Bioinformatics Software Chargeback

Pricing Schedules

Effective November 1, 2025, the following software tools will be charged at the rates listed below. 

Software

Subsidized*

Full Recharge**

Chargeable Hours

New user incentive

IPA$30/hour$45/hour
  • Total hours between login and logout.
  • Automatic logout after 30-minute of inactivity is implemented.
  • New accounts created after October 1, 2025, will receive 5 free hours of usage.
  • Hands-on consultations to walk you through the data analysis setup and interpretation.
Partek Flow$0.7/hour$1/hour
  • Total usage hours including computing hours for running the tasks in the background and log-in hours for interacting with Flow (such as reviewing data, scheduling new tasks, visualization, etc.).
  • Automatic logout after 30-minute of inactivity is implemented.
  • New labs created after October 1, 2025, will receive 300 free hours of usage (hours needed to complete one typical bulk RNA-seq analysis).
  • Hands-on consultations to walk you through the data analysis setup and interpretation.

* Labs from Keck, Mann, Ostrow, Davis, Viterbi, and CHLA will be charged at the subsidized rate, thanks to the continued partial financial support from these schools. 

** Labs from all other USC units or affiliates will be charged at the full recharge rate.

Educational use in training, workshops or credit-bearing courses will remain free of charge.

  • Registered participants will receive demo accounts that are valid up to 30 days.
  • Instructors should contact nmlbio@usc.edu at least two weeks ahead of their lectures to set up the demo accounts. Otherwise, any usage occurred in the students’ USC IPA/Partek Flow accounts would be counted toward the new user free hours.

 

Usage Notes

Notes on IPA usage

  1. Log out immediately after you’ve finished the analysis.
  2. Any session left inactive for 30 consecutive minutes will be automatically ended.

 

Notes on Partek Flow usage

  1. Partek Flow uses multiple computing nodes for parallel processing. As a result, the total computing hours for a task are often much longer than the task duration reported in “Task details.”
  2. The time a job waits in the queue is NOT included in the total hours.
  3. In the event of extended system glitches or stalled tasks, please report them to nmlbio@usc.edu. Usage hours will be adjusted as necessary.
  4. For transferring large datasets (>100GB) to CARC for Partek Flow analysis, there are alternative methods to Partek Flow “Data transfer” utility, such as FileZilla or command-line. Please contact nmlbio@usc.edu for assistance.
  5. Log out immediately after you’ve finished the analysis.
  6. Any session left inactive for 30 consecutive minutes will be automatically ended.

 

Chargeback Processing and Policy

Billing and Payment

All billing and payment will be managed through the FBS system. At the time of software registration, you are required to provide one of the following: 

  • For internal users: The PI’s valid account worktag in company.costcenter.PPGG format
  • For external affiliates: The intended payment methods (Check, Wire Transfer, or Credit Card). 

Invoicing and Billing Cycle

  • Invoices and detailed usage reports will be sent to PIs during the first week of the month.
  • Please review the usage report carefully and contact us immediately for any discrepancies or corrections.
  • Accounts will be charged on the 15th of each month.

Accounts and Affiliations Changes

  • PIs: please inform us of any changes to your accounts or billing information as soon as possible.
  • Users: please update us on any changes to your lab or affiliation immediately.  Failure to do so may result in the suspension of your access to all bioinformatics software tools we manage.