a month ago
Hi,
I'm on the Hobby plan and I understood the cost to be $5/month, but I'm being
charged around $21. I'd like to understand exactly what makes up the difference
so I can bring the cost down.
My setup:
-
1 service: a Python worker running scheduled jobs (Docker image, always on,
restartPolicyType = ALWAYS). It is a background worker, not a web service.
-
1 Postgres database, currently about 1.65 GB.
-
The image includes Chromium/Playwright and starts Xvfb on boot, so the
container's memory baseline may be higher than it needs to be.
Could you please help me with:
-
A breakdown of the ~$16 in usage charges beyond the $5 plan fee — how much
comes from vCPU, memory, database storage, and network egress?
-
Which of my two services (worker vs Postgres) is driving most of the cost?
-
Is the charge based on allocated resources or actual measured usage? My
worker is idle between scheduled jobs, so I'd like to know whether idle time
is billed.
-
Any configuration you'd recommend to reduce the bill — for example, sleeping
the service between jobs, lowering resource limits, or reducing the database
size.
I'd like to keep using Railway if I can get this closer to the $5-10 range, so
any concrete guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks!
1 Replies
a month ago
Your July 20 - Aug 20 invoice totals $21.08. Here is the breakdown:
Memory: $17.59
vCPU: $2.27
Agent Usage: $0.77
Disk: $0.35
Network: $0.10
Hobby plan: $5.00
────────────────────────
Subtotal: $26.08
Included usage: -$5.00
────────────────────────
Total: $21.08Memory is the dominant cost at $17.59, which aligns with running Chromium/Playwright and Xvfb continuously. Railway bills for resource-seconds while a container is running, so an always-on service is billed 24/7 even when idle between jobs. Sleeping the service between scheduled runs or switching to a cron-triggered pattern would significantly reduce this.
Since you're consistently spending above $20, the Pro plan may be worth considering - for similar spend you'd get priority support, higher resource limits, and more features. See railway.com/pricing.
You can set up usage alerts, limits, and view your usage breakdown - including per service costs - by heading to railway.com/workspace/usage.
Status changed to Awaiting User Response Railway • about 1 month ago
a month ago
This thread has been marked as solved automatically due to a lack of recent activity. Please re-open this thread or create a new one if you require further assistance. Thank you!
Status changed to Solved Railway • about 1 month ago