Are you having trouble understanding or identifying a Google Ads charge? Use this troubleshooter for unidentified Google Ads charges.
In this article
Before you begin
With automatic payments, we charge you whenever your account reaches a certain amount, known as your payment threshold, and on the first day of the month. Your charge covers your advertising costs, any unpaid balance from the previous month and any applicable taxes and fees for your country.
Your charge
Current costs + Outstanding balance = charged amount
Your charge includes:
- Current costs from this billing period
- Taxes and fees, if applicable for your country
- Unpaid costs from previous billing periods
If you have any adjustments or promotional credits, these will be subtracted from your total charge.
If your total advertising costs are greater than your payment threshold, the extra costs will be added to your current balance for the next charge. Note that your first day of the month charge may sometimes exceed your payment threshold.
Your current balance is made up of any balance carried over from previous billing periods and your net cost for the current month. Your net cost includes advertising costs, taxes, fees and if applicable, adjustments and promotional credits subtracted from the total.
Example 1
Your monthly spend is less than your payment threshold, such as in the following circumstances:
- Your last payment date was on 1 August.
- Your payment threshold is $50 USD
- Your monthly spend for August is $49 USD
- In the above example, you’ll be charged for $49 USD on 1 September
Example 2
If your monthly spend is greater than your payment threshold, such as in the following circumstances:
- Your last payment charge was 1 August.
- Your payment threshold is $250 USD
- Your monthly spend for August is $275 USD
- In the above example you’ll be charged for $250 USD in August, on a date when your balance crosses the $250 USD payment threshold. Additionally, you’ll be charged for the remaining balance of $25 USD on 1 September
Frequently asked questions about charges
Why was I charged more than once in a month?
Charges don't usually happen once a month or at the end of the month. They can happen multiple times throughout the month, and are based primarily on thresholds – or the set amount of costs that your account reaches. This amount triggers a charge, so it means that you might be charged more than once in a month.
If you never cross your payment threshold amount within a month, you will get automatically charged on the same date of the month (there may be changes to your automatic payment date to allow for shorter months or leap years).
Example 1
If your threshold is $500 USD, then you'll be charged every time that your costs reach $500 USD within the same month. If your costs total $1,500 USD in a month, you'll be charged $500 USD 3 times (3 x 500 = 1,500).
Example 2
If your last automatic payment was a threshold charge of $500 USD on 25 August, and you don’t reach your threshold again before the end of August, then your next automatic payment will be on 1 September.
Why do I have identical charges to my credit card or bank statement?
There are a few reasons why you may have two identical charges to your credit card or bank statement:
- Authorisation request: This is a request between our billing system and the bank that issued your credit card. It happens nearly every time that a payment is made, and the request appears as a pending amount that's identical to an already processed charge. These requests normally disappear within several days, although this can vary by bank.
- Double charge:
- An error can cause a double charge, which means that your account is billed twice for the same amount, and neither charge is marked as pending on your statement. Google can’t refund or cancel the payment, but any additional payment will serve as a credit applied to future advertising spend. Sometimes an automatic payment may occur even after manual payment is initiated due to the time needed for the payment to be recognised by Google.
- If your account spend is high and you’ve reached your threshold amount more than once in a day, an automatic charge may be triggered. If your account spend is very high, you may be eligible to increase your threshold amount. Learn more about how to Change how often you’re charged.
If the double charge or authorisation request doesn’t resolve on its own, reach out to your bank for support.
Why was I charged for more than my average daily budget on some days?
Internet search traffic fluctuates from day to day. To make up for these fluctuations and to ensure that your campaigns reach their potential, Google may allow up to two times more interactions in one day than your average daily budget specifies. We call this overdelivery.
If we end up showing your ad too much and you accrue more costs than your average daily budget allows for over a billing cycle, we'll give you a credit for those extra costs. Learn more about charges and your average daily budget.
Why was I charged after already initiating a manual payment?
If you use the automatic payment setting and then make a manual payment, you might still be charged on your automatic billing cycle in the following scenarios:
- An automatic payment was already in progress when you initiated your payment: If you made a manual payment while the automatic payment cycle was underway, you may still be charged. This is most likely to happen if you make a manual payment when you’re close to your billing threshold and at the end of the calendar month.
- You reached the end of your billing cycle: After you make a manual payment, your account returns to its usual billing cycle. You'll still receive an automatic charge after your account costs reach your payment threshold or on the first day of the next month.
Why was I charged after entering a promotional code?
Why was I charged after I stopped my ads or cancelled my account?
When you stop your ads from running by cancelling your account, pausing your campaigns or removing your campaigns, it can take several hours for Google Ads to stop serving your ads completely. You’ll be billed for any unpaid advertising costs accrued before your ads stopped running. After your ads stop running, you won’t accrue any more costs and should not be charged.
Note that our system operates on a monthly billing cycle, so it may be several weeks before you receive your final charges.
To check for unpaid advertising costs:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Click Summary.
- Check the balance card at the top of the page for your unpaid advertising costs.
Why don’t the charges on my bank statement match my Google Ads account?
Sometimes, your bank statement charges look a bit different from those that you see in your Google Ads account. Here are some common reasons why:
Charges are off by a day or two
Since both Google Ads and banks operate on different systems, payments don't always happen at the same time. In most cases, this is expected and will resolve within a few days.
Bank charges aren't appearing in Google Ads
If this happens, here's what you can do to review the two accounts:
- In many cases, your 10-digit customer ID number is shown on your bank statement. If you have more than one Google Ads account, check each account for the charges to ensure that they weren’t applied to a different account than the one you were expecting. Learn more about how to troubleshoot unidentified Google Ads charges.
- If you still can't figure out where the charge is coming from, you can contact our support team. To help us better support you, have a screenshot or scanned copy of the charges in question prepared, making sure that you redact any charges and information that aren’t relevant to your request.
