Make a manual payment or pay early

This document describes how to make a manual payment to your automatically paid self-serve billing account. Self-service (online) accounts accrue charges and then are automatically paid based on the account's charging cycle.

You can make a manual payment to your automatically billed account at any time. The payment is applied to your accrued costs, and, if your payment is larger than the amount you owe, it will reduce your next automatic charge.

If your Cloud Billing account is set up as an invoiced account and you want to learn how to pay your Google Cloud invoice, visit Make a payment to an invoiced Cloud Billing account.

Why make a manual payment or pay earlier than your automatic charge?

You might choose to make a manual payment for these reasons:

  • More control over how and when you're charged. With a manual payment, you can pay the entire account balance, just a fraction of it, or more than your balance to cover future costs. If making a payment to cover future costs, to prevent an automatic payment, you must make a manual payment large enough to cover your anticipated usage.
  • Divide your payment among several payment methods. This can help delay when your primary form of payment is charged. In rare cases, if you make a manual payment near to the time that an automatic payment is due, you might be charged twice.
  • Your Google Cloud account has had activity often associated with increased fraud. When this occurs, your account might be suspended and you might need to make a payment to reactivate your account. In these cases, the Google Cloud / API Trust & Safety Team sends an email requesting that you make a payment of $100 towards any of your Cloud Billing accounts. This payment appears as a credit in your billing account and is applied to any future charges.

  • Your credit or debit card was declined and you want your services to continue running. If your card was declined, you can make a manual payment to continue running your services while you resolve the declined payment issue. If you make a payment by bank transfer or direct debit, your account will start running again when we've received the payment (there is a possible delay of up to seven days while waiting to receive confirmation of payment from the bank).

Permissions required to make a manual payment

You can make a manual payment to a Cloud Billing account from either the Google Cloud console or directly from the Google payments center. The permissions required to make a payment depend on which payment process you choose.

Make a payment in the Google Cloud console for a Cloud Billing account Make a Google Cloud account payment directly from the Google payments center

From the Billing section of the Google Cloud console, to make a manual payment to an automatically paid, self-service Cloud Billing account, you need permissions on both your Cloud Billing account as well as on the Google payments profile that is linked to your billing account:

To make a payment to your Google Cloud account directly from the Google payments center, you need payments permissions on the Google payments profile that is linked to your Cloud Billing account:

For more information about Cloud Billing permissions, see:

For more information about Google payments permissions, see:

Make a manual payment

You can make a manual payment to a Cloud Billing account from either the Billing section of the Google Cloud console, or directly from the Google payments center. Depending on the status of your Google Cloud account, you might not be able to access your Cloud Billing account in the Google Cloud console. In those instances, access the Google payments center directly to make a manual payment.

Google Cloud console

To make a manual payment in the Google Cloud console, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, sign in to the Payment overview page for your Cloud Billing account.

    Go to your Cloud Billing account

  2. At the prompt, choose the Cloud Billing account for which you want to make a manual payment. The Billing Payment overview page opens for the selected billing account.

  3. To open the payment form, click Make a payment or Pay early.

  4. Select the payment method you want to use to make the payment, or add a new payment method. Use any payment method available in your location and currency. Check to see the payment methods available to you.

  5. Enter the amount of the payment you want to make.

    Depending on the payment method you are using, you might need to enter a minimum amount, usually USD $10, or the equivalent in your local currency.

  6. Click Make a payment.

Google payments center

To make a manual payment in the Google payments center, complete the following steps:

  1. Sign in to the Google payments center.

    If you have more than one Google payments account, the payments profile that you most recently viewed opens. To manage a different payments profile, select the payments profile from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

  2. Select the Subscriptions & services tab.

    The Subscriptions and Services page opens, where you can access the Active and Canceled Google Cloud accounts and other Google subscriptions that are paid for by the Google payments account you that are viewing.

  3. Each Google Cloud subscription card includes the billing account ID of the linked Cloud Billing account. Locate the Google Cloud subscription card for the Cloud Billing account that you want to pay, and click Manage.

  4. To open the payment form, click Make a payment or Pay early.

  5. Select the payment method you want to use to make the payment, or add a new payment method. Use any payment method available in your location and currency. Check to see the payment methods available to you.

  6. Enter the amount of the payment you want to make.

    Depending on the payment method you are using, you might need to enter a minimum amount, usually USD $10, or the equivalent in your local currency.

  7. Click Make a payment.