Overview
There are pay-per-use and yearly/monthly (resource package) billing modes. Each one has different advantages and disadvantages.
- Yearly/Monthly is a prepaid billing mode. You pay in advance for a subscription term, and in exchange, you get a discounted rate. The longer the subscription term, the bigger the discount. Yearly/Monthly billing is a good option for long-term, stable data storage.
- Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing mode. You pay as you go and just pay for what you use. The OBS usage is calculated by the second but billed every hour. Pay-per-use billing is a good option for scenarios where there are sudden traffic bursts, such as e-commerce promotions.
Table 1 lists the differences between these billing modes.
| Billing Mode | Yearly/monthly | Pay-per-use |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Prepaid Billed by the subscription term you purchase | Postpaid Billed by the actual OBS usage |
| Billed Usage Period | Hour | Hour |
| Billing Items | Single-AZ Standard storage Multi-AZ Standard storage Single-AZ Archive storage Outbound Internet traffic Pull traffic Cross-region replication traffic | All OBS items can be billed on a pay-per-use basis. For details, see Pay-per-Use Billing. |
| Billing Mode Change | Yearly/Monthly can be changed to pay-per-use. The change takes effect only after the yearly/monthly subscription expires. | Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly. |
| Application Scenarios | Recommended for resources expected to be in use long-term. A cost-effective option for scenarios where the resource usage duration is predictable. | Good for short-term, bursty, or unpredictable workloads that cannot tolerate any interruptions, such as requests, data read, and image processing. |
Checking the Billing Mode of an Item in a Bill
In a bill, you can check wether an item is billed on a pay-per-use or yearly/monthly (resource packages) basis.
- In the bucket list, copy the name of the bucket whose bill you want to view.
- On the right of the top navigation bar, click Billing & Costs.
- Choose a billing cycle and specify a display dimension (Usage by default).
- Select Resource ID as the search criteria, enter the bucket name copied in 1, and click the
icon. You can also click
above the list to export the bill details. - In the Billing Mode column of the bill, check the billing mode of an item.
