Create, Modify, or Close Your Cloud Billing Account

About Cloud Billing Accounts

• Cloud Billing Accounts pay for Google Cloud projects and Google Maps Platform projects.

  Key Point: G Suite accounts do not pay for Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform product usage. If you are a G Suite customer with a G Suite billing account, and you are also a Google Cloud customer and/or a Google Maps Platform customer, you will need to set up a Cloud Billing Account to pay for your Google Cloud and Google Maps Platform product usage.

• A project and its service-level resources are always paid for by a single Cloud Billing Account.

• A Cloud Billing Account operates in a single currency and is linked to a Google payments profile.

• A Cloud Billing Account can be linked to one or more projects.

• Project usage is charged to the linked Cloud Billing Account.

  Key Point: Projects that are not linked to a Cloud Billing Account cannot use Google Cloud or Google Maps Platform services that aren't free.

• You can manage your Cloud Billing Accounts using the Google Cloud Console (visit documentation).

The following topics explain how to set up your Cloud Billing Account, verify your email address, update your Cloud Billing Account address, close a Cloud Billing Account, and reopen a Cloud Billing Account.

If you want to change the Cloud Billing Account that you are using to pay for a project (that is, link a project to a different Cloud Billing Account), see Modify a Project's Billing Settings.

Pricing information

If you are looking for information about Google API pricing, refer to the documentation for the API you are using.

• For information about Google Cloud pricing and the Google Cloud free trial, see Google Cloud Pricing.
• For Google Maps Platform pricing, see GMP Pricing or see Google Maps Platform Billing.

Required Permissions

The permissions needed to manage Cloud Billing Accounts depend on what you are doing and are noted at the start of each topic.

For more information about Cloud Billing permissions, see:

• Overview of Access Control
• Create Custom Roles for Cloud Billing
• Understanding Predefined Cloud Identity and Access Management Roles for Cloud Billing

Create a new Cloud Billing Account

Permissions required for this task

If you manage your Google Cloud resources using an Organization node, and you are a member of that Google Cloud Organization, then you must be a Billing Account Creator to create a new Cloud Billing Account.

Specifically, if you are a Google Cloud user within an Organization, to perform this task, you must have the following permission.

• billing.accounts.create

If you are not a member of a Google Cloud Organization but instead are managing your Google Cloud resources or Google Maps Platform APIs using projects, you do not need any specific role or permission to create a Cloud Billing Account.

To create a new Cloud Billing Account, do the following.

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Manage billing accounts

2. Click Create account.

   1. Enter the Name of the Cloud Billing Account.

   2. Depending on your configuration, you will also need to select one of the following:

      • If you see an Organization drop-down, then you must also select an Organization before you can continue.
      • If you are prompted to select a Country, select the country that corresponds with your billing mailing address. The country you select will affect the payment options available in the next step. The currency for your Cloud Billing Account is automatically assigned based on the country you select.

   3. Click Continue.

3. Choose the Google payments profile that will be associated with this Cloud Billing Account. A payments profile is shared and used across all Google products (such as G Suite, Google Cloud, Google Fi, and more). You can choose an existing payments profile, or create a new payments profile. If you choose to create, follow the instructions on the screen to set up your payments profile.

   Important: About the Account Type

   • If you are creating a new payments profile, when setting your Account type, be aware that this setting is permanent and may be used for tax (such as value-added tax (VAT)) and identity verification. Select Business if this is for a business, organization, partnership, or educational institution. Otherwise, select Individual.
   • If you are choosing an existing payments profile to be associated with this Cloud Billing Account, select a Business profile for Cloud account.
   • If you want more than one person to be set up as a user of your Google payments profile, then you must set the Account type to Business. Individual account types allow for only one user to be associated with the payments profile.

4. When you are done setting all the options and details, click Submit and enable billing.

By default, the person who creates the Cloud Billing Account is a Billing Account Administrator for the Cloud Billing Account.

Note: After setting up your account, you might notice a $0.00 transaction from Google which is a pending authorization request between our billing system and the bank that issued your credit or debit card. In some countries, authorizations are $1 (which might be converted to local currency by your bank). These transactions might appear as pending on your statement for up to a month. Please keep in mind they are authorization requests only, not actual charges. If you have questions, we recommend you contact your bank about the authorization status.

For information about verifying bank accounts, see Verify Your Bank Account. For information about adding backup methods of payment, see Add, Remove, or Update a Payment Method.

Note: If you haven't already verified your email address, you might need to do so before you can begin using the new Cloud Billing Account.

Verify your email address

To ensure you receive billing related notifications, we might ask you to verify your email address.

To verify your email address, look for a verification email in the Inbox for the email address you used as your billing account Primary contact, and then click the verification link in the email to activate your billing account.

If you haven't received the verification email, here's how to request a new verification link:

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Manage billing accounts

2. Select the name of the Cloud Billing Account you want to verify.

3. In the Billing navigation menu, click Payment settings.

4. Under Payments users, find the email address you want to verify and click Resend verification email. Note that if the email address has already been verified, this link is not available.

Until an email address is verified, you will see the error "Your primary billing contact isn't receiving critical notifications" in Billing.

Change the mailing address on the Cloud Billing Account

This mailing address is the legally-registered business address that gets printed on invoices.

Permissions required for this task

To change the mailing address on your Cloud Billing Account, you must be a Billing Account Administrator on the Cloud Billing Account.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permission.

• billing.accounts.updatePaymentInfo on the Cloud Billing Account

To change the mailing address on the Cloud Billing Account, do the following.

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Manage billing accounts

2. Select the name of the Cloud Billing Account you want to update.

3. In the Billing navigation menu, click Payment settings.

4. Under Payments profile, click the edit icon () next to the name and address to open it for edit.

5. Update the mailing address information and click Save.

Close a Cloud Billing Account

Permissions required for this task

To close a Cloud Billing Account, you must be a Billing Account Administrator on the Cloud Billing Account.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permission.

• billing.accounts.close on the Cloud Billing Account

Before you close an active Cloud Billing Account, take note:

Closing an active Cloud Billing Account stops all billable services in any projects linked to the account, such as running VM instances or storage buckets. Projects that are not linked to an active and valid Cloud Billing Account cannot use Google Cloud or Google Maps Platform services that aren't free.

Before proceeding, we recommend you do the following:

• If you have any resources in associated projects that you want to keep up and running, before closing the Cloud Billing Account, link those projects to a different active Cloud Billing Account
  or
• Disable billing on the Cloud Billing Account's associated projects.

To close an account:

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Manage billing accounts

2. Select the name of the billing account you want to close.

3. In the Billing navigation menu, click Account Management.

4. At the top of the page, click CLOSE BILLING ACCOUNT.

Note: After you close your Cloud Billing Account, we will bill you for the usage you accrued prior to cancelling your service. This bill will be the last bill you receive, unless you reactivate service.

Why can't I see the CLOSE BILLING ACCOUNT button?

If you are on the Account Management page of the Cloud Billing Account you want to close and you don't see the CLOSE BILLING ACCOUNT button, the reasons could include the following:

• You do not have the permissions needed to close this Cloud Billing Account. Contact your Cloud Billing account admin.

• Your Cloud Billing Account has outstanding charges or outdated payment information. You cannot close a billing account until you pay off any previous balance or fix payment information.

  Note: To stop new charges from accruing, disable billing on each project linked to the Cloud Billing Account or link those projects to a different active Cloud Billing Account.

Reopen a closed Cloud Billing Account

Permissions required for this task

To reopen a Cloud Billing Account, you must be a Billing Account Administrator on the Cloud Billing Account.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the following permission.

• billing.accounts.reopen on the Cloud Billing Account

Before you begin:

1. Before a Cloud Billing Account can be reactivated, you must resolve any payments-related issues or suspensions. Follow the steps in the resolving declined payments troubleshooter for assistance.
2. To reopen a Cloud Billing Account, make sure you have the permissions required to reopen the account; you must be a Billing Account Administrator on the Cloud Billing Account.

To reopen a closed account:

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Manage billing accounts

2. Click the Show active accounts only dropdown, then select Show all accounts.

3. Click the name of the Cloud Billing Account you want to reopen.

4. In the Billing navigation menu, click Account Management.

5. At the top of the page, click REOPEN BILLING ACCOUNT.

Why can't I see the REOPEN BILLING ACCOUNT button?

If you are on the Account Management page of the closed Cloud Billing Account and you don't see the REOPEN BILLING ACCOUNT button, the reasons could include the following:

• This account has unresolved payments-related issues or suspensions. You must resolve these issues before you can reopen the account. You might need to update the payment method linked to this Cloud Billing Account, or resolve declined payments.
• You do not have the permissions needed to reopen this Cloud Billing Account. Contact your Cloud Billing account admin.

Delete a Cloud Billing Account

Cloud Billing Accounts cannot be deleted. Even if you close your Cloud Billing Account, the Cloud Billing Account information is retained for reporting and auditing purposes.

If you want to prevent a Cloud Billing Account from accruing charges, you can close the Cloud Billing Account, or disable billing on the associated projects.

If you want to change the form of payment associated with your Cloud Billing Account, you can manage your payment methods in the Google payments center.

Related topics

• View Projects Linked to a Cloud Billing Account
• Modify a Project's Billing Settings
• Add, Remove, or Update a Payment Method
• Resolve Billing Issues
• View Your Cost and Payment History
• View Your Billing Reports and Cost Trends