Keep a canister funded
A canister runs on cycles. Its Cycles section shows how many it has, how fast it spends them, and how long they last.
Read the numbers
Section titled “Read the numbers”- Balance: the cycles it has now.
- Burn: how fast it spends them, compared with the previous period.
- Frozen in: roughly when it reaches its freezing threshold and stops answering calls.
- Where cycles go: what the cycles pay for, such as calls, storage and compute.
A new canister needs about an hour of history before icLens can estimate its burn. Until then the page shows Collecting history. Cycles, runway and the Reserve.
Top up from your wallet
Section titled “Top up from your wallet”Anyone can add cycles to a canister: you don’t need to control it.
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Open the canister and choose Top up. To fund several at once, select them on the Canisters page and choose Top up selected.
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Choose the amount. Pay with ICP, or with cycles you already hold, then choose Review payment.
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Check the review. It shows each target, what it receives, the network fees and the total your wallet pays.
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Confirm and approve in OISY. The result says Delivered once the cycles arrive.
If a canister is frozen
Section titled “If a canister is frozen”A frozen canister rejects calls with IC0207, even though its balance isn’t
zero. Its Overview shows how much it needs, with a Top up button. Retrying
calls won’t help: only a top-up unfreezes it.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- Paying with ICP converts it at the current rate, so the cycles received are an estimate until the payment completes.
- Check the delivered amount, not just the balance: the canister keeps spending while you pay.
- If a payment is interrupted, reopen it to finish. It is never sent twice. Interrupted payments.