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 whenever your account reaches a predetermined amount known as your payment threshold and on the first day of the month.
You may be able to switch the payment setting for your account between automatic to manual payments, and vice versa, in your account’s Billing Settings. The option to switch from automatic to manual payments is possible only in countries where the manual payment option is available. If you are currently on manual payments and this option is no longer available in your country, you can only switch to automatic payments and you won't be able to switch back to manual payments. Learn more about manual payments option availability
To change your payment setting:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
, then select Settings.
- Open the 'How you pay' section, then click to open 'Alternative payment options' to view other options available to you.
- Click Switch to manual and follow the steps in the pop-up window to confirm the change.
, then select Settings.If you have more than one Google Ads account, this feature might not be available in all your accounts.
Payment threshold
When your ad serving costs reach a certain amount, known as the payment threshold, your payment method will be automatically charged for those costs. Your account’s payment threshold can be found in your 'Billing summary' page and will be automatically raised if your costs reach this amount before the end of the monthly billing cycle.
- When your account costs reach the threshold before the month has 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. Threshold amounts can also be updated (lowered or increased) by Google for reasons separate from your account costs.
- The amount 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 tool icon
and under 'Billing', choose Summary. You’ll find your threshold amount in the 'Next automatic payment' card.
Based on the frequency of monthly charges some customers may have an option to increase their payment threshold above the maximum amount that is set automatically to a higher amount. This setting will help users that have frequent monthly charges to be charged less frequently across a month but at higher amounts.
To see if this option has been enabled in your account and make changes to your threshold value, use the following steps:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Open the 'How you pay' section, then click Edit threshold link to view the recommended threshold amount and update your threshold limit.
- To set your payment threshold at the recommended amount, click Use recommended amount, then click Save.
- You can also set any other payment threshold amount up to a recommended value, then click Save.
Customers can opt out from the feature and any future automatic threshold increases.
To opt out from the experiment:
- In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
- Open the 'How you pay' section, then click Edit threshold link to update your threshold limit.
- Select a different amount for your threshold, or tick the box for 'Opt out of automatic threshold increases' in the future.