Pricing Model

Teabar offers flexible pricing to match your needs - from free exploration to enterprise-scale deployments. This page explains how pricing works and how to optimize costs.

Note

For current pricing details and to calculate costs for your use case, visit the Pricing section on the landing page.

Pricing Tiers

Teabar offers four tiers to match different scales and requirements:

Community (Self-Hosted, Free)

For individuals and small teams exploring Teabar with their own infrastructure.

Feature	Limit
Organizations	1
Concurrent environments	3
Projects	3
Members	5
Support	Community forums

Limitations:

No activity tracking
No checkpoints
No schedule-based operations
Namespace isolation only

Cloud Free

Try Teabar Cloud without commitment.

Feature	Limit
Organizations	1
Concurrent environments	2
Environment hours	10 hours/month
Support	Community forums

Limitations:

Limited compute resources per environment
No activity tracking
No checkpoints
Namespace isolation only

Cloud Pro

For teams and organizations with serious training or testing needs.

Feature	Included
Organizations	Multiple
Concurrent environments	Unlimited (pay-per-use)
Isolation modes	All (namespace, vcluster, dedicated)
Activity tracking	Yes
Checkpoints	Yes
Schedule-based operations	Yes
Premium blueprints	Yes
Support	Priority email

Pricing model: Base subscription + usage-based compute

Enterprise / Self-Hosted Pro

For organizations requiring full control, compliance, or white-labeling.

Feature	Included
Deployment	Self-hosted or dedicated cloud
Quotas	Unlimited (your infrastructure)
SSO/OIDC	Advanced configuration
White-labeling	Full branding customization
Custom domains	Yes
Audit logs	Full compliance logging
Support	Dedicated support, SLA

Pricing model: Annual license fee

Usage-Based Pricing (Cloud Pro)

Cloud Pro uses a transparent usage-based model. You pay for what you use.

Cost Components

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Monthly Cost Breakdown                            │
│                                                                         │
│   ┌─────────────────┐                                                   │
│   │ Base Fee        │  Fixed monthly subscription                       │
│   └────────┬────────┘                                                   │
│            │                                                            │
│            ▼                                                            │
│   ┌─────────────────┐                                                   │
│   │ Compute         │  vCPU-hours × rate                                │
│   │ (vCPU-hours)    │                                                   │
│   └────────┬────────┘                                                   │
│            │                                                            │
│            ▼                                                            │
│   ┌─────────────────┐                                                   │
│   │ Memory          │  GB-hours × rate                                  │
│   │ (GB-hours)      │                                                   │
│   └────────┬────────┘                                                   │
│            │                                                            │
│            ▼                                                            │
│   ┌─────────────────┐                                                   │
│   │ Storage         │  GB × rate (while environment exists)             │
│   │ (GB)            │                                                   │
│   └────────┬────────┘                                                   │
│            │                                                            │
│            ▼                                                            │
│   ┌─────────────────┐                                                   │
│   │ TOTAL           │  Sum of all components                            │
│   └─────────────────┘                                                   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

How Usage is Measured

Component	Unit	When Counted
Compute (vCPU)	vCPU-hour	While environment is Running
Memory	GB-hour	While environment is Running
Storage	GB-month	While environment exists (any state)
Egress	GB	Data transferred out (if applicable)

Example Cost Calculation

Scenario: A Kubernetes workshop with 20 participants for 8 hours

Environment: k8s-basics blueprint
- 1 shared cluster (3 nodes)
- 20 participant namespaces

Resources per environment:
- Control plane: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM
- Workers (3x): 6 vCPU, 12 GB RAM each
- Total: 8 vCPU, 40 GB RAM

Duration: 8 hours

Cost breakdown:
- vCPU: 8 vCPU × 8 hours = 64 vCPU-hours
- Memory: 40 GB × 8 hours = 320 GB-hours
- Storage: 100 GB × (8/720) months ≈ minimal

Estimated total: varies by current rates

Use the pricing calculator for accurate estimates.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Community	Cloud Free	Cloud Pro	Enterprise
Deployment	Self-hosted	Cloud	Cloud	Self-hosted / Dedicated
Organizations	1	1	Multiple	Unlimited
Concurrent environments	3	2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Namespace isolation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
vCluster isolation	No	No	Yes	Yes
Dedicated cluster	No	No	Yes	Yes
Activity tracking	No	No	Yes	Yes
Checkpoints	No	No	Yes	Yes
Schedule operations	No	No	Yes	Yes
Premium blueprints	No	No	Yes	Yes
SSO/OIDC	Basic	Basic	Advanced	Advanced
Audit logs	No	No	Yes	Yes
White-labeling	No	No	No	Yes
Custom domains	No	No	No	Yes
SLA	No	No	No	Yes
Support	Community	Community	Priority	Dedicated

Cost Optimization

1. Use TTL (Time-to-Live)

Set automatic cleanup to prevent forgotten environments from running indefinitely:

# Create with 8-hour TTL
teactl env create --blueprint workshop --name training --ttl 8h

# Update TTL on existing environment
teactl env update training --ttl 24h

Blueprint default:

spec:
  environment:
    ttl: 8h  # Default for all environments using this blueprint

2. Enable Sleep Mode

Sleep mode scales resources to zero during inactivity:

spec:
  environment:
    sleepMode:
      enabled: true
      idleTimeout: 30m       # Sleep after 30 min of inactivity
      mode: scale-to-zero    # Stop compute, keep storage

Cost impact:

Running: Full compute + memory + storage
Sleeping: Storage only (typically 10-20% of running cost)

# Manually sleep an environment
teactl env stop training

# Wake it up
teactl env start training

3. Use Schedules

For predictable usage patterns, use schedules:

spec:
  environment:
    schedule:
      # Run during business hours only
      timezone: "Europe/Berlin"
      start: "0 8 * * 1-5"    # 8 AM Monday-Friday
      stop: "0 18 * * 1-5"    # 6 PM Monday-Friday

Savings example:

24/7 operation: 720 hours/month
Business hours only: 200 hours/month
Savings: ~72%

4. Right-Size Resources

Don’t over-provision. Start small and scale up if needed:

# Over-provisioned (expensive)
resources:
  clusters:
    - nodes:
        workers: 5
      workerSize: cx51  # Large instances

# Right-sized (cost-effective)
resources:
  clusters:
    - nodes:
        workers: 2
      workerSize: cx21  # Smaller instances

5. Choose Appropriate Isolation

Isolation mode significantly impacts cost:

Mode	Relative Cost	Notes
Namespace	1x	Shared resources
vCluster	2-3x	Additional control plane overhead
Dedicated	5-10x	Full cluster per participant

Use dedicated clusters only when necessary.

6. Clean Up Unused Environments

Regularly audit and destroy unused environments:

# List all environments with age
teactl env list --output wide

# Destroy old environments
teactl env destroy old-workshop --yes

# Destroy by tag
teactl env destroy --tag cleanup=true --all --yes

Set up alerts for long-running environments:

# Set cost alert
teactl env update training --cost-alert 100  # Alert at $100

Billing & Invoicing

Cloud Pro Billing

Billing cycle: Monthly
Invoice: Generated at month end
Payment: Credit card or invoice (enterprise)
Currency: USD or EUR

Viewing Usage

# Current month usage
teactl org billing summary

# Detailed breakdown
teactl org billing details --month 2024-06

# Export for accounting
teactl org billing export --format csv --output billing.csv

Usage Dashboard

The web console provides a real-time billing dashboard:

Current month spend
Cost breakdown by project
Cost breakdown by environment
Usage trends
Budget alerts

Cost Allocation

Track costs by different dimensions:

# By project
teactl org billing summary --group-by project

# By environment tag
teactl org billing summary --group-by tag:team

# By blueprint
teactl org billing summary --group-by blueprint

Quotas and Limits

Organization Quotas

Prevent runaway costs with quotas:

# Set maximum concurrent environments
teactl org quota set --max-environments 50

# Set maximum monthly spend
teactl org quota set --max-monthly-cost 5000

# View current usage against quotas
teactl org quota status

Project Quotas

Set limits per project:

# Project-specific limits
teactl project quota set production --max-environments 10
teactl project quota set development --max-environments 25

What Happens at Quota Limits

Quota Type	Behavior
Max environments	New creation blocked
Max monthly cost	Alert sent, optional hard stop
Max concurrent users	New sessions blocked

Warning

Hard cost limits can interrupt active training sessions. Consider soft limits (alerts) for production use.

Billing Grace Period

When payment fails or quota is exceeded, Teabar provides a 3-day grace period before taking action:

Day 0: Issue detected
       → Warning notification sent
       → Environments continue running

Day 1: First reminder
       → Email to billing contact
       → Dashboard warning displayed

Day 2: Second reminder  
       → Urgent notification
       → Admin notification

Day 3: Final warning
       → Environment marked for shutdown
       → 24-hour countdown begins

Day 4: Environment shutdown
       → Resources stopped (not deleted)
       → Auto-checkpoint created

Day 7+: Resources retained for 30 days
        → Can be restored upon payment
        → After 30 days: permanent deletion

Note

Teabar creates an automatic checkpoint before shutdown so you don't lose work. Resolve the billing issue to restore your environments.

Prevent service interruption:

Keep payment method current
Set up billing alerts at 80% of budget
Configure backup payment method (Enterprise)

Self-Hosted Pricing

License Model

Self-hosted deployments require a commercial license:

Edition	Included
Community	Free, limited features
Pro	Full features, annual license
Enterprise	Custom terms, dedicated support

What You Pay For

With self-hosted deployments:

You Pay	We Provide
Your cloud infrastructure	Software license
Your operational costs	Updates and patches
Your support staff	Priority support (Pro/Enterprise)

Infrastructure Requirements

Running Teabar self-hosted requires:

Kubernetes cluster (management)
PostgreSQL database
Object storage (optional, for checkpoints)
DNS/certificates

Typical management cluster sizing:

3 nodes minimum
4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM per node
100 GB storage

Getting Started

Next Steps

Quick Start - Deploy your first environment
Cost Tracking - Monitor spending in detail
Sleep Mode - Reduce costs automatically
Organizations - Set up billing structure