The short answer
A charge from FLY.IO* MACHINES represents fast-booting microVM compute instances, persistent NVMe volumes, or outbound data transfer on Fly.io, Inc.
Why it shows up like this
A line item on your bank statement reading FLY.IO* MACHINES is an infrastructure compute charge from Fly.io, Inc. Fly Machines are lightweight Firecracker microVMs that boot in fractions of a second to run backend applications, background worker queues, or serverless functions close to users worldwide. Invoices appear under descriptors like FLY.IO* MACHINES, FLY.IO, FLY CHICAGO, or FLY.IO INC, representing metered hardware consumption for Fly.io Edge MicroVM Compute & Persistent Storage across global data center regions.
This charge appears because your organization ran microVM instances or provisioned persistent storage disks that accrued metered billing during the preceding monthly cycle. Similar to cloud application platforms like Railway or standard Fly.io cloud hosting, billing is calculated per second of CPU and RAM execution, alongside fixed monthly storage fees for NVMe persistent volumes. Machines configured with auto-start triggers can wake up in response to incoming HTTP traffic across multiple regions, resulting in unexpected usage if traffic continues or health checks keep instances active.
To review the specific machines and storage volumes generating these fees, sign in to the web console at fly.io/dashboard and select your organization's Billing section. Review your active apps and scale settings to identify which instances are consuming resources. To stop ongoing charges, scale machine counts to zero, release unused dedicated IPv4 addresses, or run 'fly apps destroy' from your command line to remove active projects. Because cloud infrastructure usage is consumed in real time, past runtime fees are non-refundable.
Don’t recognize it? Common scenarios
Teams frequently configure Fly Machines to wake on incoming network traffic, which can keep instances active longer than anticipated if automated bots or health monitors probe the service. Even when machines are stopped, attached NVMe persistent volumes continue to bill for disk capacity.
- A Fly Machine auto-started in response to incoming HTTP traffic and stayed running across multiple edge regions.
- An allocated Fly NVMe persistent volume was retained on an inactive or stopped machine.
- Dedicated IPv4 addresses ($2/mo each) remained assigned to an organization.
How to locate the invoice and cancel
- Log in to Fly.io Dashboard Open fly.io/dashboard and sign in with your GitHub or email account.
- Inspect Organization Billing review to your organization > Billing to view itemized machine runtime, storage disks, and past Stripe receipts.
- Destroy Unneeded Apps and Machines Run 'fly apps destroy <app-name>' via the CLI or click Destroy App in the web dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was I charged for a stopped Fly Machine?
While stopped microVMs do not incur compute CPU charges, attached NVMe persistent storage disks and dedicated IPv4 addresses incur monthly retention fees.
Can I receive a refund from Fly.io?
Metered infrastructure hours and persistent storage fees are non-refundable. Destroying apps stops ongoing charges immediately.
Dispute Rights & Fraud Prevention
Verify with your technical staff or contractors whether someone created a microVM workspace for testing or production deployment. If you find unauthorized charges or suspicious account activity, submit a support ticket via community.fly.io and notify your financial institution to protect your card.
Independent reference — not affiliated with Fly.io, Inc.. Billing names and policies change; verify with the merchant or your bank before acting.
Verified sources
Every claim on this page is checked against official sources — open them to confirm before you call your bank.
- Fly.io Pricing & Machine Billing Documentation https://fly.io
- CFPB: Disputing Unrecognized Charges https://www.consumerfinance.gov
Reviewed Aug 15, 2026 · high · About UnknownCharges