Understanding Claws (Credits)

What Are Claws?

Claws are the prepaid credit currency on ClawHosters. Instead of paying per day in euros directly, you purchase Claws up front and your running instances deduct from that balance daily.

The system works like a prepaid phone plan: buy credits, use them, top up when you run low.

How the Exchange Rate Works

The base rate is 65 Claws per 1 EUR. This conversion is fixed and applies to all transactions.

Some examples:

Claws	EUR Equivalent
65	€1
650	€10
1,300	€20
6,500	€100

When you view transaction history or invoices, amounts are shown in both Claws and their EUR equivalent.

Claws Packages

You purchase Claws in predefined packages. Larger packages include bonus Claws, so your effective rate improves:

Package	Price	Claws	Bonus	Effective Rate
Starter	€10	650	—	€0.0154/Claw
Popular	€20	1,380	+6%	€0.0145/Claw
Great Value	€40	2,900	+12%	€0.0138/Claw
Best Value	€80	6,100	+17%	€0.0131/Claw
Mega Pack	€160	13,000	+25%	€0.0123/Claw

Payment is processed through Stripe (credit/debit card) or Coinbase Commerce (cryptocurrency). Claws are credited to your account immediately after payment confirmation.

Daily Costs by Tier

Each instance tier has a fixed daily Claws cost:

Tier	Daily Cost	Approximate Monthly Cost
Budget (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)	45 Claws/day	~1,350 Claws
Balanced (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM)	75 Claws/day	~2,250 Claws
Pro (8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM)	125 Claws/day	~3,750 Claws

Active add-ons (LLM, Voice, Embeddings, Backups) add to the daily cost. The total daily deduction is the sum of your hosting tier cost plus any active add-on costs.

Setup Fees

When you create a new instance on daily billing, a one-time setup fee is deducted:

Tier	Setup Fee
Budget	150 Claws
Balanced	300 Claws
Pro	450 Claws

This fee covers the initial server provisioning. It is charged once at instance creation, not on subsequent days.

How Daily Billing Works

Billing runs every day at midnight UTC. Here is what happens:

1. The system checks all running daily-billed instances
2. For each instance, it calculates the total daily cost (hosting + add-ons)
3. The cost is deducted from your Claws balance
4. A transaction record is created (visible in your billing history)

If you create an instance partway through the day, the first day's charge is prorated based on the remaining hours.

How Long Your Claws Last

To estimate how long a package will last, divide the Claws by your daily cost:

Budget tier (45 Claws/day):

Package	Claws	Days of Hosting
Starter	650	~14 days
Popular	1,380	~30 days
Great Value	2,900	~64 days
Best Value	6,100	~135 days
Mega Pack	13,000	~288 days

Balanced tier (75 Claws/day):

Package	Claws	Days of Hosting
Starter	650	~8 days
Popular	1,380	~18 days
Great Value	2,900	~38 days
Best Value	6,100	~81 days
Mega Pack	13,000	~173 days

These estimates assume no active add-ons. Add-ons increase the daily cost and reduce the number of days.

Low Balance Warnings

When your balance gets low, ClawHosters sends you email warnings at these thresholds:

• 3 days remaining — Early heads-up to top up
• 2 days remaining — Balance getting low
• 1 day remaining — Top up now to avoid interruption

The system calculates days remaining by dividing your current balance by your actual daily usage.

What Happens at Zero Balance

When your Claws balance reaches zero:

1. Day 0: Your instance is automatically paused. A snapshot (backup) of the server is created and stored. The server itself is deleted to stop charges.
2. Day 3: Reminder email sent — "Your data will be deleted in 4 days"
3. Day 5: Final warning — "Your data will be permanently removed in 2 days"
4. Day 7: The snapshot is deleted. Your instance data is permanently gone.

Warning: After 7 days at zero balance, your instance data cannot be recovered. Top up before the grace period expires.

Resuming After Pause

If you top up your Claws balance while your instance is paused (within the 7-day grace period):

1. The system detects your balance is sufficient again
2. A new server is created from your snapshot
3. Your instance resumes where it left off
4. The snapshot is removed

This happens automatically — no manual action needed beyond purchasing more Claws.

Daily vs Monthly Billing

ClawHosters offers two billing modes. Here is how they compare:

	Daily (Claws)	Monthly (Subscription)
Payment	Prepaid Claws balance	Stripe auto-renewal
Rate	Premium (flexibility surcharge)	Lower fixed rate
Commitment	None — stop anytime	Monthly cycle
Setup fee	Yes (one-time)	No
Low balance risk	Yes — auto-pause at 0	No — runs until subscription cancelled
Best for	Testing, short-term, variable use	Long-term, predictable hosting

Monthly pricing for reference:

Tier	Monthly Price
Budget	€19/month
Balanced	€35/month
Pro	€59/month

The daily billing rate works out to roughly 2x the monthly rate. You pay more per day, but you only pay for the days you actually use.

Viewing Your Balance and Transactions

Your current Claws balance is shown at the top of your dashboard. You can view your full transaction history in the Billing section, which lists every deduction, purchase, and credit with timestamps and EUR equivalents.

Related Docs

• Quickstart Guide — Full setup walkthrough
• Creating Your First Instance — Instance creation including billing mode selection
• Payment Methods — Stripe cards, cryptocurrency, and payment security