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Table of contents

Article sections

1. Why we changed the payment system?

2. How credits work?

3. What happens to your existing resources?

4. Get Started

As of March 11, 2026, Pay As You Go (PAYG) and the Holder Tier are officially deprecated. Credits are now the single payment method across all Aleph Cloud services.

Why we changed the payment system?

PAYG relied on on-chain token streams. Holder Tier required maintaining a minimum $ALEPH balance. Both systems worked, but they added unnecessary complexity, particularly for developers and enterprises unfamiliar with token mechanics.

Credits replace both with a straightforward model: top up your balance, consume resources, get charged accordingly. No active streams to manage, no minimum holdings to maintain.

How credits work?

You can top up your credit balance using USDC, fiat currency, or $ALEPH tokens (at a discounted price). Credits apply across the full Aleph Cloud stack including VMs, GPU instances, storage and serverless functions. When your balance runs out, resources stop. When you top up, they resume.

This makes billing predictable and removes the on-chain overhead that came with legacy payment flows.

What happens to your existing resources?

Nothing is forcibly shut down. The transition is fully in your hands.

If you were on PAYG: Your VMs keep running until you delete them or your payment stream is cancelled. Any remaining $ALEPH on your account can be converted to credits.

If you were on Holder Tier: Your VMs and stored files remain active until you delete them or your $ALEPH balance drops below the minimum threshold required to fund them.

Take the time you need. Convert when you are ready.

Get Started

Log into the Aleph Cloud console to top up your credits and review your current resources. Full technical details are available on the Aleph Cloud GitHub.

Deploy your own confidential VM

Follow our guide to set up secure, AMD SEV-powered Confidential Virtual Machines and protect your data.

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