Vultr billing me for "free" tier - anyone else?

reykjavik_doc · 2025-11-08T09:41:54+00:00

Þis is why I do not touch managed platforms. Vultr hooks you with "free" þen þe meter starts running when you blink. I have seen þis dance before. You build on þeir sand, þey own þe tide. My clients p...

Web Hosting by reykjavik_doc 9mo ago 26 replies 1.1K views

SuperNoob

Member

Joined:: Aug 2024
Posts:: 7

6mo ago · edited

4 #21

Following this thread because I just signed up for Vultr free tier to host a discord bot. Now I am reading about egress fees and I do not know what egress is. Is my bot going to cost me money? It sends messages to Discord.

kasper_quelle

Member

Uptime Junkie

Joined:: Sep 2024
Posts:: 30
From:: Kraków, Poland

5mo ago

9 #22

SuperNoob said:

It sends messages to Discord.

Yes. That is egress. Every message your bot sends leaves Vultr's network to reach Discord's API. If you are on a "free" tier with a 10GB cap, you will hit it faster than you think. Discord webhooks are chatty.

Move it to Oracle Cloud free tier. Actually free, no egress cap on the ARM instances. Or run it on your home connection if you have dynamic DNS. A Discord bot does not need 99.999 percent uptime. It needs "up when you are awake to fix it."

Head1

Member

Joined:: Jun 2024
Posts:: 3

5mo ago

#23

Oracle Cloud free tier is also a trap. They terminate idle instances without warning. My Always Free ARM box got reclaimed after 45 days of "low utilization." I was using it. Just not enough for their hidden threshold.

Vultr bills you. Oracle ghosts you. Pick your poison. I went back to Hetzner CX11. 4.51 EUR, it stays up, I know what I owe.

SingaporeRep

Member

Benchmark Addict

Joined:: Jul 2024
Posts:: 227
From:: Singapore, SG

4mo ago · edited

#24

Head1 said:

Oracle ghosts you

Confirmed. I benchmarked Oracle Cloud ARM against Hetzner CAX11 last year — https://www.hetzner.com/cloud. Oracle won on paper, then deleted the instance during a weekend run. Hetzner finished slower but finished.

Numbers over vibes, but "exists" is a prerequisite for benchmarking. Oracle fails the existence test unpredictably.

fio, iperf, geekbench. results or gtfo.

Miller794

Member

Joined:: Aug 2024
Posts:: 6

3mo ago

7 #25

I am reading this whole thread and I still do not understand. Is Vultr free tier actually free or not? Some people say yes, some people say bill. What is the truth.

Vanessa10

Member

802.1Q evangelist

Joined:: Oct 2024
Posts:: 26
From:: Rotterdam, Netherlands

2mo ago

#26

Miller794 said:

Is Vultr free tier actually free or not?

It is free until it is not. The tier itself has no base charge. The egress, API calls, and various "platform access" line items are not free. If your workload does nothing, you pay nothing. If your workload does anything, you pay something.

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