Before we dive into details, let's cover the basics first. The Apify platform provides two kinds of paid services:
Licensed platform features: to be paid in advance, users are then entitled to use them as needed (e.g., Actor RAM, concurrency, support level)
Platform usage: charged based on the specific usage of the Apify platform services (e.g., Actor compute units (CUs), residential GBs, storage, Actor rental, etc.)
Apify offers various subscription plans. Each plan has a specific set of licensed features and prepaid platform usage. Once you’ve used your prepaid usage in full, you can continue to use the platform and pay-as-you-go for any extra. The extra usage is calculated based on the unit prices for each plan. For example, on the Starter plan, after you consume the 100 included CUs, you will be charged $0.4 per CU.
Whenever you change the subscription plan (upgrade, downgrade, or change of billing interval), the Apify platform adjusts the initial payment for the new plan to compensate for the already-paid license features (proration discount). It will also increase or reduce the prepaid platform usage to compensate for the differences in the prepaid usage in the old and the new plan (prepaid usage adjustment).
To change the subscription, follow these steps.
Prorated subscription price
The subscription upgrade/downgrade price (i.e. the new price minus the proration discount) is computed using the following formula:
PRORATED_PRICE = MAX( NEW_PRICE * REMAINING_FRACTION_OF_NEW_CYCLE + OLD_PRICE * COMPLETED_FRACTION_OF_OLD_CYCLE - OLD_PRICE, 0)
REMAINING_FRACTION_OF_NEW_CYCLE… a number from 0 to 1 indicating the fraction of the new billing cycle remaining. For example, if 40% of billing cycle remains, the fraction is 0.4.COMPLETED_FRACTION_OF_OLD_CYCLE… a number from 0 to 1 indicating the fraction of the old billing cycle already passedNEW_PRICE… new subscription plan priceOLD_PRICE… old subscription plan price
Note that the MAX() is used only to ensure the price is never negative but zero instead.
To better illustrate how proration discount and prepaid usage adjustment are calculated, we have prepared examples of the most common scenarios.
Upgrade from monthly Starter to Scale plan
Tier: | $49 Starter → $499 Scale |
Billing cycle: | 2023-04-22 → 2023-05-21 |
Current date: | 2023-05-05 |
Days left in the billing cycle: | 18 of 30 days |
Days since the last invoice: | 12 days |
Proration discount: | - $229 |
Next invoice date: | 2023-05-22 |
After the upgrade, the billing cycle will remain the same: 2023-04-22 to 2023-05-21. That is 30 days, of which 12 full days passed before the current date 2023-05-05, and 18 days remain, including the current date.
You only pay for the extra licensed features (RAM, datacenter IP addresses. etc.) for the remaining fraction of the billing cycle, hence the proration discount. The discount only applies to licensed features, not to prepaid usage – this is handled separately.
The prorated price is computed as follows:
PRORATED_PRICE = MAX( $499 * 18/30 days + $49 * 12/30 days - $49, 0) = $270Hence the proration discount is $499 - $270 = $229
After the upgrade, the user will be issued a CHANGE invoice:
Note the line “Prepaid platform usage was adjusted by -$180.00 for the billing cycle to compensate for the proration”.
Now that the user has upgraded to the Scale plan, following the proration discount logic, the prepaid usage available with the new plan is also adjusted to account for the differences between the old and new plan.
$499 (new plan) - $49 (old plan) - $270 (prorated price of the upgrade) = $180. This is the reduced prepaid usage after the upgrade.
In other words, now that the customer is on the Scale plan, you have $319 ($49 + $270) prepaid usage until the end of the current billing cycle. Long story short, we have adjusted the prepaid usage by $180 at the time of the upgrade.
Downgrade from monthly Scale to Personal
Using the same base example account as above, we will reverse the action to demonstrate the downgrade scenario.
Tier: | $499 Scale → $49 Starter |
Billing cycle: | 2023-04-22 → 2023-05-21 |
Current date: | 2023-05-05 |
Days left in the billing cycle: | 18 days |
Days since the last invoice: | 12 days |
Proration discount: | $49 |
Next invoice date: | 2023-05-22 |
After the downgrade, the billing cycle will remain the same: 2023-04-22 to 2023-05-21. That is 30 days, of which 12 full days passed before the current date 2023-05-05, and 18 days remain, including the current date.
The prorated price is computed as follows:
PRORATED_PRICE = MAX( $49 * 18/30 days + $499 * 12/30 days - $499, 0) = MAX( -$270, 0 ) = $0Hence the proration discount is $49 - $0 = $49, i.e. 100% of the price of the new plan, and thus the downgrade is free of charge (as it should be).
Beware that the extra licensed features with the previous plan (Actor RAM, datacenter IPs, etc.) will be lost after the downgrade. Therefore, we recommend that customers downgrade at the end of the billing cycle so that they don’t lose any already-paid licensed features.
After the downgrade, the user is issued a CHANGE invoice:
The prepaid platform usage the user has from the previous plan will still be allotted to that billing cycle, meaning you can still spend $450 ($499 - $49).
Change from monthly to annual plan
The conditions are the same as above - Starter plan, no add-ons, no tax.
Note that we keep the same start of the billing cycle, so the new billing cycle will be 2023-04-22 to 2024-04-21, i.e. 366 days, of which 12 full days have already passed, and 354 days remain.
The customer paid $49 and normally would be supposed to pay $49*12*0.9 (10% discount) = $529.2. Since they have already paid $49,
PRORATED_PRICE = MAX( $529.2 * 354/366 + $49 * 12/30 days - $49, 0) = $482.45
Therefore, the proration discount is $529.2 - $482.45 = $46.75.
After the change of subscription plan, the user is issued a CHANGE invoice:
Note that there is no prepaid usage adjustment in this scenario because the prepaid usage per month hasn’t changed – the customer is still on the Starter plan.
Final remarks
It might be quite challenging to understand and compute the prorated subscription prices, particularly when they involve add-ons or taxes. If you have any questions about your invoice, please reach out to our support, and we’ll walk you through the bill.