Automatic payments

If you're using the new Google Ads experience, you won't see a gear icon in your account. Instead, click the tools icon in the upper right-hand corner. You'll find Billing & payments under the 'Setup' header.

Automatic payments is a payment setting in Google Ads. Using this setting, you first accrue advertising costs, then have those costs automatically charged to your primary payment method.

If you use automatic payments, you will be charged for your advertising costs 30 days after your last automatic charge, or whenever your account reaches a predetermined amount known as your payment threshold – whichever comes first.

Payment threshold

An amount of costs that, when reached, triggers you to be charged for those costs. This amount starts at a set amount that you can find in your billing Summary page and will be automatically raised if your costs reach this amount before the end of the 30-day billing cycle.

• When your account costs reach the threshold before 30 days have ended, your threshold is raised. This may happen several times until your account reaches a final threshold. Threshold amounts depend on your account, country and currency.
• The amount that you're charged may be slightly more than the threshold if your account accrues costs very quickly. You can be charged multiple times a month if your account reaches your billing threshold repeatedly over that time.
• You won't be emailed or notified when your payment threshold increases, but you can always find your current threshold by going to your billing Summary page. To see what your current threshold is, click the gear icon and choose Billing & payments. You will land on the Summary page which shows how much costs have accrued since your last payment. Look for your threshold amount under the progress bar.

Understanding why you've been charged
See articles about automatic payments
See articles about problems with charges