Enable, disable, or change billing for a project

This document describes how to manage Cloud Billing for each of yourGoogle Cloud projects and Google Maps Platform projects and teaches you how tolink and unlink projects and Cloud Billing accounts.

Note: Modifying links between projects and Cloud Billing accounts is considered a sensitive action; in some cases, you might need to reauthenticate before you can initiate the action. For more information, seeSensitive actions.

To learn how tocreate,modify,orclose your Cloud Billing account, visitManage your Cloud Billing account.

A Cloud Billing account defines who pays for a given set ofresources, and it can be linked to one or more projects. Project usage ischarged to the linked Cloud Billing account.

If you're a billing administrator on only one Cloud Billing account, newprojects you create are automatically linked to your existingCloud Billing account. If you create or have access to multipleCloud Billing accounts, you can change the Cloud Billing accounta project is billed to. This document describes how to change theCloud Billing account for your project, as well as how to enable and disablebilling for a project.

Caution: If you have a project that'snot linked to an active, valid Cloud Billing account,you can't use the products and services enabled in your project. Thisis true even if your project only usesGoogle Cloud services that are free.

If you want to receive invoices by email, or you want to changewho receives them, seeChange payments contacts and notifications.

Required Permissions

The permissions required to accomplish the various tasks described in thisdocument depend on the task and are noted at the start of each topic.

For more information about Cloud Billing permissions, see:

Check if billing is enabled on a project

Billing is enabled on a project if the following are true:

  1. The project is linked to a Cloud Billing account.
  2. The linked Cloud Billing account is active and in good standing -that is, the billing account isn't closed or suspended.

SeeVerify the billing status of your projects to learn how to determine if billing is enabled on a project.

Change the Cloud Billing account linked to a project

Caution: If you change your Cloud Billing account for a project toanother customer's Cloud Billing account, or allow another customer touse your Cloud Billing account (even with each other's permission) toreduce or avoid fees, you could be in violation of your terms with Google Cloud.

Switching a project to a different Cloud Billing accountshouldn't result in any service interruption or server downtime. However, yourprojects might be affected in the following ways.

  • Committed use discounts (CUDs): If you purchased aResource-based commitment for Compute Engine resources in your project, the CUD is applied onthe new Cloud Billing account. Movingthe commitment has the following effects on your discount:

    • If you enabled discount sharing across projects in the originalCloud Billing account, the projects that remain linked to theoriginal billing account are no longer in the scope of the discountsharing settings.

    • If the destination Cloud Billing account already has discountsharing enabled, such as for an existing commitment, the CUD associatedwith the project that you're moving is added to the discount sharingsettings.

    • If the destination account doesn't have discount sharing enabled, you canenable discount sharing for the Cloud Billing account.If you don't want to enable discount sharing, the CUD is applied only toeligible usage in the project where you purchased the resource-basedcommitments.

    • If you set up prioritized attribution for the commitment, you mightneed to update the prioritized attribution configuration after you changethe project's Cloud Billing account.

      Learn about setting up prioritized attribution for your commitments.

    • After you change the Cloud Billing account for the project,the resource-based CUD is applied to the new Cloud Billingaccount at midnight in the US and Canadian Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)time zone.

    • Some usage costs are owned by the Cloud Billing account and aren'tincluded in a project (for example, Support costs). To identify thesecharges before you switch your projects to a differentCloud Billing account, view the Cost table report or cost Reports:

  • Google Cloud Marketplace customers: If you've made purchases fromGoogle Cloud Marketplace in your project, consider the following before you movea project to a different Cloud Billing account:

    • If you have Google Cloud Marketplace purchases attached to a project,then you can't migrate that project until you transfer your purchases.Learn about the steps you must take to transfer your purchases.Follow the transfer steps to prevent your project from being disabled orlosing data as a result of missing required resources.
    • When switching Cloud Billing accounts, resources beyond thosein Google Cloud Marketplace might also require your action to complete themigration.
    • To learn about how you're billed for Cloud Marketplacepurchases, seethe Cloud Marketplace documentation.
  • Cloud Armor customers: If your Cloud Billing account issubscribed to Cloud Armor Enterprise Annual, and youmigrate your project from that billing account to another, but your newCloud Billing accountisn't subscribed toCloud Armor Enterprise Annual, your project reverts toCloud Armor Standard after the migration completes.Learn how to keep your project in Cloud Armor Enterprise Annual without downtime.

Permissions required for this task

To change the Cloud Billing account for a project, you need to be able tomove a project from one Cloud Billing account to another. To accomplishthis task, you need permissions tounlink the project from thecurrent Cloud Billing account AND tolink the project to the targetCloud Billing account.

You need both project permissions and billing account permissions.These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:

  • On the project: Project Billing Manager and Project Vieweror ProjectOwner

    AND

  • On the current and target Cloud Billing account: Billing Account User andBilling Account Vieweror Billing Account Administrator

Using an Organization? If you're set up to use an Organization to manage your Google Cloud resources and manage Organization billing accounts, then the Billing Account Administrator role granted at theOrganization level will have adequate permissions to perform this task.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the followingpermissions.

ActionPermissionRoles with permissionResource
View projects and Cloud Billing account associationsbilling.resourceAssociations.listBilling Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account AdministratorBilling account
AND
resourcemanager.projects.getProject Viewer, Project Editor, or Project OwnerProject
Unlink project from its current Cloud Billing accountbilling.resourceAssociations.deleteBilling Account AdministratorCurrent billing account
OR
resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignmentProject Billing Manager or Project OwnerProject
Link project to the target Cloud Billing accountbilling.resourceAssociations.createBilling Account User or Billing Account AdministratorTarget billing account
AND
resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignmentProject Billing Manager or Project OwnerProject

How to change the project's billing account

To change the project's Cloud Billing account, do the following.

  1. In theBilling section of the Google Cloud console, locate the projectusing one of the following methods:

    Method 1: Start with your list of projectsMethod 2: Start with a billing account
    Access theMy Projects page to view a list ofall of your projects and theirassociated Cloud Billing account.

    This method works best if you have the Project Owner, Project Editor, Project Viewer, or Project Billing Manager IAM role on the project you want to manage.

    To view a list ofall of your projects and theirassociated Cloud Billing account, take the following steps:

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theMy Projects page in theBilling section.

      Go to My Projects in Cloud Billing

    2. From the list of projects, locate the project you want to manage.
    Open theAccount management page for aselected billing account to view the list of all theprojects linked to the Cloud Billing account.

    This method works well when you have access to anactive Cloud Billing account that you know by name.

    To view the list of projects linked to aspecific billing account, take the following steps:

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theAccount management page for the Cloud Billing account.

      Go to Account Management in Cloud Billing

    2. At the prompt, choose the Cloud Billing account you want to view.
    3. On theAccount management page, from the list of projects, locate the project that you want to manage.
    Note: If you see a padlock icon displayed next to a project, this indicates that the link between the project and its Cloud Billing account is locked. Before you can change the project's Cloud Billing account, you must first unlock the link.
  2. In the project row, open theActions menu(),selectChange billing, then choose the destinationCloud Billing account.

    Note: If you can't selectChange billing, you don't have thepermissions needed to make this change. SeePermissions required for thistask for more information.
  3. ClickSet account.

  4. (Optional) After you link a project to a billing account, you canlock the link to prevent the project from unintentionally being moved (linked) to adifferent billing account or the project link being deleted from thebilling account.

About project charges after the billing account is changed

After you change the Cloud Billing account on a project, charges alreadyincurredprior to moving the project are billed to theformerCloud Billing account. This can include charges that haven't yet beenreported in thetransaction history.Depending on the service, it might take up to two days for charges to bereported to the transaction history.

For example: If you move your project from Account A to Account Bon May 15, charges incurred May 1 to May 15 will be billed to Account A(old), and charges incurred May 16 to May 31 will be billed to Account B(new).

Enable billing for a project

How you enable billing depends on whether you're creating a new project oryou're re-enabling billing for an existing project.

Enable billing for a new project

When you create a new project, you're prompted to choose which of yourCloud Billing accounts you want to link to the project. If you haveonly one Cloud Billing account, that account is automatically linkedto your project.

If you don't have a Cloud Billing account, you must create one and enablebilling for your project before you can use many Google Cloud features. Tocreate a new Cloud Billing account and enable billing for your project,follow the instructions inCreate a new Cloud Billing account.

Enable billing for an existing project

To use Google Cloud resources in a project, billing must be enabled on theproject. Billing is enabled when the project is linked to anactiveCloud Billing account. Billing can become disabled on a project forone of the following reasons:

If you have a project where billing has been disabled, all billable serviceswithin that project are stopped. Re-enable billing on the projectto restart the resources.

Permissions required for this task

To enable billing for a project, you need permissions tolinkthe project to the target Cloud Billing account.

You need both project permissions and billing account permissions.These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:

  • On the project: Project Billing Manager and Project Vieweror ProjectOwner

    AND

  • On the target Cloud Billing account: Billing Account User and BillingAccount Vieweror Billing Account Administrator

Using an Organization? If you're set up to use an Organization to manage your Google Cloud resources and manage Organization billing accounts, then the Billing Account Administrator role granted at theOrganization level will have adequate permissions to perform this task.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the followingpermissions.

ActionPermissionRoles with permissionResource
View projects and Cloud Billing account associationsbilling.resourceAssociations.listBilling Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account AdministratorBilling account
AND
resourcemanager.projects.getProject Viewer, Project Editor, or Project OwnerProject
Link project to a Cloud Billing accountbilling.resourceAssociations.createBilling Account User or Billing Account AdministratorBilling account
AND
resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignmentProject Billing Manager or Project OwnerProject

How to enable billing on an existing project

To enable billing on a project, do the following:

  1. Sign in to theManage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud console.

    Sign in to Manage billing accounts

  2. Select theMy projects tab to view a list of projects and theassociated Cloud Billing account for each project.

  3. From the list of projects, locate the project for which you want to re-enablebilling. Tip: In theBilling account column, for projects that aren'tlinked to a billing account, look for "Billing is disabled".

  4. In the project row, open theActions menu(),selectChange billing, then choose the destinationCloud Billing account.

    Note: If you can't selectChange billing, you don't have thepermissions needed to make this change. SeePermissions required for thistask for more information.
  5. ClickSet account.

  6. (Optional) After you link a project to a billing account, you canlock the link to prevent the project from unintentionally being moved (linked) to adifferent billing account or the project link being deleted from thebilling account.

Error when attempting to re-enable billing

If you're re-enabling billing on a recentlyrestored project,you might encounter an error similar to:User missing permission'resourcemanager.projects.createBillingAssignment' to link a billing account toproject. The attempted action failed, please try again.

Due to latency issues during the project recovery process, it might take sometime for therestored project to propagate to the Cloud Billingsystem. You can't successfully link a Cloud Billing account to arestored project until the project is fully propagated to the billing system.

If you receive an error message when attempting to link a billing account to anewly restored project, retry after about 10 minutes. If it still doesn'twork, wait a few hours to assign billing. In rare instances, it might take upto 36 hours before you can re-enable billing on a restored project.

Disable billing for a project

To stop automatic payments for a project, you can disable billing for theproject. You're still responsible for all outstanding charges for the project.Your listed form of payment on your Cloud Billing account is used topay for any outstanding charges.

Before you disable billing for a project, take note:

Permissions required for this task

To disable billing for a project, you need permissions tounlinkthe project from the Cloud Billing account.

You need both project permissions and billing account permissions.These predefined roles have adequate permissions to perform this task:

  • On the project: Project Billing Manager and Project Vieweror ProjectOwner

    OR

  • On the target Cloud Billing account: Billing Account Administrator

Using an Organization? If you're set up to use an Organization to manage your Google Cloud resources and manage Organization billing accounts, then the Billing Account Administrator role granted at theOrganization level will have adequate permissions to perform this task.

Specifically, to perform this task, you must have the followingpermissions.

ActionPermissionRoles with permissionResource
View projects and Cloud Billing account associationsbilling.resourceAssociations.listBilling Account Viewer, Billing Account Costs Manager, or Billing Account AdministratorBilling account
AND
resourcemanager.projects.getProject Viewer, Project Editor, or Project OwnerProject
Unlink project from a Cloud Billing accountbilling.resourceAssociations.deleteBilling Account AdministratorBilling account
OR
resourcemanager.projects.deleteBillingAssignmentProject Billing Manager or Project OwnerProject

How to disable billing for a project

To disable billing for a project, do the following:

  1. In theBilling section of the Google Cloud console, locate the projectusing one of the following methods:

    Method 1: Start with your list of projectsMethod 2: Start with a billing account
    Access theMy Projects page to view a list ofall of your projects and theirassociated Cloud Billing account.

    This method works best if you have the Project Owner, Project Editor, Project Viewer, or Project Billing Manager IAM role on the project you want to manage.

    To view a list ofall of your projects and theirassociated Cloud Billing account, take the following steps:

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theMy Projects page in theBilling section.

      Go to My Projects in Cloud Billing

    2. From the list of projects, locate the project you want to manage.
    Open theAccount management page for aselected Cloud Billing account to view the list of all theprojects linked to the billing account.

    This method works well when you have access to anactive Cloud Billing account that you know by name.

    To view the list of projects linked to aspecific billing account, take the following steps:

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to theAccount management page for theCloud Billing account.

      Go to Account Management in Cloud Billing

    2. At the prompt, choose the Cloud Billing account you want to view.
    3. On theAccount management page, from the list of projects, locate the project that you want to manage.
    Tip: If you see a padlock icon displayed next to a project, this indicates that the link between the project and its Cloud Billing account is locked. Before you can disable billing on the project, you must first unlock the link.

  2. In the project row, open theActions menu(), and thenselectDisable billing. You're prompted to confirm that you want todisable billing for this project.

    Note: If you can't selectDisable billing, you don't have thepermissions needed to make this change. SeePermissions required for this task for more information.
  3. ClickDisable billing.

    Caution: If you disable billing for a project where yourpermissions on the Cloud Billing account are limited, you might not have the required permissions needed to laterre-enable billing. For more information, seeEnable billing for an existing project.

About project charges after billing is disabled

After you disable billing on a project, charges already incurredprior todisabling billing on the project are billed to thepreviously linkedCloud Billing account. This can include charges that haven't yet beenreported in thetransaction history.Depending on the service, it might take up to two days for charges to bereported to the transaction history.

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Last updated 2025-12-15 UTC.