FAQ

The carbon calculator shows an estimate of the projected total societal CO2 emissions reduction, achieved by preventing natural gas use at our Leaf sites, with the residual heat the selected server(s) generate. This estimate is based on the wattage of the various hardware used constantly over a year. We use the following constants and assumptions to calculate our estimate:

• carbon_per_kwh_grams: 536 https://www.co2emissiefactoren.nl/lijst-emissiefactoren/
• vcpu_wattage: 4
• vcpu_idle_wattage: 1
• carbon_reduction_per_tree_year_grams: 25000 https://ecotree.green/nl/hoeveel-co2-neemt-een-boom-op#:~:text=Een%20boom%20neemt%20ongeveer%2025,afhankelijk%20van%20een%20heleboel%20factoren.
• carbon_per_flight_km_grams: 10700 https://www.eeagrants.gov.pt/media/2776/conversion-guidelines.pdf
• carbon_per_m3_gas_grams: 2130 https://www.co2emissiefactoren.nl/lijst-emissiefactoren/
• gas_per_shower_m3: 0.2 https://pure-energie.nl/kennisbank/stroomverbruik-apparaten/hoeveel-gas-verbruik-je-met-douchen/
• leafcloud_heat_recovery_fraction: 0.8
• hours: 8760
• average_power_usage_fraction: 0.42 Feel free to reach out with ways to improve our estimate. You can send your suggestions to hello@leaf.cloud

Yes, all prices listed on our website exclude VAT. For VAT-included pricing, please contact us directly at info@leaf.cloud.

Yes, discounts are available for commitments of a month or longer. Visit our pricing page or contact us at hello@leaf.cloud for details.

You can be a team member of multiple teams across several organizations. However, you cannot be an Admin of multiple organizations

Yes, through your teams, you can be assigned to multiple projects

Yes, you can belong to multiple teams, even across different organizations.

Yes, you can extend the disk space of an instance that is already running. The safest and most flexible way to do this requires multiple volumes and a bit of planning. You can find step-by-step guides in our documentation here

Leafcloud does not offer direct application-level support. Options for application-level support are available through our partner network.

Yes, you can request a copy of your invoice by sending an email to support email or hello@leaf.cloud.

Managed Kubernetes cannot be removed from a project but does not accrue additional costs without the creation of a cluster.

Yes, upgraded or expanded quotas are available on request. If you need your quota expanded, you can contact us at support email

The €100 in free credits you receive upon creating your account cannot be used for Leafcloud GPUs.

Yes, to create a Leafcloud account, you must provide your credit card details as requested in the sign-up form. Leafcloud will not bill you until your free credits are used up or have expired. For more information, visit our Pricing page.

Yes, the base cluster price for the control plane is still incurred even when a cluster is hibernating.

Yes, Leafcloud Managed Kubernetes offers excellent GPU support.

No, Leafcloud uses existing data centers with a mature sustainability program for our cores that house our storage clusters, and existing structures that require hot water all year round for our Leaf sites; these house our compute servers.

Yes, you can find it here. Sign up for the program and earn money based on the usage of new users who sign up using your code!

Yes, Leafcloud offers a standard 30% sustained use discount for monthly commitments. For longer-term contracts, contact us to explore additional discounts.

Sometimes. There are many solutions for getting waste heat out of servers, and we use a mix of them to suit specific needs.

Yes, Gardener uses the standard Kubernetes autoscaling implementation.

You add users to an organization by inviting them to join a team. Select Teams in the sidebar and select the team you would like to edit. Then use the 'Invite New User' button to send them an invite

To add members:

• Navigate to Teams and select the team you want to edit.
• Use the 'Invite New User' button to send them an invite. To remove members:
• Navigate to Users, edit the user, and toggle the team assignment

You can add teams to a project and add users to a team. Individual users are assigned to a team, and teams can be wholly assigned to a project

You can change your billing information by navigating to the Projects tab on your dashboard. Here you can update billing information for each project by clicking on Open Billing & Invoices and pproceeding to Contact Information.

Contact Leafcloud support through support email.

Gardener has its own command-line tool called gardenctl. You can use gardenctl to connect to your cluster and manage your garden.

• Install Gardenctl: Follow the installation instructions provided in the Leafcloud documentation.
• Connect to Your Cluster: Use gardenctl commands to access and manage your Kubernetes cluster efficiently. For detailed steps, refer to the Leafcloud Gardenctl Documentation.

For support using your Leafcloud account or questions regarding availability, you can contact Leafcloud here, or by email at hello@leaf.cloud. Additionally, you can call +31(0)202443794 during business hours (CEST).

Ensure no active services (volumes, instances, floating IPs, load balancers, or storage) are visible on your dashboard. Set your instance status to 'shelved' to avoid incurring costs. If no active services are visible and you still receive invoices, contact support here.

You can manage and create Kubernetes clusters (shoots) using Gardener in two main ways:

• Declaratively with YAML:
  • Define cluster configurations in YAML files.
  • Use gardenctl to apply these configurations, creating or updating clusters as specified.
• Via the Gardener UI:
  • Access the Gardener dashboard at dashboard.gardener.leaf.cloud.
  • Use the intuitive interface to manage and create clusters. Both methods offer flexible and efficient cluster management. For detailed instructions, visit the Leafcloud Gardenctl Documentation.

If you’ve lost your password, you can reset your password here

You can update or change your billing method by navigating to the Projects tab on your dashboard. Here you can update billing information for each project by clicking on 'Open Billing & Invoices'.

If you wish your Leafcloud account deleted, please send an email request to your_company_name@support.leaf.cloud or hello@leaf.cloud and provide the following information:

• Your full name
• Company name
• The name of your Project

Please note that this process is permanent and cannot be undone. Conforming to GDPR, your personal information will no longer be on file

Consider the following factors:

• Performance Needs: Does the application require high processing speed or handle large data volumes efficiently?
• Scalability Requirements: How will traffic and data volume scale over time?
• Complexity of Interactions: Is there a need for complex interactions between different parts of the system?

Conducting a proof-of-concept or pilot study is recommended to validate scalability, performance, and maintainability. We're here to help. Email us at hello@leaf.cloud or schedule a call.

Selecting the appropriate machine type depends on factors like your application requirements, expected workload, resource utilization patterns (e.g., CPU usage, memory consumption, and storage needs), scalability considerations, and budget constraints. We're here to help. Email us at hello@leaf.cloud or schedule a call.

Select Settings in the sidebar. Then use the "enable two-factor authentication" toggle [img]

Navigate to Projects on your dashboard. Select your project and tick the checkbox in the section with the red outline. Note: Managed Kubernetes cannot be switched off but does not accrue additional costs unless you create a cluster.

Admins can edit users in the Users section of their dashboard and select a role from the dropdown list.

Go to Projects and select the project you want to edit. Use the toggles to change which teams can access which projects

To get a forecast of your next monthly bill, you can check your ‘rating’ on the Leafcloud cloud control panel. The column 'Rate' indicates the forecasted price. Prices listed are in Euros and before any discounts.

Sign-up and create a Leafcloud account. Ensure you tick the box 'Enable GPU' during the sign-up process. Then, create an instance using a GPU flavor.

You can find a step-by-step guide in our documentation here.

You can find a step-by-step guide in our documentation here

Servers use energy to do calculations, all of which is turned into heat and – in a typical data center – thrown away while cooling. We put our servers where heat is needed – places like swimming pools, apartment complexes, and nursing homes – and replace natural gas for heating shower water at these locations with our server heat.

The Kubernetes setup consists of several parts:

• Control Plane: Managed by Leafcloud, it oversees the Kubernetes cluster.
• Worker Nodes: Created in the customer's OpenStack project to run applications and workloads.
• Networking: Configured in the customer's OpenStack project to connect worker nodes and resources.
• Security Groups: Enhance security and control network access in the customer's OpenStack project.

The upgrade process includes:

• Node Replacement: Nodes are replaced one by one when changing the Kubernetes version.
• Workload Migration: Workloads from old nodes are automatically migrated to the new nodes.
• Seamless Transition: Ensures minimal downtime, maintaining consistency and smooth operation.

Part of the answer lies in not building data centers, thereby saving on infrastructure costs.

You receive €100 in free credits upon creating your Leafcloud account. Any remaining credits last for 30 days.

There is no limit to team sizes.

There is no fixed limit to the number of people that can be granted access to a project

Most likely, you have not fully removed one or more of your active services. Check for active services like volumes, instances, floating IPs, load balancers, or storage on your dashboard.

To avoid costs, ensure the status of your instance is set to 'shelved.' If no active services are visible, contact support here.

Yes and no, the least consuming workload is the one not started, and we do not magically pull CO2 out of the air. However, the current standard is large data centers cooled with air-conditioning and large apartment complexes heated with natural gas or other fossil fuels. Let's say both use one unit of energy. Because Leafcloud places servers where heat is needed, and the building uses that heat instead of generating it with the equivalent amount of natural gas, we have minus one energy use for society. That's already 'carbon negative' with a new workload and even more when moving a workload from a traditional or hyperscale data center to Leafcloud.

Yes, the VMs corresponding to the 1, 2, 4, or 8 GPU machines are included in the listed price.

If your authorization link has expired, please send an email to your_company_name@support.leaf.cloud requesting a new authorization link

If your volume is stuck in "reserved" state, please send an email to support email.

By placing servers where heat is needed, we prevent natural gas use in our locations and use the green energy that powers our servers twice. This means we do not need to use other forms of offsetting to become green; that's why we call it truly green.

Peerless auto-healing & scaling, easy updates and certificates, and great GPU support. Take a look at our Kubernetes page for more information.

You earn 5% of their cloud bill plus we'll send you your very own Leafcloud mug!

Leafcloud support is available for all your questions regarding deployment, architecture, and resource requirements.

When using Gardener Managed Kubernetes by Leafcloud, you are charged a fixed fee per cluster, and for the consumed compute resources.

After your free trial period expires, you will be billed for Leafcloud services in accordance with our pricing model. For more information, visit our Pricing page.

When you create a LoadBalancer service in Kubernetes:

• A load balancer is automatically provisioned for you in OpenStack.
• An external IP is assigned to the load balancer.
• This load balancer directs traffic from the external IP to your application pods.

When you create a PVC in Kubernetes, a storage volume is automatically created for you in OpenStack based on the specified storage class.

The utilization of residual or waste server heat has greater potential to benefit society than most improvements to cooling efficiency. For instance, being able to use all the server waste heat generated in The Netherlands would provide enough heat for roughly 50% of all showers taken in the country (DDA 2023). Utilizing server waste heat at scale can transform the cloud sector from liability to asset for the energy transition.

Leafcloud's partners offer a wide range of services. You can find managed database solutions, platform solutions, migration specialists, and innovators here

Send us all your questions by emailing to hello@leaf.cloud or schedule a call with our team and we'll get you on your way.

Discount details should be displayed on your invoice. If missing or unclear, contact us at hello@leaf.cloud.

You can find Leafcloud's partner ecosystem here

You can find our pricing details here.

Documentation is available here.

Reports will soon be available: initially on your invoice, followed by added insights on your dashboard, and in CSRD-ready format.

You can find documentation related to Leafcloud Kubernetes here.

Navigate to your my.leaf.cloud dashboard. Your organization is displayed on the sidebar

You can find a list of your projects by selecting Projects in the sidebar [img]

If you have no dashboard options, you're a member. To view your role, navigate to Settings in the sidebar. If you can edit team settings, you're an Admin.

Organization Admins are the only ones who can see which teams a user belongs to. To find out, contact your organization Admin

Leafcloud accepts most widely used credit cards. Payments are also possible using iDEAL.

Upon creating your Leafcloud account, you receive €100 in free credits. For year-long commitments or longer, please contact us at hello@leaf.cloud.

Most frameworks are supported. For more information on Leafcloud GPUs, visit our GPU page.

Leafcloud offers the NVIDIA H100, A100, A30, and V100 GPUs.

Leafcloud supports both Calico and Cilium network types.

Leafcloud is committed to staying close to the latest stable Kubernetes release. Currently, we offer Kubernetes version 1.29 and a preview of version 1.30.

Heat reuse allows us to avoid the extra cooling often required to power GPUs. This saves energy and costs.

To ensure a secure cloud environment, Leafcloud blocks all outgoing SMTP traffic (Port 25) by default to prevent spam. Use relay services with authentication on open ports for sending email. Contact support if direct email delivery is necessary

A significant portion of the footprint comes from the construction of the facility and required infrastructure (roads, pipes, power, etc.). Cheap and readily available energy often relies on fossil fuels, which have a high carbon footprint. Additionally, throwing away the heat generated by servers with cooling is wasteful and energy-intensive, often adding more than 15% to the total energy consumption of data centers.

Getting waste heat out of data centers with a heat network is hard, and harder still to do so profitably. By contrast, the Leafcloud model offers the following benefits:

• No need to build a new building
• No need to build new roads, or put pipes, power, and fiber in the ground
• Our locations use more heat than we provide, ensuring no waste and making it useful throughout the year
• Distributing power for large-scale compute prevents electricity grid congestion, allows for clever power load balancing, and provides inherent workload redundancy.

Combating a massive source of waste and cutting energy use at both ends. Traditional data centers are large buildings that use massive quantities of energy. Nearly all of that energy generates heat. That heat is then wasted by dispersing it with cooling. Cooling requires yet more energy and often water. Recently, the AI boom has caused coal plants and nuclear facilities to reopen to meet soaring energy demand. The largest cloud providers are among the largest purchasers of green energy and green energy certificates on the planet. Using all that energy to generate and then throw away heat is extremely wasteful, including when you offset the process with certificates from the Nordics. By contrast, utilizing server heat has massive potential for good use, such as heating showers.