Cloud credit code expiration

[Filip Kwiatkowski]

Hi,

I have launched Action for Google Assistant and qualified for $200 in Google Cloud credit every month for the next year.

I have received my first code and on https://console.cloud.google.com/billing/redeem I can check, that it expires on July 4th, 2020.

The email states: "Please find the details for your new code for this month below", so I assume I will receive one code each month for the next year.

My question is if I can wait one year, collect credit codes and start redeeming them until June 2021?

Thanks!

[Julie (cloud platform support)]

To clarify, are you asking if you can save all the credits and redeem them at once? If not and you are planning to redeem them one at a time before their expiration date I have not found any evidence of that causing issues. 

[Filip Kwiatkowski]

Not necessarily at once. I would prefer to use them in case my app gain popularity in the future.

I have also noticed an odd thing: when I checked code expiration date today it showed July 8th, 2020 (few days ago it showed July 4th), so it seems that expiration day changes and always shows a date in one year.

On a redeem page there is also a link to Terms and Conditions (https://console.cloud.google.com/billing/redeem/terms), which states among other things:

One promotional code per customer. Unused credit expires on the date indicated on the media conveying the promotion code. The credit may be issued in increments as You use the credit over the period of time during which the credit is valid. If You do not use at least 50% of the credit issued within 3 months of the credit or credit increment being issued, Google may cancel all or part of the credit.

It seems that despite of expiration date being set in a year, Google can cancel it if I won't use it within 3 months.

To sum up: I would prefer to collect 12 credit codes in following 12 months and start using them when my app gains popularity and starts generating costs, but I am not sure if it is possible to wait that long (considering code expiration dates).

[Julie (cloud platform support)]

If the code has can expiration date of July 4th, 2020 then it must be redeemed by that time. From the documentation (https://console.cloud.google.com/billing/redeem/terms) it seems if at least 50% of the credit is not used within credit issued within 3 months of the credit or credit increment being issued, Google may cancel all or part of the credit. I have created this issue tracker for more details on this as this is best answered by the Billing team. 

[Filip Kwiatkowski]

Thank you