The problem
docs.runpod.io/serverless/pricing lists three cost components. One of them is:
| Container disk | Worker storage (5-min intervals) | ~$0.10/GB/month |
That is the entire entry: a standalone line item, a per-month rate, and a parenthetical that implies a recurring meter. The page never states whether the charge requires a worker to exist.
Flash's default container disk is 64 GB, so a reader of this page alone reasonably concludes that a deployed, idle, scaled-to-zero endpoint accrues roughly $6.40/month — and tears it down to avoid that.
The correction is on a page there is no reason to open
docs.runpod.io/serverless/storage/overview says container disk is "Temporary storage that exists only while a worker is running" and that its cost is "included in the worker's running cost". Not a separate meter at all.
Someone comparing deployment costs goes to the pricing page, not the storage page.
Measured
A Flash endpoint with the default 64 GB container disk was deployed and left alone for 2 h 59 m 37 s. Account balance, read to ten decimal places before and after:
open 2026-08-17T19:57:24Z $49.9879616000
close 2026-08-17T22:57:01Z $49.9041127700
The $0.0838 difference is fully accounted for by unrelated public-endpoint token usage in the same window, each call's cost independently confirmed by its own cost field in the response. Nothing is attributable to the idle endpoint.
A tighter window with nothing else running at all:
19:57:43Z $49.9879616000
20:08:56Z $49.9879616000 (11 m 13 s, zero requests)
A standalone 64 GB container-disk meter at ~$0.10/GB/month would have accrued about $0.0016 over those eleven minutes, which is far above the balance's resolution. The balance did not move.
So the storage page is correct and the pricing page's presentation is what misleads.
Suggestion
Add one clause to the container-disk row — for example "billed only while a worker is running; nothing accrues at zero workers" — and define what "(5-min intervals)" means. At present that parenthetical is the only text on the subject anywhere, and it is undefined.
The problem
docs.runpod.io/serverless/pricinglists three cost components. One of them is:| Container disk | Worker storage (5-min intervals) | ~$0.10/GB/month |
That is the entire entry: a standalone line item, a per-month rate, and a parenthetical that implies a recurring meter. The page never states whether the charge requires a worker to exist.
Flash's default container disk is 64 GB, so a reader of this page alone reasonably concludes that a deployed, idle, scaled-to-zero endpoint accrues roughly $6.40/month — and tears it down to avoid that.
The correction is on a page there is no reason to open
docs.runpod.io/serverless/storage/overviewsays container disk is "Temporary storage that exists only while a worker is running" and that its cost is "included in the worker's running cost". Not a separate meter at all.Someone comparing deployment costs goes to the pricing page, not the storage page.
Measured
A Flash endpoint with the default 64 GB container disk was deployed and left alone for 2 h 59 m 37 s. Account balance, read to ten decimal places before and after:
The $0.0838 difference is fully accounted for by unrelated public-endpoint token usage in the same window, each call's cost independently confirmed by its own
costfield in the response. Nothing is attributable to the idle endpoint.A tighter window with nothing else running at all:
A standalone 64 GB container-disk meter at ~$0.10/GB/month would have accrued about $0.0016 over those eleven minutes, which is far above the balance's resolution. The balance did not move.
So the storage page is correct and the pricing page's presentation is what misleads.
Suggestion
Add one clause to the container-disk row — for example "billed only while a worker is running; nothing accrues at zero workers" — and define what "(5-min intervals)" means. At present that parenthetical is the only text on the subject anywhere, and it is undefined.