Help Center/ Billing Center/ User Guide/ Orders/ Renewal Management/ Pricing of a Changed Specification
Updated on 2024-08-15 GMT+08:00
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Pricing of a Changed Specification

If the specifications of a yearly/monthly resource do not meet your service requirements, you can change them on the cloud service console and pay for the new specifications. This section applies only to yearly/monthly subscriptions.

Specifications can be changed in the following ways:

  • Upgrades: You change the current specification of a resource to a new, more expensive specification and then pay for the difference.
  • Downgrades: You change the current specification of a resource to a new, less expensive specification and Huawei Cloud refunds the difference.
  • Disk capacity expansion: You expand the disk capacity and then pay for it.
  1. As discounts have a validity period, when you change a resource specification, the price displayed on the operation page might be different from the actual order price.
  2. The upgrade and capacity expansion fees will be charged through monthly bill settlement, credit card, or third-party online payment. The downgrade fees will be refunded to the original account. For details, see Refunding.
  3. When you initiate a specification upgrade or capacity expansion, the Billing Center will generate an order for you. Before the order expires, the fees on the order remain unchanged although the remaining duration changes. If you do not pay on the day of a specification upgrade or capacity expansion, you can cancel the order and initiate a change again.
  4. The examples in this document are for reference only. The calculation results in these examples contain only two decimal places. When calculating the fee for specifications changes and capacity expansion, you are advised to retain at least eight decimal places, ensuring consistency between the results calculated and presented.

Specification Upgrades

  1. Rules:
    • Upgrade fee (without any discount) = Price of the new specification x Remaining duration - Price of the old specification x Remaining duration
    • Upgrade fee (with a discount) = (Price of the new specification x Remaining duration - Price of the old specification x Remaining duration) x Discount
    • Upgrade fee (with a fixed price) = (Price of the new specification x Remaining duration – Price of the old configuration x Remaining duration) x (Fixed price in the commerce for the new configuration/List price with the corresponding subscription term)
    • Upgrade fee (with an amount off) = Price of the new specification x Remaining duration - Price of the old specification x Remaining duration - Amount off
    • Discount: You can open the Promotions pages on the Billing Center to check whether you have discounts or coupons available. Alternatively, you can check them on the Pay page. For details, see How Do I Use Discounts and Coupons When Paying for an Order?.
    • Price of the new specification: It is calculated based on the billing mode (yearly or monthly) and the remaining duration of an unexpired order. The unexpired order can be either the currently valid order and the order about to take effect. The calculation works as follows:
      • Depending on the billing mode (yearly or monthly) of the unexpired order, different pricing strategies are applied. Specifically, if the unexpired order is a yearly subscription, the new price is matched to the yearly pricing; if it is a monthly subscription, the new price is matched to the monthly pricing.
      • The remaining duration of the unexpired order is rounded up to the nearest integer.
      • The commercial/promotional discounts are matched to the subscription term. If the subscription term is 1 year, the 1-year commercial/promotional discounts are used.
      • For example, if you purchased a 3-year subscription of a product and used it for 3 months (2 years and 9 months remaining), then the unexpired order involves only the yearly subscription and you will be billed based on the pricing and discounts applied to 3-year use of the product.
    • Price of the old specification: It is calculated based on subscription terms.
    • Remaining duration:
      • Remaining duration of a monthly subscription = Number of remaining days in a calendar month (excluding the day the specification change is made)/Total number of days in the calendar month

        Example: If you purchased a 3-month subscription (August 15, 2021 to November 15, 2021) of an ECS and changed its specification on August 24, 2021, then the remaining duration would be as follows: 7 (number of remaining days in August)/31 (total number of days in August) + 2 (two months: September and October) + 15 (number of remaining days in November)/30 (total number of days in November) = 2.73 months

      • Remaining duration of a yearly subscription = Number of remaining days (excluding the day the specification change is made)/365. The leap day (February 29) is not taken into account.

        Example: If you purchased a 3-year subscription (November 1, 2018 to November 1, 2021) of an ECS and changed its specification on May 1, 2019, then the remaining duration would be as follows: Remaining duration in 2019 + Remaining duration in 2020 + Remaining duration in 2021 = 244/365 + 1 + 305/365 = 2.50 years

  2. Examples:

    The following prices are for reference only. For the actual prices, see Product Pricing Details.

    • Example 1

      On January 31, 2019, you purchased a 1-year subscription of an ECS, and renewed it for 8 months (February 1, 2020 to October 1, 2020) and then for another year (October 2, 2020 to October 2, 2021). Assume that the ECS price was $120 USD per year and $11 USD per month, and you paid with your account balance of $328 USD.

      After using it for two months, you upgraded the ECS to a specification costing $400 USD per 3 years. At that time (March 31, 2019), the remaining duration is calculated as follows: Remaining duration = Remaining duration of the first order + Remaining duration of the first renewal + Remaining duration of the second renewal = 306/365 + 242/365 + 1 = 2.5 years. As there are both yearly and monthly subscriptions for the unexpired orders, the remaining duration (2.5 years) is rounded up to the nearest integer (3 years), and you will be billed based on the pricing and discounts applied to 3-year use of the ECS. If no discounts are applicable, the upgrade fee is calculated separately for each historical order using the following formula: Upgrade fee = Price of the new specification x Remaining duration – Price of the old specification x Remaining duration

      • Upgrade fee for the new purchase order = (400/3) x (306/365) - 120 x (306/365) = $11.17 USD
      • Upgrade fee for the 8-month renewal order = (400/36) x [(242/365) x 12] - 11 x [(242/365) x 12] = $0.88 USD
      • Upgrade fee for the 1-year renewal order = (400/3) x 1 - 120 x 1 = $13.33 USD

      Total upgrade fee = Upgrade fee for the new purchase order + Upgrade fee for the 8-month renewal order + Upgrade fee for the 1-year renewal order = 11.17 + 0.88 + 13.33 = $25.38 USD

      If only a 1-year subscription is available, the remaining duration will be rounded up to the nearest integer (1 year), and you will be billed based on the pricing and discounts applied to 1-year use of the ECS.

    • Example 2:

      On November 1, 2018, you purchased a 1-month subscription of an ECS (4 GiB) at $120 USD per month and paid with your account balance of $120 USD. At that time, an ECS (8 GiB) was $150 USD per month.

      On November 24, 2018, you upgraded the ECS to 8 GiB costing only $100 USD per month as there was a sales promotion going on. At that time, an ECS (4 GiB) was $80 USD per month.

      In this case, 0.2 months [(30-24)/30] remain in the 1-month subscription, and the upgrade fee would be as follows: Upgrade fee = 100 x 0.2 - 120 x 0.2 < 0. In this example, the system will take $0 USD for this specification upgrade, and you will not be billed or refunded.

      When resource specifications change, the amount due depends on the actual price and any applicable discounts at the moment you make the purchase. In some cases, you may neither need to make a payment nor be owed a refund, as illustrated in example 2.

Specification Downgrades

When you downgrade the specification of resources that are purchased by using cash coupons, discount coupons, or promotional discounts, the remaining value may be insufficient and the refund amount is 0. Exercise caution when downgrading the specification.

  1. Rules:

    Refund for a specification downgrade = Price for the remaining duration – Price of the new specifications x Remaining duration x Discount (Cash coupons are exclusive, and the refund will not be returned if the result is less than or equal to 0)

    • Price for the remaining duration: It is calculated based on the actual payment and the remaining days of the subscription. The formula is as follows:

      Price for the remaining duration = Actual payment/Total days of the subscription x Remaining days

      For example, if you purchased a 3-year subscription of an ECS at $10,000 USD, and have used it for 3 months, then the price for the remaining duration would be as follows: (10000/3) x 2.75 = $9166.67 USD.

    • Price of the new specification: It is calculated based on the remaining duration and is rounded down to the nearest integer. The commercial/promotional discounts are matched to the subscription term. For example, if the subscription term is 1 year, the 1-year commercial/promotional discounts are used.

      Suppose that you purchased a 3-year subscription of a product and used it for 3 months (2 years and 9 months remaining), then you will be billed based on the pricing and discounts applied to 2-year use of the product.

    • Remaining duration: It is calculated in the same way as that in the specification upgrades.
      • Remaining duration of a monthly subscription = Number of remaining days in a calendar month (excluding the day the specification change is made)/Total number of days in the calendar month
      • Remaining duration of a yearly subscription = Number of remaining days (excluding the day the specification change is made)/365. The leap day (February 29) is not taken into account.
  2. Used cash coupons will not be returned in a specification downgrade.
  3. Discounts applicable for the specification downgrade of yearly/monthly resources include commercial discounts, authorized discounts, and promotion discounts. When you initiate a specification downgrade, the system will select the discounts for you according to relevant rules. You cannot select them by yourselves.

    The rules for using discounts in specification downgrades of yearly/monthly subscriptions are as follows:

    1. The system selects the best discount from the applicable commercial discount, partner authorized discount, and promotional discount. A promotional discount is taken into account only when it was used in a historical order and is still valid.
    2. If multiple promotional discounts were used in historical orders and are still valid, the one that took effect most recently is taken into account.
    3. If multiple promotional discounts that took effect at the same time were used in historical orders and they all are still valid, the one that was used for the most recent order is taken into account.
    4. If there is no difference to use the commercial discount, partner authorized discount, or promotional discount (used in a historical order and still valid), the commercial discount is used first, then the partner authorized discount, and finally the promotional discount.

  4. Examples:

    The following prices are for reference only. For the actual prices, see Product Pricing Details.

    • Example 1:

      On November 1, 2018, you purchased 1-month subscription of an ECS at $120 USD per month and paid with your account balance.

      On November 24, 2018, you downgraded the ECS to a specification costing $90 USD per month.

      In this case, 7 days (30 - 24 + 1) remain in the 1-month subscription, the remaining duration is 0.2 months ((30 - 24)/30), and the refund would be as follows: Refund = (120/30) x 7 - 90 x 0.2 = $10.00 USD

    • Example 2:

      On November 1, 2018, you purchased 1-month subscription of an ECS at $120 USD per month, and you paid with your account balance of $60 USD and applied a cash coupon of $60 USD.

      On November 24, 2018, you downgraded the ECS to a specification costing $90 USD per month.

      In this case, 7 days (30 - 24 +1) remain in the 1-month subscription, the remaining duration is 0.2 months ((30-24)/30), and the refund would be as follows: Refund = (60/30) x 7 - 90 x 0.2 < 0. In this example, the system will take $0 USD for this specification downgrade, and you will not be refunded.

    • Example 3:

      On November 1, 2018, you purchased 1-month subscription of an ECS at $120 USD per month, and you used a commercial discount of 10% off and paid with your account balance of $108 USD (120 x 0.9).

      On November 24, 2018, you downgraded the ECS to a specification costing $90 USD per month. As the commercial discount was applicable, the price would be as follows: 90 x 0.9 = $81 USD per month.

      In this case, 7 days (30 - 24 + 1) remain in the 1-month subscription, the remaining duration is 0.2 months ((30 - 24)/30), and the refund would be as follows: Refund = (108/30) x 7 - 81 x 0.2 = $9.00 USD

EVS Disk Capacity Expansion

Currently, the capacity of an EVS disk can only be expanded. The capacity expansion fee for an EVS disk is calculated in a different manner from the specification upgrade fee.

  1. Rules:
    Capacity expansion fee = Expanded capacity x Remaining duration x Capacity unit price
    • Expanded capacity: Equal to the capacity after expansion deducted by the capacity before expansion.

      For example, if you purchased a 10-GB EVS and expand it to 50 GB, the expanded capacity is 40 GB.

    • Capacity unit price: Similar to the price of a new specification, the capacity unit price is calculated based on the billing mode (yearly or monthly) and the remaining duration of an unexpired order.

      For example, if you purchased a 1-year subscription of an EVS disk, and renewed it for 8 months and then for 1 year. After using the EVS disk for 3 months (2 years and 5 months remaining), you expanded its capacity. As the unexpired order involves both yearly and monthly subscriptions, you will be billed based on the pricing and discounts applied to 3-year use (rounded up to the nearest integer) of the EVS disk.

    • Remaining duration: It is calculated in the same way as that in the specification upgrades.
      • Remaining duration of a monthly subscription = Number of remaining days in a calendar month (excluding the day the specification change is made)/Total number of days in the calendar month
      • Remaining duration of a yearly subscription = Number of remaining days (excluding the day the specification change is made)/365. The leap day (February 29) is not taken into account.
  2. The following prices are for reference only. For the actual prices, see Product Pricing Details.

    On July 1, 2021, you purchased a 1-month subscription of a 10 GB EVS disk at $3.5 USD and paid with your account balance. The capacity unit price was $0.35 USD/GB/month.

    On July 3, 2021, you expanded the capacity of the EVS disk to 60 GB. In this case, Remaining duration = (31 - 3)/31 = 0.90 months, and Capacity expansion fee = Expended capacity x Remaining duration x Capacity unit price = (60 - 10) x 0.90 x 0.35 = $15.75 USD.

Parent topic: Renewal Management