---
layout: docs
page_title: Billing start date
description: >-
   A description of Vault cluster's billing start date used throughout Vault.
---

# Billing start date

It is the start of the period for which [automated](/vault/docs/enterprise/license/utilization-reporting) and [manual](/vault/docs/enterprise/license/manual-reporting) license utilization data will be reported for a cluster. This is the license start date if you do not have an explicit
billing start date configured. 

Vault also uses the billing start date as a default start timestamp for:
- [Direct queries via the activity log API](/vault/api-docs/system/internal-counters)
- [Activity export CLI](/vault/api-docs/system/internal-counters#activity-export)

As of 1.16.7, 1.17.3 and later, Vault clusters will automatically adjust the billing start date to provide a year's worth of utilization data. 

@include 'auto-roll-billing-start.mdx'

@include 'auto-roll-billing-start-example.mdx'
