To ensure  your GCP Billing account cannot be charged by GCP for any storage, egress, or compute costs associated with Terra, you will need to do two things on the GCP console:

1. Keep Terra from creating new Billing projects/workspaces by removing Terra as a Billing account User
2. Prevent accruing cost in existing workspaces by a) disabling billing on all Billing projects created under this Billing account or b) deleting any workspaces created under Billing projects funded by the GCP Billing account

This article gives instructions on both steps. Note that when you do this, you will lose any data or tools stored in workspaces created with those Billing projects.

To remove your user ID as a registered Terra user, contact customer support at support@terra.bio for assistance.

Contents

Some things to remember before removing/disabling all billing
How to remove Terra as a Billing account user in GCP (step 1)
How to disable Billing projects (step 2)

Two important things to remember about removing/disabling billing

1. Only GCP Billing account owners/admins can remove Terra 

You need to have “Owner” or Administrator permission on the GCP Billing account to follow these instructions. 

If you are not able to follow the directions below, or do not see the options in the screenshots on GCP console, it is likely because you are not the GCP account owner. This may be the case, for example, if you are using STRIDES or third party resellers such as Onix. You will need to ask the owner for admin privileges to disable billing.  

2. Cutting off billing requires a second step - disabling billing or deleting workspaces

Removing Terra as a GCP Billing account user (step 1) is not enough to control costs! Users who have can-compute permission in a workspace (even users not on the billing account) can still run workflows and notebooks even after you remove Terra from the billing account!!

To avoid accruing additional charges, you must disable billing for all Terra Billing projects created in Terra or delete all workspaces created under this Billing account. Note that this will disable billing for all your existing Terra workspaces.

To understand how operations are billed in Terra, see this article. 

How to remove Terra as a Billing account user (step 1)

This step will make sure no one can create a Terra Billing Project funded by the GCP Billing account. You will need to be the Owner or administrator of the GCP Billing account. 

How to delete workspaces (step 2 - small numbers of workspaces)

If you have a small number of workspaces associated with the Billing account, you can go through and delete them each manually.

How to disable Billing projects (step 2 - large numbers of workspaces)

Another option is to disable billing for all Terra Billing Projects created under this Billing account. This is a good option if you have a large number of workspaces (too many to delete individually).

Note that although the billing projects were created in Terra, you will need to go to the GCP console to disable billing. Changes will take effect immediately and are permanent.

Without a funding source, you will lose access to these workspaces and any data in workspace buckets will be lost.