Intro to Startup Plan Billing

Billing Overview

At the end of each monthly billing period, Rainforest will automatically charge you for any billable usage you accrued during that billing period. “Billable usage” is the it time takes for your tests to run, excluding any testing run during your free trial and excluding the first five hours of automated testing every month. You can see your accrued usage at any time on your billing page.

If you’ve enabled add-on services including private SMS, or on-premise testing, you’ll prepay at the beginning of each monthly billing period for access to those services.

From here, you can:

• View past periods within the app
• Track discounts, adjustments, and pro-rated items
• Access links to previous invoices

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Note

Only the Account Owner can add/edit the accounts credit card, and set budget alerts.

Automation Billing

For automated testing, you’ll only be billed for actual time spent running your automated tests, excluding any testing run during your free trial and excluding the first five hours of automated testing every month.

That means we don’t charge you for any test suite management (including writing, editing, and previewing tests), time spent waiting for your kicked-off tests to run, or triaging of test results.

For example, in a scenario where in a month where your automated tests take 15 minutes to execute and you spend…

• 30 minutes writing and previewing test steps
• 2 minutes waiting for the system to prepare your kicked-off tests to run
• 10 minutes triaging test results

…you’ll only be charged for the 15 minutes your tests spent running.

Tester Community Billing

Each time you run a test by our Tester Community, a minimum of two testers is assigned to the test. If the first two testers don’t agree on test results (or if a tester fails to complete the test), one or more testers is added to reach a two-person consensus.

To calculate your bill, we look at the first two testers who agree on the test result and charge you based on the tester who took the longer time to complete the test. (We pay our testers for each test step they complete — not how much time they spend — to make sure your tests are done as efficiently as possible.)

For example: You run a single test for which two testers are assigned. They finish the job in five and six minutes, respectively.

• If the first two testers reach the same result, you’ll be charged for six minutes at the hourly rate.
• If the first two testers don’t reach a consensus, a third tester will be added. Let’s say they finish the test in seven minutes.
  • If the 3rd tester agrees either one of the first two testers, you’ll be charged for seven minutes at the hourly rate.
  • If all three testers report a different failing step, then all three failures will be surfaced and you’ll be charged seven minutes at the hourly rate.

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    Note

    The time being billed will be shown as Tester Community Time on the Results page.

Run Groups

If you run a set of automated or Tester Community tests together in a Run Group, you’ll be charged for the total time takes each test in the group to run.

For example, you run a Run Group that includes ten tests, and each of the ten tests takes five minutes to complete. So, you’ll be charged based on hourly testing rate x 5 minutes x 10 tests.

Prepaid Charges

Add-on services including private SMS numbers and on-premise testing require prepayment. At the beginning of each monthly billing period, we charge for access during the billing period.

In one of your initial billing periods with one or more of these services enabled, you may notice two charges: one for the current billing period, and one for the following.

For example, say your billing period ends on June 29th, when a bill is generated. On June 30th, you ask for mobile app testing to be enabled, once your next billing period has already started. You’ll likely be charged two line items at that time:

1. Jun 30 - Jul 29 - $194.50 (partial month 1 postpaid)
2. Jul 29 - Aug 29 - $200 (full month 2 prepaid)

FAQ

How precisely do you track my time spent running tests?
We round to the nearest second to make sure we’re tracking your billable usage as precisely as possible.

Will I be charged for automated tests that are automatically retried?
Yes, test retries are factored into your total testing time. You can change your test retry settings in the Global Settings page.

Can I set a monthly spend limit?
No, but you can set a budget alert so you’ll be notified when your billing usage has reached a specified amount. You’ll have control over your spending without having to worry about in-progress tests being inadvertently canceled when a spend limit is reached.

How does Rainforest QA ensure the quality of results from the Tester Community?
Every member of our Tester Community goes through thorough training and has a reputation score updated after every completed test. We pay our testers for each test step they complete — not how much time they spend — to make sure your tests are done as efficiently as possible.