This article explains where the numbers in your dashboard come from, why they sometimes lag behind what a device is doing right now, and what "overage" means when your account is prepaid rather than billed monthly.
How usage is measured
Simbase doesn't monitor traffic continuously. Instead, the network operator sends a Call Detail Record (CDR) to Simbase whenever:
A data session closes (the device disconnects, or the session times out)
An SMS is sent or received
Each CDR records how much data (or how many messages) that session used. Simbase adds this to your running usage total and deducts the corresponding cost from your account balance.
There's no live meter. The dashboard shows usage as of the last CDR Simbase has received, which is usually close to real time but can lag, especially for long-running sessions or operators that batch CDRs.
Why this matters for your balance
Because deductions happen when CDRs arrive rather than the instant data is used:
Your displayed balance can be briefly ahead of what's actually been used (a long session hasn't been billed yet).
A burst of CDRs arriving together can cause the balance to drop sharply even though usage was spread over hours.
If your balance is very low, a delayed CDR can push it to zero after the usage already happened, see Set up billing for what happens when balance hits zero.
None of this affects the total amount you're charged, only when the deduction shows up.
What "overage" means on a Simbase account
On a postpaid plan, "overage" usually means an extra fee for going over an included allowance. Simbase doesn't work that way:
There's no included allowance to exceed, every MB and every SMS is charged from your balance at your plan's rate, from the first one.
There's no overage fee, going over a self-set cap doesn't cost extra per MB. It just means your balance depletes, and once it hits zero, affected SIMs are blocked until you top up.
So for most profiles, "overage" on Simbase really means a SIM using more than you expected, which shows up as your balance dropping faster than planned, not as a surprise line item on an invoice.
Green Profile: a real data allowance and overage charge
Green Profile SIMs are prepaid on a monthly data allowance, not pure pay-as-you-go:
Each Green SIM includes 10 GB of data per month, prorated for partial months (a SIM activated mid-month gets a proportional share of the 10 GB for that month).
Data used beyond the included 10 GB is billed as overage, at a flat rate per additional GB. On the High Data Plus plan, for example, overage is billed at $1.5 per GB.
The overage rate depends on your specific Green plan and billing currency, check your SIMs coverage plan for the rate that applies to your account.
If you're on a Green Profile SIM, "overage" means what it does on most postpaid plans: a real included allowance, and a real per-GB charge once you go over it. See SIM Profiles Overview for how Green compares to Simbase's other profiles.
How to download a usage report?
You can easily download a report that contains detailed information with regards to SIM card's activity and data consumption:
Go to the Sim Management Platform and log in to your account.
On the right side click on ‘Sim cards’ and go to ‘Usage’ tabs
Scroll down and click the ‘Export’ button.
An Excel/CSV file will be generated.
Setting your own cap with Usage Limits
If you want a SIM to stop automatically once it passes a certain amount of data or SMS in a month, use Usage Limits. It works on the same CDR-based mechanism described above: Simbase disables the SIM once a CDR shows the cap has been passed, which means a SIM can finish slightly over its cap before it's disabled (an "overshoot", explained in detail in that article).
If you need cost protection rather than a usage cap, auto top-up and the low-balance alert (see Set up billing) are the more direct tools.
Common questions
That's the CDR arriving late. The operator batches usage records rather than streaming them, so there's a normal delay between a session ending and it appearing in your usage total.
On pay-as-you-go profiles, no, every MB is charged at the same rate regardless of how much you've used that month. Green Profile is the exception: once you pass the 10 GB monthly allowance, additional data is billed at a flat overage rate per GB.
Yes. Green is a prepaid plan with a 10 GB/month data allowance (prorated for partial months). Every other profile (Black, Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Cyan) is pay-as-you-go with no allowance and no overage.
No, you're charged for the data you actually used, at the normal rate, nothing extra. The "overshoot" is just usage that happened before the disable took effect. See Usage Limits for why this happens and how to budget for it.
Not as a live meter. The dashboard reflects the latest CDRs Simbase has received, which is typically close to current but not instantaneous.
Related
Billable items, what counts toward usage in the first place
SIM Profiles Overview, how Green compares to Simbase's other profiles
Usage Limits, set a per-SIM monthly cap
Set up billing and add balance, low-balance and empty-balance alerts
Auto top-up, avoid running out of balance altogether
© 2026 Simbase Connect. All rights reserved.