Plans and credits
Klastro sells hands-on lab time. This page explains the model behind the Billing page: what each plan gives you, what a credit is, and why two labs of the same length can cost different amounts.
Two ways an organization is billed
Section titled “Two ways an organization is billed”Every organization is billed in one of two ways, and the difference shapes everything else on this page.
Self-serve subscription. You pick a plan on the Plan tab and pay online. Labs are paid for in credits, which come with your seats or are given to you. Everything below about credits applies to these organizations.
Enterprise contract. Price, capacity and term are agreed in a contract with the Klastro team; nothing is bought online. A contract organization has no credits at all: its Billing page shows an Enterprise contract notice and its Contracted capacity (how many sessions can run at once), and nothing else. Plans, seats, credit meters, vouchers and the credit ledger are hidden, because none of them describes how a contract is billed. To change your quota or ask a billing question, contact your account manager.
A subscription organization is always on one of three plans. Community is free and every new organization starts on it. Pro and Instructor are paid per seat: you buy as many seats of each tier as you need, and an organization can hold Pro seats and Instructor seats at the same time.
| Community | Pro | Instructor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (excl. VAT) | Free | €25 / user / mo, or €250 / user / yr | €50 / user / mo, or €500 / user / yr |
| Credits | 10 welcome credits, once, to the founder | 60 credits per seat, every month | 100 credits per seat, every month |
| Labs running at once | 1 per member | Up to 2 per seat | Up to 5 per seat |
| Catalog | Free scenarios | Every Pro scenario, for each member holding a seat | Every Pro scenario |
| Scenario Studio | No | No | Yes, previews cost no credits |
| Instructor-led cohorts | No | No | Yes, 3 places included per cohort |
| Support | Community support, no response target | Business hours, 8-hour response target | Business hours, 4-hour response target |
The Plan tab always shows the current price and allowance for each tier, alongside the Included and Limits lists for that tier.
Rules on every plan
Section titled “Rules on every plan”The On every plan box on the Plan tab lists the rules that apply whatever you pay:
- Labs draw 1 to 6 credits an hour, depending on the environment.
- Starting a lab needs one hour of its credits in your balance.
- Labs pause when your credits run out. Paused time is not charged, and no overage is invoiced.
- One running lab per scenario for each member.
- Any member can redeem a credit voucher.
Your organization may also have a cap on how many labs run at once across the whole organization. Paused labs do not count towards it.
A seat is what a paid subscription is made of. Each member holds exactly one seat type:
| Seat | What it gives | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Trainee | The free floor every new member starts on. Reaches free scenarios and the sessions an instructor assigns. | Free, not part of your paid pool |
| Pro Learner | Every Pro scenario, plus the seat’s monthly credits. | One Pro seat from your pool |
| Instructor | Everything Pro reaches, plus Scenario Studio, cohorts and the larger monthly allowance. | One Instructor seat from your pool |
Buying seats and giving them to people are two separate steps: you buy seats into a pool, then an admin allocates them to members. Allocating or releasing a seat never changes your bill. See Manage seats.
What a credit is
Section titled “What a credit is”A credit is Klastro’s unit of lab time. Every running lab spends credits from one person’s balance: the person who started it.
Your balance is personal. Each member has their own, and nobody else’s spending can drain it. It is made of:
- the credits on your seat, if you hold a paid seat. These reset to the seat’s grant each month, unused credits do not roll over, and they stay with the seat: they cannot be given away;
- credits you hold yourself: the Community welcome credits, credits an admin gave you, and credits from a voucher you redeemed.
A member invited into an organization starts with no credits. Credits only arrive explicitly: with a paid seat, as a gift from an admin, or from a voucher.
Credits have decimals
Section titled “Credits have decimals”Labs rarely run for exactly an hour, so credits are divisible to a hundredth. Balances and charges show up to two decimal places, for example 0.14 or 109.86. A whole number of credits is shown without decimals.
How a lab consumes credits
Section titled “How a lab consumes credits”A lab is charged for the time it ran, weighted by how much compute its environment uses. Heavier environments draw credits faster:
| Environment | Credits / hour |
|---|---|
| Virtual Cluster | 1 |
| Virtual Machine | 2 |
| Kubernetes in Docker | 3 |
| Lightweight Kubernetes | 3 |
| Multi Node Cluster | 6 |
The charge is the exact fraction of an hour the lab ran, rounded up to the next hundredth of a credit. Four minutes on a 2 credits/hour environment costs 0.14, not 1. An hour on a Multi Node Cluster costs six times an hour on a Virtual Cluster.
The charge is recorded when the lab ends. While a lab is running, the credits it has used so far are already set aside from what you have left, so you cannot start a second lab with credits the first one is spending.
Starting and resuming a lab
Section titled “Starting and resuming a lab”To start a lab you need at least one hour of that environment’s cost left in your balance, after what your running labs have already used. A Multi Node Cluster lab therefore needs 6 credits available; a Virtual Cluster lab needs 1. Resuming a paused lab is held to the same rule.
What happens when you run out
Section titled “What happens when you run out”Klastro never bills you beyond your balance. If a long or heavy lab uses up your credits while it is running, the lab is paused automatically. Your work is kept, the paused time is free, and the audit log records Session auto-paused (out of credits). Once you have credits again (a new monthly grant, a gift from an admin, or a voucher), you can resume the lab.
Only your own labs pause. Another member running out of credits never stops your lab.
For help with a paused lab, see Credits and paused labs.
Temporary access
Section titled “Temporary access”Klastro can grant a member temporary access to a Pro or Instructor seat, for example during an evaluation. It needs no subscription and ends on a fixed date.
Temporary access unlocks what the seat reaches, but it includes no credits: labs still draw on the member’s own balance. While it lasts, the member’s Billing page shows Temporary Pro Learner access until (or Temporary Instructor access until) followed by the end date, and the Team page shows the seat with Temporary · until and the date. When it ends, the organization’s own plan applies again.