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Minimizing costs on Flood

tips and tricks for keeping your load testing costs low and running efficiently
Here are some pro tips for using Flood in the most cost-efficient way.

1. Start small

We sometimes see new Flooders running 40,000 virtual users as a first test... only to realise that the first request isn't right and is failing 100% of the time. As much as we appreciate your patronage, we'd recommend you do yourself a favor and take baby steps when you're just starting out.
First, run with a single user on a local instance and debug with it until all the scripting errors have been sorted out.
Then run several iterations with two users locally.
If that still looks clean, do a shakeout with just a few users on Flood.
Doing it this way will give you plenty of opportunity to debug issues before you start paying for Virtual User Hours (VUH).

2. Run floods in 15-minute increments.

While we charge you in VUH, we understand that you might also want to run shorter tests, especially while you're still shaking out your scripts. The minimum charging interval for Flood is 15 minutes or 0.25 of an hour.
To get the most of Flood, we recommend you make the most of this and run tests in increments of 15 minutes. We'll charge you the same for a test of 5 minutes as we will for a test of 15 minutes, so you might as well maximize this and plan accordingly.
Instead of 10-minute tests, consider running for 15 minutes. Instead of 20 minutes, run for either 15 or 30 minutes.

3. Keep an eye on your VUH usage for this billing cycle.

You'll always see your VUH usage on your dashboard next to the clock icon as well as on the Usage page. Keep in mind that the more you use, the cheaper your price becomes. We go into more detail about these pricing tiers and thresholds to unlock lower prices in this article. ​

4. Check to see when your next billing cycle starts.

On that note, it also pays to know the dates for your billing cycle. You'll start every cycle at the lowest pricing tier regardless of what pricing tier you unlocked in the previous cycle, so it's important to know when your pricing tier resets. ​ For example:
  • You use up 20,000 VUH in your first monthly billing cycle with Flood. The first 500 VUH is free, so you'll pay for 19,500 VUH. This costs you 19,000 * 0.045 = $877.
  • On your next cycle, you use up another 20,000 VUHs, which costs you another $877. In total you've now spent $1,710.
  • If you had instead condensed your testing within one cycle, you would have used 40,000 VUHs and unlocked a lower price. Here's the breakdown of that cost: ​ first 500 VUH: free - $0 ​next 19,5100 VUH: 19,500 * 0.045 = $877 ​next 20,000 VUH: 20,000 * 0.036 = $720 ​ In total, you would have spent $1,597. This is a $135 price difference, solely due to timing.
​ If you have any other questions about our pricing, please let us know. We're happy to help! ​