Enable, disable, or change billing for a project

This article describes how to manage Cloud Billing for each of your Google Cloud projects and Google Maps Platform projects and tells how to link and unlink projects and Cloud Billing accounts. If you would like to learn how to manage your Cloud Billing account, visit Create, modify, or close your Cloud Billing account.

Overview

A Cloud Billing account is used to define who pays for a given set of resources, and it can be linked to one or more projects. Project usage is charged to the linked Cloud Billing account.

If you are a billing administrator on only one Cloud Billing account, new projects you create are automatically linked to your existing Cloud Billing account. If you create or have access to multiple Cloud Billing accounts, you can change the Cloud Billing account a project is billed to. This article describes how to change the Cloud Billing account for your project, as well as how to enable and disable billing for a project.

Important: If you have a project that is not linked to an active, valid Cloud Billing account, you will not be able to use the products and services enabled in your project. This is true even if your project only uses Google Cloud services that are free.

If you want to receive invoices by email, or you want to change who receives them, see Change payments contacts and notifications.

Required Permissions

The permissions required to accomplish the various tasks described in this article depend on the task 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 Identity and Access Management Roles for Cloud Billing

Check if billing is enabled on a project

Permissions required for this task

To view Cloud Billing accounts linked to projects, you need the Billing Account Viewer role for the Cloud Billing account.

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

• billing.resourceAssociations.list

To view the Cloud Billing account linked to a project, do the following.

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Cloud Console

2. In the project drop down ( My Project ) at the top of the Google Cloud Console page, select your project.

3. Open the console Navigation menu (), and then select Billing.

If billing is NOT enabled:

• If billing is not enabled on the project, a pop-up window opens, with text similar to:

  "This project is not linked to a billing account"

  • To enable billing on the project, select Link a billing account.
  • To view a list of billing accounts for your organization, select Manage billing accounts.

If billing is enabled:

• If billing is enabled on the project, and if you have only one Cloud Billing account, the Billing Overview page is displayed.

• If billing is enabled on the project, and if you have more than one Cloud Billing account, a pop-up window will display, with text similar to:

  "Billing account "[Your Billing Account]" is linked to this project"

  • To view the Billing Overview page for the Cloud Billing account that is linked to the project, select Go to linked billing account.
  • To view a list of Cloud Billing accounts for your organization, select Manage billing accounts.

For information on viewing a list of all your projects and the Cloud Billing account linked to each project, see View projects linked to billing accounts.

Change the Cloud Billing account for a project

Permissions required for this task

To change the Cloud Billing account for a project, you need to be able to move a project from one Cloud Billing account to another. To accomplish this task, you need permissions adequate to unlink the project from the existing Cloud Billing account AND to link the project to the target Cloud Billing account.

Roles with adequate permissions to perform this task:

• Project Owner or Project Billing Manager on the project, AND Billing Account Administrator or Billing Account User for the target Cloud Billing account.

Using an Organization? If you are set up to use an Organization to manage your Google Cloud resources and manage Organization billing accounts, then the Billing Account Administrator role granted at the Organization level will have adequate permissions to perform this task.

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

Action	Permission	Resource
Unlink project from a Cloud Billing account	billing.resourceAssociations.delete	Billing account
	OR
	resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignment	Project
Link project to a Cloud Billing account	billing.resourceAssociations.create	Billing account
	AND
	resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment	Project

To change the project's Cloud Billing account, do the following.

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Cloud Console

2. Open the console Navigation menu (), and then select Billing.

   If you have more than one Cloud Billing account, you'll be prompted to select Go to linked billing account to manage the current project's billing.

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

4. Under Projects linked to this billing account, locate the name of the project that you want to change billing for, and then click the menu () next to it.

5. Select Change billing, then choose the desired destination Cloud Billing account.

   Note: If you are not able to select Change billing, you do not have the permissions needed to make this change. See Permissions required for this task for more information.

6. Click SET ACCOUNT.

Switching a project to a different Cloud Billing account should not result in any service interruption or server downtime.

About Cloud Billing accounts: Charges already incurred prior to moving the project will be billed to the former Cloud Billing account. This can include charges that have not yet been reported in the transaction history (depending on the service, it might take up to two days for charges to be reported to the transaction history).

For example: If you move your project from Account A to Account B on May 15, charges incurred May 1 to May 15 will be billed to Account A (old), and charges incurred May 16 to May 31 will be billed to Account B (new).

Enable billing for a project

How you enable billing depends on whether you're creating a new project or you're re-enabling billing for an existing project.

Enable billing for a new project

When you create a new project, you're prompted to choose which of your Cloud Billing accounts you want to link to the project. If you have only one Cloud Billing account, that account is automatically linked to your project.

If you don't have a Cloud Billing account, you must create one and enable billing for your project before you can use many Google Cloud features. To create a new Cloud Billing account and enable billing for your project, follow the instructions in Create a new Cloud Billing account.

Enable billing for an existing project

If you have a project where billing has been temporarily disabled, you can re-enable billing. If your Google Cloud resources were suspended when billing was disabled, it might take up to 24 hours for the resources to start up again.

Permissions required for this task

To re-enable billing for a project, you need permissions adequate to link the project to the target Cloud Billing account.

Roles with adequate permissions to perform this task:

• Project Owner or Project Billing Manager on the project, AND Billing Account Administrator or Billing Account User for the target Cloud Billing account.

Using an Organization? If you are set up to use an Organization to manage your Google Cloud resources and manage Organization billing accounts, then the Billing Account Administrator role granted at the Organization level will have adequate permissions to perform this task.

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

• To link a project to a Cloud Billing account, you need resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment on the project AND billing.resourceAssociations.create on the Cloud Billing account.

To re-enable billing on a project, 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 My projects tab to view a list of projects and the associated Cloud Billing account for each project.

3. From the list of projects, locate the project for which you want to re-enable billing, and then click the menu () next to it.

4. Select Change billing, then choose the desired destination Cloud Billing account.

   Note: If you are not able to select Change billing, you do not have the permissions needed to make this change. See Permissions required for this task for more information.

5. Click Set account.

Disable billing for a project

To stop automatic payments for a project, you can disable billing for the project. You are still responsible for all outstanding charges for the project. Your listed form of payment on your Cloud Billing account will be used to pay for any outstanding charges.

Caution: If you disable billing for a project, some of your Google Cloud resources might be removed and become non-recoverable. Instead, consider shutting down your project. Shutting down a project releases all resources used within the project. Only project owners can shut down or restore projects.

Permissions required for this task

To disable billing for a project, you need permissions adequate to unlink the project from the target Cloud Billing account.

Roles with adequate permissions to perform this task:

• Project Owner or Project Billing Manager on the project, OR Billing Account Administrator for the target Cloud Billing account.

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

• To unlink a project from a Cloud Billing account, you need resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignment on the project OR billing.resourceAssociations.delete on the Cloud Billing account.

To disable billing for a project

1. Sign in to the Google Cloud Console.

   Sign in to Cloud Console

2. Open the console Navigation menu (), and then select Billing.

   If you have more than one Cloud Billing account, do one of the following:

   • To manage Cloud Billing for the current Cloud project, select Go to linked billing account.
   • To locate a different Cloud Billing account, select Manage billing accounts and then choose the account you want to manage.

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

4. Under Projects linked to this billing account, locate the name of the project that you want to disable billing for, and then click the menu () next to it.

5. Select Disable billing. You are prompted to confirm that you want to disable billing for this project.

   Note: If you cannot select Disable billing, you might not have the permissions needed to make this change. See Permissions required for this task for more information.

6. Click Disable billing.

Related topics

• View linked projects
• Create, modify, or close your Cloud Billing account
• Change payments contacts and notifications
• View your cost and payment history
• View your Cloud Billing reports and cost trends