How WingVault billing works

This article explains exactly how billing works while a server is paused with WingVault — what's free, what costs, and what happens to your data and your money at every step.

1. Billing pauses while your server sleeps

The moment you hibernate a server, renewal billing stops. You won't be charged the normal monthly plan price while it's frozen. No new plan invoices are generated for a paused server.

2. Your prepaid time is banked — never lost

If you paused with time left on your current period, that time is saved. Example: you paid for a month and pause on day 10 with 20 days remaining — those 20 days are banked. When you wake the server, your renewal date jumps forward so you keep every day you already paid for.

3. The first 7 days are free

The first 7 days of every hibernation are free. During this window your server is only suspended on its node, so waking it is instant. This free window is an allowance per server, per year — your first pause each year gets the free week.

4. After 7 days: the hibernation fee

If you keep the server frozen past the free week, we generate a small hibernation invoice — roughly €1.50–€2.00 per month, per server. This is a cost-recovery fee that keeps your world safely stored; it is far cheaper than the full plan price. As long as it's paid, your data stays put and you can wake the server anytime.

If you have account credit, the fee is automatically paid from it first.

5. What if you don't pay the hibernation fee?

Nothing is deleted by surprise. If the hibernation invoice goes unpaid, the server enters a grace period (about 7 days) with reminder emails at T-3 and T-1 days. During grace you can:

• Pay — and everything continues as normal, or
• Wake the server — resuming your normal plan, or
• Download your data — so you keep your world even if you don't continue.

If none of these happen by the end of the grace period, the frozen server is removed to free up storage. You'll always have had the chance to download first.

6. Fair-use limits

• Free-week allowance: the 7 free days are per server, per year. A second pause in the same year is billed from day one.
• Minimum active time between pauses: a server must be active for a short period after waking before it can be paused again (prevents pause/resume looping to dodge billing).
• Maximum hibernation: there is an upper limit on how long a server may stay frozen even while paid (around 90 days), after which we'll prompt you to wake it.

7. Resuming

When you wake a server, normal plan billing resumes from where it left off, your banked prepaid days are restored, and any open hibernation invoice is cleared. You're back online exactly as you left it.

In one sentence

7 days free → small monthly fee to keep it frozen longer → pay and it stays, or download and it's released. You never lose prepaid time, and nothing is ever deleted without warning.

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