Hourly is the default cadence, but plans that offer it can also be ordered monthly or annually. The difference is what you pay upfront, not how the server is measured.
What each cadence does
| Cadence | Upfront funding | Metered at |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $0.00 with positive credit; otherwise one selected-plan month before deployment | monthly / 730 |
| Monthly | One month | monthly / 730 |
| Annual | One year, 20% off | annual / 8760 |
Every cadence posts what you pay to the account as credit and then meters the server hourly against it. A monthly order is therefore a month of runway bought in one go, not a different pricing model, and the annual rate is derived from the discounted annual price so the discount reaches every hour you run.
Why the annual rate is floored too
$17.99 a year over 8760 hours is $0.002053…. Rounded to the nearest
ten-thousandth that is $0.0021, which bills $18.40 over the year and runs the
prepayment out about eight days early. The rate is floored instead, so a
prepayment always covers the period it paid for.
Cancelling a prepaid server
You can destroy the server immediately or, when a future prepaid due date is available, schedule deletion for that date. Billing continues until the server is deleted. Whatever you prepaid stays on the account as credit and can be used by anything else you run. All payments are final and credit is non-refundable, except where a refund is required by applicable law. Credit does not expire, so it stays available until you spend it. See Section 6 of the Terms of Service.