IBM Cloud Docs
Upgrading your account

Upgrading your account

Lite accounts make it easy to get started with IBM Cloud® and try out services. When you are ready for more, you can upgrade your account to a Pay-As-You-Go, or Subscription account to unlock the entire catalog of production-ready services.

You can check your current account type by going to Manage > Account > Account settings in the IBM Cloud console and looking in the Account Type section.

Not sure which type of account you want to upgrade to? Get detailed information about the benefits of each account type in Account types.

To upgrade your account, you must have an access policy with the Editor role or higher on all account management services. For more information about IAM roles for managing accounts, see Platform management roles.

Upgrading to a Pay-As-You-Go account

With a Pay-As-You-Go account, you pay for only what you use beyond the free runtime and service allowances. After you upgrade, you can continue to use any instances that you created with your Lite account.

To upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go account, complete the following steps.

  1. Go to Manage > Account in the IBM Cloud console.
  2. Select Account settings, and click Add credit card.
  3. Enter your payment information, click Next, and submit your information.

After your payment information is processed, your account is upgraded, and you can explore and access the full IBM Cloud catalog. For any billable services that you use beyond any free allowances, you receive a monthly invoice.

If you're upgrading to reactivate a deactivated account, your account might take a few days to be fully available. If your account continues to be in a pending state, see Why can't I upgrade my account? for help.

If you can't upgrade your account because of an issue with your credit card, see Troubleshooting credit card error messages for more information.

Promotional credit for upgrading your account

After you sign up for a new Pay-As-You-Go account or upgrade your free account, you'll receive a promotional credit to use on any IBM product. To view the list of eligible products, go to the IBM Cloud console and select Catalog > Provider > IBM.

The credit might take a few hours to appear in your account. Any unused upgrade credit expires after the 30 day period ends. You are invoiced for any usage that exceeds the promotional credit. To view the promotional credit, go to the Promotions and credits page or the Invoices page in the console.

The following table lists the current upgrade promotional amounts for different currencies:

Table 1. Promo price for different currencies
Country Currency Converted Promo Amount
United States USD 200.00
Australia AUD 279.94
Brazil BRL 862.84
Canada CAD 260.96
Switzerland CHF 190.85
China CNY 1,836.38
Denmark DKK 1,258.68
Euro EUR 168.67
UK GBP 151.96
Indonesia IDR 3,128,000.00
India INR 14,390.14
Japan JPY 22,400.62
South Korea KRW 232,999.57
Norway NOK 1,654.34
New Zealand NZD 302.40
Sweden SEK 1,781.34
South Africa ZAR 3,563.88

Upgrading to a Subscription account

With a Subscription account, you commit to a minimum spending amount each month and receive a subscription discount that is applied to that minimum charge. If your usage exceeds your total subscription amount, you're charged the regular nondiscounted rate only on the overage.

Subscriptions that you purchase through the console are limited to $5,000 United States dollars (USD) or the equivalent in your billing currency. If you want to purchase a larger subscription, contact IBM Cloud Sales.

To upgrade from a Lite account to a Subscription account, complete the following steps.

  1. In the IBM Cloud console, go to Manage > Account, and select Account settings. Then, click Upgrade, which takes you to the Subscriptions page.

  2. Select your monthly spending commitment and subscription term, and click Get started.

    If you're not sure how much your typical usage might cost, you can estimate it by using the cost estimator.

  3. Review your subscription details, and then enter your payment information.

    After your payment information is processed, your subscription credit is added to your account. You can monitor your subscription usage on this same Subscriptions page. See Managing subscriptions for more information.

Your subscription renews automatically. If you want to discontinue your subscription renewal, contact support.

Converting a Pay-As-You-Go account to a Subscription account

You can convert your Pay-As-You-Go account to a Subscription account at any time. Contact IBM Cloud Sales to get started.