# When do load tests and monitors burn Loadster Fuel?

> On Loadster Fuel, every load test and monitor cycle burns fuel. On the Team, Enterprise, or a monitoring plan, the plan covers them first.

Source: https://loadster.com/faqs/plan-or-fuel/

Loadster has three [pricing plans](https://loadster.com/pricing/): pay-as-you-go Loadster Fuel, the flat-price Loadster Team plan, and
Loadster Enterprise. There are also [monitoring plans](https://loadster.com/pricing/monitoring/) if you only need monitoring.

Team, Enterprise, and monitoring plans are subscriptions, and a load test or monitor cycle that one of them covers
runs on the plan. Anything not covered by a plan burns Loadster Fuel.

## Load tests and monitors on Loadster Fuel

If you're on Loadster Fuel without another plan, every load test and every monitor cycle burns fuel from your balance.
The dashboard shows a fuel estimate for a load test before you launch it.

## Load tests on the Team or Enterprise plan

When you launch a load test on the Team or Enterprise plan, Loadster checks whether it fits in your plan. If it does,
the test runs on the plan and burns no fuel, though it still counts toward your test hours.

If the test needs more bots than your plan includes, the whole test runs on fuel, not only the bots beyond the plan.
The dashboard shows a fuel estimate only for those tests, so a scenario without one runs on your plan.

## When the Team or Enterprise plan can't run a load test right now

Sometimes a test would normally fit your plan, but the plan's bots might be busy in another
test, or you might have used your test hours for this billing period. You can then run with fuel instead.

An AI assistant [connected over MCP](https://loadster.com/manual/mcp/) doesn't make that switch on its own. It tells you the reason, and
you can launch the test with fuel from the dashboard.

## The Loadster Fuel estimate for a load test

The estimate is a range. The low end is every bot group running for its full duration, and the high end allows extra
time for the last iteration to finish once the time runs out. Actual usage depends on how long the bots really run, so
a test you stop early burns less.

[Estimated and actual fuel usage](https://loadster.com/faqs/estimated-and-actual-fuel-usage/) covers why a test can land outside the range,
and [what is Loadster Fuel](https://loadster.com/faqs/what-is-loadster-fuel/) covers how fuel is calculated.

## Monitors on Loadster Fuel or a plan

On Loadster Fuel, each monitor cycle burns a little fuel. The Team and Enterprise plans include monitoring, and so do
[monitoring plans](https://loadster.com/pricing/monitoring/). They cover your cycles up to the plan's limits, and cycles beyond those
limits burn fuel.

If your fuel runs out and your plan doesn't cover a cycle, the monitor stays enabled but skips it, and the dashboard
shows the cycle as Throttled until you add fuel or upgrade. There is no fuel estimate for a monitor, but the
[fuel calculator](https://loadster.com/pricing/fuel/#calculator) works one out from the schedule, and you can view actual fuel usage for
a monitor once it's run for a little while.