Pay-per-Use Billing

Pay-per-use billing means you pay nothing up front and are not tied into any contract or commitment. This section describes the billing rules for pay-per-use DB instances.

Application Scenarios

Pay-per-use billing is good for short-term or unpredictable workloads.

Billed Items

You are billed for the following items on a pay-per-use basis.

The billed items marked with asterisks (*) are mandatory.

**Table 1** Items billed on a pay-per-use basis
Billed Item	Description
* Instance class	vCPUs and memory
* Storage space	Storage space
* Backup space	RDS provides free backup storage of the same size as your purchased database storage. After the free backup space is used up, charges are applied based on the backup space pricing details. Pricing is listed on a per-hour basis, but bills are calculated based on the actual usage duration.
(Optional) EIP bandwidth	If an EIP is purchased along with a yearly/monthly DB instance and the EIP is billed by bandwidth.
(Optional) Database proxies (for RDS for MySQL only)	RDS allows read and write requests to be automatically routed through a read/write splitting address. Enabling database proxy incurs extra fees.

Billed Usage Period

Pay-per-use DB instance usage is calculated by the second and billed every hour. The billing starts when the DB instance is created and ends when the instance is deleted.

It takes a certain time to create a DB instance. The billing starts from the Completed time on the Instant Tasks page in the task center.

For example, if you purchased a pay-per-use DB instance at 8:45:30 and deleted it at 8:55:30, you are billed for the 600 seconds from 8:45:30 to 8:55:30.

Price Change After Instance Class Change

If you change the instance class of a pay-per-use DB instance, the original order will become invalid and a new order will be placed. You will be billed based on the new instance class.

If you change the instance class within a given hour, multiple records will be generated. Different records record the billing for different instance classes.

For example, if you purchased a pay-per-use DB instance (2 vCPUs | 4 GB) at 9:00:00 and changed the instance class to 4 vCPUs | 8 GB at 9:30:00, the following items will be billed:

DB instance (2 vCPUs | 4 GB) usage from 9:00:00 to 9:30:00
DB instance (4 vCPUs | 8 GB) usage from 9:30:00 to 10:00:00

Impact of Arrears

Figure 1 shows the statuses a pay-per-use DB instance can have throughout its lifecycle. After a DB instance is purchased, it enters the valid period and runs normally during this period. If your account goes into arrears, the DB instance enters a grace period and then a retention period.

Figure 1 Lifecycle of a pay-per-use DB instance

Arrears Reminder

The system will bill you for pay-per-use resources after each billing cycle ends. If your account goes into arrears, we will notify you by email, SMS, or in-app message.

Impacts of Arrears

If your account is insufficient to pay your amount due, your account goes into arrears, and the pay-per-use DB instance enters the grace period. You are still responsible for expenditures generated during the grace period. You can view the charges on the Billing Center > Overview page and pay any past due balance as needed.

If you do not bring your account balance current before the grace period expires, the DB instance turns to Frozen and enters a retention period. You cannot access or use the DB instance while it is in the retention period, but the data stored in it can be retained.

If you do not bring your account balance current before the retention period ends, the corresponding resources will be released and the data stored in the resources will be deleted.