# Placing an order

You can buy more bandwidth (residential / mobile) or new ISP IPs in two ways — from the dashboard, or via the [Orders API](/api-reference/orders.md). This page is the dashboard flow.

## Residential / Mobile — buying bandwidth

1. Left nav → **Residential** (or **Mobile**) → **Buy traffic**.
2. Pick a **plan**:
   * **Pay-as-you-go** — per-GB rate, no commitment
   * **Starter / Pro / Business / Enterprise** — bigger upfront commit, lower per-GB rate
3. Enter quantity in GB. The dashboard shows the unit price and total.
4. Click **Order** → confirmation modal → **Confirm**.
5. Bandwidth is added to your account **immediately**.

\[screenshot: residential order form]

The bandwidth is shared across all sub-users of that product. To split usage between teams, use separate sub-users with per-sub-user usage caps.

## ISP — buying static IPs

1. Left nav → **ISP** → **Order new IPs**.
2. Pick **country**.
3. (Optional) Pick **city** — available only in tier-1 markets ([Locations](/products/overview-2/locations.md)).
4. (Optional) Pick a specific **ASN** — Comcast vs Charter etc. Premium ASNs cost more.
5. Pick **quantity** — minimum 5, maximum 5,000 per order.
6. Pick **billing period** — monthly or annual (10% discount).
7. Pick which **sub-user** the IPs are bound to.
8. **Order**.

\[screenshot: ISP order form with inventory preview]

After confirmation, the dashboard transitions to a **provisioning** state. T1 countries typically deliver in 1–5 minutes; long-tail countries can take up to 24 hours. You receive an email when ready.

## What if inventory isn't enough?

The order form shows live inventory per city/ASN. If you request more than available, two options:

* **Wait** — the order queues until inventory frees up
* **Substitute** — the dashboard picks the closest city/ASN with inventory. Flagged in the email so you can audit.

## Order from the API

```bash
# Residential
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer API_KEY" \
     -d '{"product":"residential","gb":50}' \
     https://api.helodata.com/v1/orders

# ISP
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer API_KEY" \
     -d '{"product":"isp","country":"us","city":"newyork","quantity":20,"months":1}' \
     https://api.helodata.com/v1/orders
```

Full API reference: [Orders](/api-reference/orders.md).

## Payment

Orders use your account **balance** first, then your default payment method for the shortfall. To pre-fund, top up the balance under **Billing → Payment methods**.

If a payment is needed and your card is declined, the order fails with `insufficient_balance`. The dashboard shows the rejection reason — fix the payment method and re-order.

## Cancellation

Bandwidth orders can't be cancelled once placed — the credits are non-refundable. For ISP batches you can release IPs anytime (no refund for the remaining period); see [IP management](/products/overview-2/ip-management.md).

## Common pitfalls

* **Ordering before KYC** — Mobile and ISP block ordering until KYC is approved. Submit KYC before the order page.
* **Wrong sub-user for ISP** — once a batch is bound to a sub-user, the IPs use **that** sub-user's password. Re-binding requires re-downloading the list.
* **City over-subscribed** — if your monitor depends on a specific city, set the dashboard alert for low inventory under **Settings → Alerts**.


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