An Insured Commitment, available for AWS and Azure (GCP coming soon), is Archera's proprietary instrument, available as a Guaranteed Savings Plan (GSP), Guaranteed Reserved Instance (GRI), or Guaranteed Committed Use Discount (GCUD). When you purchase one, Archera procures a native 1- or 3-year commitment into your own cloud organization and wraps it with a guarantee against underutilization. This transforms a rigid long-term obligation into a flexible instrument. Archera offers two guarantee types: a Release Guarantee, which on select AWS commitments offers terms as short as 30 days and releases you from the remaining commitment if your usage drops; and a Rebate Guarantee, which runs on native 1- or 3-year terms and reimburses your net losses if usage drops. Both are priced with a premium, so net savings are lower than a native commitment — but you eliminate the downside risk of underutilizing what you've bought. All commitments remain in your payer account — there is no arbitrage, no bulk buying, and no disruption to your existing cloud provider or reseller relationship.

Yes. Archera's core cloud management platform — including per-cloud cost visibility, commitment lifecycle management, forecasting, planning, and native commitment purchasing automation — is completely free with no fees based on spend or savings. Many organizations save significantly using only the free platform, never paying Archera at all. Archera charges only if you choose to purchase optional value-add products: Insured Commitments (GRIs, GSPs, and GCUDs) carry a risk premium that is included in the total commitment price and is only assessed if the commitment generates savings. Optional Premium Reporting, including unified multi-cloud views, is available at flat-rate tiers. The platform installs in about five minutes from the AWS or Azure Marketplace — you'll have full data analysis within 24 hours — and you can offboard at any time with no fees, no contracts, and no lock-in.

How does the Moneyback Guarantee work? What happens if my usage drops?

After an Insured Commitment's lock-in period, the guarantee activates. If the commitment does not generate savings, Archera steps in — depending on your guarantee type: with a Release Guarantee, Archera releases you from the remaining commitment; with a Rebate Guarantee, Archera reimburses you for the unused portion. This means you can commit to higher coverage without the risk of wasting spend if usage changes. Rebates are delivered via ACH transfer as actual cash — not cloud credits. The guarantee is backed by third-party reinsurance policies for additional protection.

Archera supports AWS and Microsoft Azure. The free platform provides cost visibility, commitment management, and basic forecasting across both clouds. Insured Commitments are available for AWS and Azure — covering a range of reservable services including compute, GPU instances, and databases. Premiums are transacted through their respective cloud marketplaces, appearing as a single line item on your existing cloud bill.

Setup takes approximately five minutes. You connect your cloud organization via a CloudFormation stack (AWS) or equivalent setup on Azure, granting Archera read-only access to cloud billing data. No code changes, no infrastructure modifications, and no engineering effort are required. For customers who elect to use Insured Commitments, Archera requires additional permissions to purchase commitments into your organization — these are documented in detail and available for security review. Archera is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, with independent penetration test results and full security documentation available through their Drata-powered security portal.