Make a payment

This article describes how advertisers using automatic or manual payment settings make payments. If you are an advertiser who uses monthly invoicing, visit Make a payment for monthly invoicing accounts.

You can make a payment at any time and with any payment method that's available to you. To make one, follow these steps:

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon Billing Icon.
  2. Click Summary.
  3. For accounts on manual payments, you'll find the Add funds button to make a payment. For accounts on automatic payments, you'll find the Make a payment button instead. Click whichever applies to you.

Go to Billing Summary

You'll then be able to choose from any payment methods already associated with your account or you can add a new payment method.

Credit card payments usually take no more than 24 hours to settle. If you make payment with a local form of payment or a bank transfer, it may take more than a few days for your payment to be reflected in your Summary page. Learn more about waiting for your balance to update after a payment.

In this article, you'll learn how your payments work with manual or automatic payment setting.

It may take more than a few days for your payment to be reflected on your Transactions page. Learn more about waiting for your balance to update after a payment.


Payments on the manual payment setting

The manual payments setting isn't available for new accounts in the countries and territories listed below. If you can't find this option when creating your account, you’ll need to proceed with the automatic payments option to finish creating your account. Your account can't be switched to manual payments in these countries and territories. Countries and territories
Americas Africa Europe Middle East Asia Pacific
  • Anguilla
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Aruba
  • Bahamas
  • Barbados
  • Belize
  • Bermuda
  • Canada
  • Cayman Islands
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • Dominica
  • Ecuador
  • French Guiana
  • Grenada
  • Guadeloupe
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Jamaica
  • Montserrat
  • Netherlands Antilles
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Puerto Rico
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • St. Pierre and Miquelon
  • Suriname
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • United States
  • United States Minor Outlying Islands
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela
  • Virgin Islands (British)
  • Virgin Islands (U.S.)

*Antarctica

  • Angola
  • Benin
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Cape Verde
  • Central African Republic
  • Comoros
  • Congo
  • Congo, Democratic Republic
  • Cote d'Ivoire
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Ethiopia
  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Mayotte
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Niger
  • Reunion
  • Rwanda
  • Sao Tome and Principe
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • Swaziland
  • Tanzania
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Western Sahara
  • Zambia
  • Albania
  • Andorra
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Czechia
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Faroe Islands
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Gibraltar
  • Greece
  • Greenland
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Liechtenstein
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Macedonia
  • Malta
  • Moldova
  • Monaco
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • San Marino
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • United Kingdom
  • Armenia
  • Bahrain
  • Iraq
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Tajikistan
  • Turkmenistan
  • United Arab Emirates
  • American Samoa
  • Australia
  • Bhutan
  • Brunei Darussalam
  • Cambodia
  • East Timor
  • Fiji
  • French Polynesia
  • French Southern Territories
  • Guam
  • Hong Kong
  • Japan
  • Lao People's Democratic Republic
  • Macau
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Micronesia
  • Mongolia
  • Myanmar
  • Nauru
  • Nepal
  • New Caledonia
  • New Zealand
  • Niue
  • Norfolk Island
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Palau
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Samoa
  • Singapore
  • Solomon Islands
  • South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands
  • Tokelau
  • Tonga
  • Vanuatu
  • Wallis and Futuna Islands

If you're on the manual payment setting, you'll make a payment for your Google Ads costs before your ads run. Your payment will be used to pay for your advertising costs when your ads start running.

You'll do this each time you want to add money to your Google Ads account. Whenever the money in your account starts getting low, you'll receive an email reminding you to make another payment.

Learn more about Manual payments.

Here's how you can make a manual payment with a credit card or debit card:

Make a payment with a new credit card

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon Billing Icon.
  2. Click Summary.
  3. Click the Add funds button.
  4. Use the dropdown to select "Add new credit or debit card", then enter your credit card information.
  5. Enter the amount you'd like to make a payment for, then click the Add funds button to review and finish your payment.

Go to the Summary page

Make a payment with a credit card that exists in your account

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon Billing Icon.
  2. Click Summary.
  3. Click the Add funds button.
  4. Select the existing payment method.
  5. Enter the amount you'd like to make a payment for, then click the Add funds button to review and finish your payment.

Go to the Summary page

Here's what to keep in mind as you make payments on this setting:

  • Pay whatever amount you like: The amount you pay is up to you, as long as it's above the minimum transaction amount for your location and currency. You'll learn what that minimum is when you make a payment.
  • Store your favorite payment methods in your account: You can make payments more quickly by storing multiple payment methods in your account.
  • Use any payment method for your country and currency: You can make a payment with any payment method in your account, or with a new payment method that's available in your location and currency. Check what's available to you.
  • Keep your ads running: Make a payment to ensure your ads continue to run for a while. It's recommended you add 30 times the cumulative amount of your ad campaign average daily budgets. If your account balance is running low, you'll receive an email when your budget has less than 7 days worth of advertising funds.
  • Allow for processing time: Depending on how you pay, it can take from 24 hours to a week or more for your payment to reach your account. Allow for this time when you're trying to keep your ads running.
  • Remember VAT: In some countries, Google deducts Value-Added Tax (VAT) from your payments. If this is the case in your country, be sure to factor the VAT deduction into your payments.
Note: If your last back account payment was declined, you may experience a delay of up to 7 days in while your payment is being confirmed. Your ads may not run while your payment is being processed. To avoid service impact, it’s recommended to use a card so that the payment is immediate.
Manual payments from bank accounts take up to 7 days to clear, while manual payments from a credit card are cleared almost immediately. If your payment is cleared within the 7-day period, the payment will be posted and your balance will be updated.

Payments on the automatic payment setting

If you’re on the automatic payment setting, you first build up advertising costs then have those costs automatically charged to your primary payment method.

You will be charged advertising costs whenever your account gets to a predetermined amount called the payment threshold and on the first day of the month.

You can use credit cards or debit cards for automatic payments. Follow these steps to add a new credit card to your account or edit information for an existing card in your card.

Learn more about Automatic payments.

Add a new credit card or debit card to your account

Some actions are restricted to users with Admin or Billing permissions. For Google Ads accounts with the Organization account type, you’ll need Admin or Billing access to add/edit a payment method. Learn more About access levels in your Google Ads Account.

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon Billing Icon.
  2. Click Summary.
  3. Click Payment methods, then click Add new payment method.
  4. Select “Credit card” and fill out your card information.
  5. To make this your primary payment method, click Primary from the dropdown menu in the lower left corner.
  6. Click Save.

Edit information for an existing credit card in your account

  1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon Billing Icon.
  2. Click Summary.
  3. Click the Payment methods link.
  4. Find the payment method you’d like to edit. Click Edit.
  5. Change the credit card information that you’d like.
  6. Click Save.

Making manual payments while on automatic payment

If you're on the automatic payment setting, you can still make a separate, manual payment for your costs at any time. You might want to make a payment for these reasons:

  • You want more control over how and when you're charged. With a manual payment, you can pay your entire Google Ads account balance, just a fraction of it, or more than your balance to cover future costs. You can also pay with a new payment method or divide your balance among several of them. This can help delay when your primary payment method is charged. Keep in mind that sometimes if you make a manual payment close to when your automatic payment is due, you might be charged twice.
  • You need a backup payment option. If your primary payment method is ever declined, you can make a manual payment to help your ads keep running while you resolve the decline with your bank. If you make a payment by another credit card, bank transfer, or another bank account, your account will start running again once we've received the payment.

Here’s how a manual payment in advance can help keep your ads running if you are on automatic payments:

Let's say you have a campaign with an average daily budget of $2,000 and that we charge your payment method whenever your costs reach $500. This means you're charged multiple times a day.

If you make a payment for $10,000 with another payment method, such as a separate manual payment, you’ll be paying for 5 days worth of your advertising costs ($2,000 x 5 = $10,000). This means that your primary payment method won't be charged until you've used up your $10,000 payment and an additional $500, which triggers another charge.

If you want to make a manual payment while on automatic payment setting, follow the instructions detailed in the section above.


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