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Advance Billing

Some services are invoiced in advance for several months at a time instead of monthly in arrears. The amount you pay up front is then settled against your actual usage, month by month.

What Advance Billing Is​

With advance billing, you receive one invoice that covers a period of several months, for example a quarter or a year. During that period, the service no longer appears as a charge on your monthly usage invoice, because it is already paid.

Advance billing applies to individual services, not to your whole account. You can have services billed in advance and others billed monthly at the same time.

Two points are worth knowing up front:

  • The price is the same. Paying in advance does not change your rate. If you want a lower rate in exchange for a longer term, that is a commitment instead.
  • Nothing is lost. Anything you paid for but did not use comes back to you as a credit, see Credits and Cancellation.

Periods and Invoices​

Periods usually end on the last day of a month. The first period also covers the remainder of the month in which the service starts, so it is usually a bit longer than the ones that follow. A service that starts on 13 August with quarterly advance billing is first invoiced for 13 August to 30 November, then for December to February, and so on. If your contract has its own dates, for example a yearly subscription starting on 25 September, the periods follow the contract instead (25 September to 24 September of the following year).

The invoice reads "Prepayment August - November 2026" and the line shows how the amount was calculated:

Quarter Rack
my-rack-01
CHF 476.00 × 3.6129 Months = CHF 1719.74
3.6129 Months 13.08.2026 to 30.11.2026

The factor is the length of the period in months, including the partial first month as a fraction.

You can have the periods shifted, for example so that they match your calendar quarters. Open a ticket in our Customer Service Desk to request it. In the example above, instead of the invoice for December to February you would then receive an invoice for December alone at the end of November, and from January on the periods follow the calendar quarters (January to March, April to June, and so on).

How the Prepaid Amount Is Settled​

Your monthly usage invoice continues to arrive during the period, and the prepaid share for that month is deducted from it. The line shows the calculation:

Colocation Power
September 2026
Usage: 3.00 kW | Prepaid: 2.00 kW (pro-rata) | Net: 1.00 kW
  • Usage is what you consumed during the month.
  • Prepaid is the share covered by your advance payment, prorated in a month it does not cover completely.
  • Net is what is billed on this line. Everything up to the prepaid quantity is already paid.

If you use more than you prepaid, the difference is billed at your regular price. If a month is covered entirely by what you paid in advance, you receive no usage invoice for it at all.

If you also hold a commitment for the same service, the committed quantity is deducted first, and the prepaid amount applies to what remains.

Services priced as a percentage of your monthly total, such as an SLA surcharge, are never billed in advance. They stay on your monthly invoice, because the amount they are based on is only known at the end of the month.

Credits and Cancellation​

If you use less than you paid for, the difference is credited back to you. This is the main difference from a commitment, where an unused quantity expires.

  • In a single month. If your usage stays below the prepaid share, the line nets negative and the amount is credited on that month's invoice. The line spells it out:

    Colocation Power
    September 2026
    Usage: 1.50 kW | Prepaid: 2.00 kW (pro-rata) | Net: -0.50 kW (credit)

    When the credits outweigh the charges, you receive a credit note instead of an invoice.

  • After cancellation. If a service ends while a period you paid for is still running, you are credited for the remaining months as they pass.

Requesting Advance Billing​

Advance billing is set up on request: open a ticket in our Customer Service Desk stating the service and the period you want. Use the same route to switch back to monthly billing. In some cases, for example for services with a notice period or licences Nine purchases a year ahead, Nine sets up advance billing on its own initiative.

Unlike a commitment, advance billing does not bind you for a fixed term. After switching back to monthly billing, no further advance invoices are issued; a period you already paid for runs out and is settled against your usage until it ends.