HashiCorp Flex Billing

What is HashiCorp Flex?

HashiCorp Flex^TM is a pricing program that allows customers to commit to a specific amount of spend upfront and draw down that committed balance through consumption of cloud services on the HashiCorp Cloud Platform. The program gives customers access to tiered usage pricing, deep discount options, and the flexibility to use the commitment across the HashiCorp Cloud Platform, including HCP Terraform Plus Tier, HCP Vault Dedicated, HCP Consul Dedicated, HCP Packer, and Cloud Support.

The support level specified for each product in your contract determined the SLAs. Services with Development Edition defaults to Bronze level support.

For additional information on HashiCorp Flex, contact sales.

HashiCorp Flex Metric Definitions

HashiCorp Flex customers can access the complete Flex consumption pricing table on the HCP portal billing page. Below is a summary of the pricing metrics for eligible cloud services included in Flex. Some of these metrics are billed slightly differently from HCP pay-as-you-go pricing.

Eligible Cloud Service	Pricing Metric	Billing Unit (Frequency)	Metric Definition
HCP Terraform	"Resources Under Management (RUM)" also referred to as "Managed Resources"	Hourly rate per Managed Resource	The total count of resources in an HCP Terraform-managed state file where `mode = "managed"`. HCP Terraform counts a resource as part of this count starting from the first `terraform plan` or `terraform apply` operation on the resource. HCP Terraform does not include null resources in this count. Null resources are any resources defined as a `null_resource` or `terraform_data` resource in an HCP Terraform-managed state file.
HCP Vault (Development, Standard, Plus)	Vault Cluster	Hourly rate per Cluster	A Vault Cluster is a group of Vault servers with a single primary active Vault Server node with several directly connected passive standby Vault Server nodes, used for high availability and fail-over.
	Vault Client	Rate per Client (Monthly)	Vault Clients are considered unique applications, services, and/or users that consume Vault. Only active clients count towards totals for the billing and consumption during the billing period. For more information visit our client webpage.
HCP Vault Secrets	Secrets	Hourly rate per secret	Secret(s) are defined as unique names (API key, password, or any type of credential) and value pairs enabling cloud native applications to connect with databases, SaaS services & other 3rd party systems.
	API calls	Rate per API call	API call(s) are an action aligned to API’s that enable fetching static, auto-rotated or dynamic secret values (individual or bulk) through the various interfaces such as User Interface (UI), Cloud-Line-Interface (CLI) or directly with the API itself.
HCP Consul Dedicated (Development, Standard, Plus)	Consul Cluster	Hourly rate per Cluster	A Consult Cluster is a group of Consul servers that form a data center.
	Consul Service Instance	Minutely rate per Service instance	A “Service” is a logical representation of an application or microservice that is registered in Consul. “Service Instances” refer to one or more running versions of a given service, each tracked as a distinct provider of the service by Consul's service registry.
HCP Packer (Standard, Plus)	Image	Hourly rate per Image	An image is a unique HashiCorp Packer configuration file. It can define one or multiple builds of an image.
	Request	Rate per Request (Monthly)	A Packer “request” occurs whenever a customer queries either the channel API or the versions API to fetch an iteration.
HCP Boundary (Standard, Plus)	Boundary Users	Rate per User (Monthly)	"HCP Boundary User" ("Boundary HCP User") means any human or machine identity taking an authenticated action to HCP Boundary.

Usage Metering and Cost Calculation

Billing metrics are metered by incremental count or by time, with usage and costs accrued so far in the month displayed and updated in the billing page every hour. Usage and costs are finalized and deducted from your Flex balance and an invoice is sent at the end of every month.

HCP tallies some metrics, such as Vault clients and Packer requests, incrementally for each month. Each subsequent unit is priced based on the pricing tier, and the count resets at the beginning of the following month.

Other metrics such as clusters, Terraform managed resources, and service instances are metered over time. At the end of every hour, HCP checks the billing unit count for the last hour. It then applies tiered pricing, support uplift, and any discounts to calculate the total charge and add it to the running balance. The billing usage summary updates every hour, though calculations may delay up to 30 minutes. For example, by 10:30am, the usage summary and balance will reflect charges for hours 9am to 10am.

The following image shows an example of the usage summary table displayed in the account summary screen.

In the usage summary, the Quantity shows the total sum of the units (hours for metrics metered over time, raw count for incremental metrics), and Amount shows the total cost associated with that metric with any tiered pricing and discount applied. Terraform does not include the cost of any resources that qualify under the free tier. The rate shown is an estimated blended rate calculated by dividing the amount by the quantity. The blended rate can change within the month as usage reaches higher usage tiers. Multiplying quantity and rate may result in slight discrepancies due to rounding in the UI.

Vault clients and Consul service instances are aggregated across the entire organization for pricing purposes. For example, increasing client count on one Vault cluster will decrease the marginal price of each additional client for all Vault clusters in the organization as higher pricing tiers are reached.
Terraform metrics are aggregated across all HCP Terraform organizations linked to Flex.

The usage summary will still display the number of clients and service instance hours attributed to each cluster separately, but will show the same blended rate for each cluster. For example, if Vault cluster A has one client and Vault cluster B has three clients, a quarter of the total Vault client charge to the organization will be attributed to cluster A, and three-quarters to cluster B, with the same blended rate for both.

The usage summary values are estimates until the statement is finalized at the end of the month. This allows for HCP to finalize price tiers and backfill any missing data.

HCP Terraform

Managed resources determine HCP Terraform Standard and Plus Edition consumption. HCP measures these metrics across all HCP Terraform Plus organizations linked to Flex, so usage in one organization puts you in a higher tier discount and lowers the prices for usage in other organizations too.

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Hourly Peak Managed Resources	The sum of the maximum number of managed resources in each workspace in an hourly billing period. HCP charges for a managed resource on a per-hour basis, from the time of resource provisioning until destruction. Each partial hour counts as a full hour. The hourly rate is based on the total number of Hourly Peak Managed Resources aggregated across all HCP Terraform Organizations linked to the HCP organization within a billing hour.	The managed resource pricing is tiered. The hourly rate for each managed resource depends the total number of managed resources tracked in state across all of your HCP Terraform organizations.

HCP Vault Dedicated

Vault clusters and Vault clients determine HCP Vault consumption. These metrics are metered across clusters in your HCP organization, meaning more usage in one cluster can lower the rate of others. ‘Starter’ edition Flex clusters are not available in Flex billing.

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Vault Cluster	The cost and usage information for each Vault cluster is displayed separately. The quantity shows the time duration of each cluster that has been actively running for the month.	The hourly rate is based on the Service “Edition” (i.e., Development, Standard, Plus) and the Vault Cluster size (i.e., Small, Medium, Large). This is a flat hourly rate per cluster.
Vault Client	The quantity displayed in each cluster is the number of Vault clients authenticated with that cluster within the month. Note that each Vault client is counted once within a billing month, no matter how many times it has been active. A single Vault Client, which authenticates to multiple Vault Clusters (excluding Vault Development Clusters), are counted as multiple billable Vault Clients.	The Vault Client rate is tiered. The monthly rate of each client is based on the total number of Vault Clients aggregated across all Vault Clusters (excluding Development Clusters) within the billing month. The estimated rate is a blended rate and will be the same across all clusters. This is calculated by dividing the total client cost by the total number of clients across all clusters within the month.

HCP Vault Secrets

HCP Vault Secrets charges for the usage of Secret(s) and API call(s).

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Secrets	Each Secret is charged on a per-hour basis, from the time a secret is created until it is destroyed. The hourly rate is based on the total number of Secrets within each edition, within a single HCP org, within a billing hour. Each partial hour is billed as a full hour.	The hourly rate is based on the total number of secrets (i.e., 1-100, 101-200, 200+) and the support tier (i.e. Silver or Gold).
API calls	The quantity displayed in each cluster is the number of Vault clients authenticated with that cluster within the month. Note that each Vault client is counted once within a billing month, no matter how many times it has been active. A single Vault Client, which authenticates to multiple Vault Clusters (excluding Vault Development Clusters), are counted as multiple billable Vault Clients.	Each API call is charged equally.

HCP Consul Dedicated

Consul clusters and Consul service instances determine HCP Consul Dedicated consumption. These metrics are metered across clusters in your HCP organization, meaning more usage in one cluster can lower the rate of others.

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Consul Cluster	The cost and usage information for each Consul cluster is displayed separately. The quantity shows the time duration of each cluster that has been actively running for the month.	The hourly rate is based on the Service “Edition” (i.e., Development, Standard, Plus) and the Consul Cluster size (i.e., Small, Medium, Large). This is a flat hourly rate per cluster.
Consul Service Instance	Each service instance is metered from when it is registered until it is deregistered. One service instance registered for one hour is a single “Service Instance Hour.” The total quantity for each cluster is calculated by summing all service instance hours for the month (excluding Development Clusters).	Consul Service Instance rates are presented hourly, but metered on a per-minute basis for higher accuracy. The Consul Service Instance pricing is tiered. The per-minute rate of each service instance is based on the total number of registered service instances aggregated across all Consul Clusters (excluding Development Clusters) within a billing minute. The estimated rate is a blended rate and will be the same across all clusters. This is calculated by dividing the total service instance hours cost by the total quantity across all clusters within the month.

HCP Packer

Images and Requests determine HCP Packer consumption. These metrics are tiered based on usage across your HCP organization, meaning the more usage you have, the less per unit price you pay.

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Images	Each image is metered from the time its metadata is stored in the registry until the metadata is deleted. One image stored for one hour is a single "Image hour.” The total quantity is calculated by summing all image hours for the month.	The image pricing is tiered. The hourly rate of each “Image” is determined by the Service Editions (i.e., Standard, Plus) and the total number of “Images” within a billing hour. The estimated rate for each service edition is a blended rate, calculated by dividing the total cost of images by the total image hours within the current billing month.
Request	Total number of requests for the month	The Request pricing is tiered. The rate of each “Request” is determined by the Service Editions (i.e., Standard, Plus) and the total number of “Requests” within a billing month. The estimated rate is the blended rate, calculated by dividing the total cost of requests by the total number of requests within the current billing month.

HCP Boundary

Users determine HCP Boundary consumption. "HCP Boundary User" ("Boundary HCP User") means any human or machine identity taking an authenticated action to HCP Boundary. Service or non-human accounts cannot be used to artificially reduce HCP Boundary Users.

Metric	Quantity	Estimate Rate
Users	Total number of users for the month	The rate is determined by the number of users for a billing period. Service or non-human accounts cannot be used to artificially reduce HCP Boundary Users. Customer may not consume more HCP Boundary Users per month during Customer’s Subscription Term than are set forth in the applicable Order Form. Learn more about discovering the number of users and predicting billing information.