Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cloudstud.io/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

CloudStudio bills monthly per workspace. The model has two components — storage and workstations — both metered automatically. User count doesn’t affect billing. Project count doesn’t affect billing. This page covers what’s on your invoice, how to read it, and how to forecast costs.

​
What you pay for

​
Storage — per-TB-month, per tier

For each storage tier, you pay a rate per TB-month based on the average bytes stored across the month. Snapshots are taken hourly so a project that’s on Hot for half the month and Nearline for the other half is billed accordingly — no rounding up to a full month. Typical rates (your contract may differ):
TierRate (USD per TB per month)
Hot$75
Nearline$25
Archive$10
Deep$0 (included)
If your workspace’s Hot pool averaged 12 TB over the month, that’s 12 × $75 = $900 on the storage side for Hot.

​
Workstations — per-week, per Mac class

Workstations are billed weekly, based on the peak number of stations allocated to your workspace in each ISO week. CloudStudio looks at the high-water mark — if you had 4 stations Mon–Wed and bumped to 6 stations Thu–Fri for a finishing push, that week bills at 6. Typical rates:
ClassRate (USD per workstation per week)
Mac mini “Edit” station$250
Mac Studio “Color” station$500
A workspace with 5 Edit stations and 1 Color station, full month, bills roughly (5 × $250 + 1 × $500) × 4.33 weeks ≈ $7,800/month for workstations. You only pay for stations actively allocated to your workspace. If you release a station back to CloudStudio between productions, that week’s bill drops accordingly.

​
Reading your invoice

Invoices are generated at month-end and emailed to all workspace Owners. You can also view current and past invoices in the workspace dashboard under Billing. Each invoice has:
  • Summary — total amount, due date, payment status
  • Storage by tier — average TB stored × rate × time
  • Storage by project (optional) — same breakdown but rolled up per project (useful when you bill clients separately)
  • Workstations — week-by-week, peak stations × rate
  • Adjustments / credits — any one-off line items
Invoice PDFs are downloadable from the billing page. Stripe also sends a separate copy directly.

​
Per-workspace invoice mode

If your org runs multiple workspaces and you want each to get its own invoice (rather than rolling everything up to org-level), enable per-workspace invoice mode. Useful for:
  • Agencies that bill clients per workspace
  • Holding companies with discrete production units
  • Workspaces with different payment terms
To switch, contact your CloudStudio account contact. The toggle is admin-only on our side currently while the per-workspace billing pipeline rolls out — self-service flip is coming.

​
Payment

CloudStudio bills via Stripe. Default is auto-charge on the workspace’s card on file at month-end. We also support:
  • Invoice-based payment (NET 30) for established workspaces — talk to your account contact
  • Wire transfer for large invoices — same conversation
Failed payments trigger an email and a 14-day grace period before workspace access is suspended.

​
Forecasting cost

The single biggest factor in your monthly bill is Hot storage. Most CloudStudio workspaces over-provision Hot at the start of a production and under-demote as projects finish. A simple forecast: 
Monthly cost ≈
  (peak Hot TB × $75) +
  (peak Nearline TB × $25) +
  (Archive TB × $10) +
  (Edit stations × $250 × 4.33) +
  (Color stations × $500 × 4.33)
For a 10-station facility running 30 TB Hot, 50 TB Nearline, 200 TB Archive:
  • Storage: 30 × 75 + 50 × 25 + 200 × 10 = $5,500
  • Workstations (assuming 8 Edit, 2 Color): (8 × 250 + 2 × 500) × 4.33 ≈ $13,000
  • Total: ~$18,500/month
Your actual usage analytics in the workspace dashboard give you a precise running total any time you want it.

​
Watching usage in real time

The Analytics tab in the workspace dashboard shows:
  • Current storage usage by tier, with month-to-date averages
  • Workstation utilization (how busy each station has been)
  • Per-project storage rollups
If your bill spiked unexpectedly, this is the first place to look — usually it’s a Hot pool that someone didn’t demote when a show wrapped.

​
Common patterns

Demote the project folder from Hot to Nearline (or Archive if you’re done with revisions). The hourly storage snapshots will reflect the move within a day, and your next invoice drops proportionally. See Storage tiers & quotas for the move workflow.
The ISO week it was added gets billed at the new (higher) peak. Weeks before that are unaffected.
Often not. CloudStudio supports releasing a station back to the pool when you’re done and bringing one back when you need it. Your account rep can set up week-by-week station swaps if your schedule is predictable.
Compare the storage by project line items against your usage analytics for the same period. Most mismatches come from a project that lingered on Hot longer than you remembered, or a station that wasn’t released when you thought it was. If the numbers still don’t reconcile, contact support — we can pull the hourly snapshots and walk through them with you.

​
What’s next