A project lead worries about unexpected cloud charges. Which cloud principle helps prevent surprise billing?

Metered pricing, also known as pay-as-you-go, directly addresses the concern of unexpected charges by allowing you to pay only for the cloud resources you consume. This transparency helps in forecasting costs and avoiding surprises, as you can monitor usage and adjust resources as needed. High availability ensures services remain operational but doesn't directly manage costs. Capital expenditure refers to upfront investments in physical infrastructure, which is the opposite of the cloud's operational expenditure model. Scalability allows resources to be adjusted up or down based on demand, which can influence cost but doesn't inherently prevent unexpected charges without careful monitoring, unlike metered pricing which is the mechanism for charging based on that usage.