blocked. Only the usage-based products, such as playback, streaming, and encoding, are suspended.
3. To restore service, raise your budget, disable it, or switch it to alert only from your dashboard. Service comes back as soon as you do. Your budget also resets automatically at the start of your next billing cycle, which restores service too.

Because you can always reach your budget settings, you’re never locked out of getting your service back.

Things to know

• A budget tracks your usage spend, not your whole bill. Fixed subscription and plan fees and taxes don’t count toward your budget. Those are known up front and billed on your normal cycle date. The budget watches the variable usage cost, which is the part that fluctuates.
• Enforcement is a close, best-effort ceiling, not a to-the-cent guarantee. Because usage is measured in short batches rather than instantly, actual spend can go a little past your budget before a hard stop takes effect.
• Amounts are measured before credits and discounts. Your usage is counted at its standard rate when compared against your budget.
• A budget covers your whole organization. It’s one budget for the account, matching how your billing works.
• A hard stop suspends all products, not just the heaviest one. That’s the trade for a guaranteed ceiling, which is why it’s optional and off by default.

Frequently asked questions

What’s next

• Understand FastPix pricing to see how your usage rates are calculated.
• Understanding threshold billing to learn how FastPix collects usage charges part-way through a cycle.