Prerequisites

Ensure that you have a cloud service account.

If you do not have an account, you can sign up for free:

1. Visit https://www.huaweicloud.com/en-us/.
2. Click Register.
3. Complete the registration as instructed.

   After the registration is completed, you will be redirected to your account information page.

Pay-per-Use

Pay-per-use billing is the default setting for OBS. With this billing mode, your service account is only billed for the amount of time (hours) resources actually used for. There is no minimum billing threshold.

After registering an account, go to Billing Center to add a payment method and you can start using OBS.

1. Log in to OBS Console.
2. On the right of the top navigation menu, click Billing to open the Billing Center page.
3. Then, in the navigation pane on the left, choose Funds Management > Payment Methods.
4. Follow the instructions on the page to add a card.

Yearly/Monthly

If you have a good idea of how much and how long you expect to use OBS for, you can save money by purchasing a yearly/monthly resource package.

OBS offers the following resource packages: Standard storage (single-AZ), Standard storage (multi-AZ), Archive storage, internet outbound traffic, cross-region replication traffic, and pull traffic.

For details about OBS resource packages, see OBS Billing.

1. Log in to OBS Console.
2. On the OBS Console homepage, click Buy OBS Package in the upper right corner. The Buy OBS Package page is displayed.
3. Set the parameters as prompted.
   

   A resource package can only be used to pay for bucket fees if the package's region and type match the bucket.

4. Click Add.
5. Confirm the resource package list on the right and click Next.
6. Confirm the order information and click Submit.

   If the order information is incorrect, click Previous to modify it and then continue with your purchase.

7. Complete the payment as instructed.
   

   Precautions for purchasing resource packages:

   Package renewal is supported but unsubscription is not. When a package expires, you can still use OBS resources, and data security in OBS is ensured. Make sure that your account balance is sufficient and the system will automatically settle the charges on a pay-per-use basis.

   Monthly reset rules for resource packages:

   Reset by subscription period means that after a resource package is purchased, its quota will reset at 24:00:00 on the same day (the purchase day) of each month. For example, after you purchase an outbound Internet traffic package of 2 TB (each month) for 6 months on April 15, you will have 2 TB of outbound Internet traffic available to use from April 15 to 24:00:00 of May 15. Then, at 00:00:01 on May 16, another 2 TB outbound Internet traffic will be allocated to you, so you can use this 2 TB of traffic from 00:00:01 on May 16 to 24:00:00 on June 15. The following months follow the same rule until the purchased package expires. If you do not use up your quota in a given month, the remaining quota will not be carried over to the following month. The quota resets every month.

8. Use OBS.

   After a resource package is purchased, the system automatically matches it to a bucket based on the properties (including the region and storage class), so that you can just use OBS directly. If your resource package properties are consistent with the bucket properties, the system will apply the resource package to corresponding billing items. All other items are billed on a pay-per-use basis.

Purchase Guide

Figure 1 explains how resource packages are purchased, so you can more easily select the right resource packages in different scenarios.

Figure 1 Guide for purchasing OBS resource packages