Help Center/ GeminiDB/ GeminiDB DynamoDB-Compatible API/ Working with GeminiDB DynamoDB-Compatible API/ Suggestions on Instance Selection
Updated on 2026-07-10 GMT+08:00
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Suggestions on Instance Selection

Overview

Before buying a GeminiDB DynamoDB-Compatible instance, you need to consider factors such as price, performance, workloads, and scenarios. GeminiDB DynamoDB-Compatible instances vary in specifications, storage capacity, and billing mode. This section describes these differences to help you select the most suitable instance.

Billing Mode

There are two billing modes: yearly/monthly and pay-per-use.

Table 1 Billing modes

Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly

Pay-per-use

Payment

Prepaid

Settled based on the required duration in your order.

Postpaid

Settled based on how long you have actually used your instance.

Supported Instance Type
  • Cluster instance with classic storage
  • Cluster instance with cloud native storage
  • Cluster instance with classic storage
  • Cluster instance with cloud native storage

Billing Cycle

Billed based on the required duration in your order.

Pricing is listed on a per-hour basis, and bills are calculated down to the second.

Billing Item

Instance specifications (vCPUs and memory), storage, and EIP

Instance specifications (vCPUs and memory), storage, backup storage, and EIP

Changing the Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly billing can be changed to pay-per-use billing. The change is applied only after the yearly/monthly instance expires. For details, see Changing a Yearly/Monthly Instance to Pay-per-Use.

Pay-per-use billing can be changed to yearly/monthly billing. For details, see Changing a Pay-per-Use Instance to Yearly/Monthly.

Scenario

If your future usage is predictable, this billing mode is generally less expensive than pay-per-use. It is recommended for long-term users.

This billing mode is ideal for dynamic compute workloads. You can enable or delete your instance at any time.

The following table lists the billing items.

Table 2 Billing items

Billing Item

Description

Formula

Instance specifications

You are billed for vCPUs and memory. Compute and storage capabilities vary depending on instance specifications.

Unit price × Required duration

For details, see the Product Pricing Details tab in GeminiDB Pricing Details.

Storage

You are billed for storage based on unified standards.

Unit price × Storage × Required duration

For details, see the Product Pricing Details tab in GeminiDB Pricing Details.

EIP

An EIP is required if an instance needs to access the Internet.

You are billed for bandwidth, traffic, and IP address reservation.

  • EIP for a yearly/monthly instance: billed by bandwidth
  • EIP for a pay-per-use instance: billed by bandwidth, traffic, or shared bandwidth. You are also billed for IP reservation.

Tiered pricing based on fixed bandwidth

  • 0 Mbit/s to 5 Mbit/s (included): billed at a fixed unit price per Mbit/s
  • Greater than 5 Mbit/s: billed at a different price per Mbit/s

For details about the unit price, see ECS Price Calculator or EIP Price Calculator.

The following table lists the billing items.

Table 3 Billing items

Billing Item

Description

Formula

Instance specifications

You are billed for vCPUs and memory. Compute and storage capabilities vary depending on instance specifications.

Unit price × Required duration

For details, see the Product Pricing Details tab in GeminiDB Pricing Details.

Storage

You are billed for storage based on unified standards.

Unit price × Storage × Required duration

For details, see the Product Pricing Details tab in GeminiDB Pricing Details.

Backup storage

You are billed for backup storage based on unified standards.

Unit price × Billed backup storage × Required duration

For details, see the Product Pricing Details tab in GeminiDB Pricing Details.

NOTE:

The billing duration indicates the period during which your storage exceeded the free quota.

EIP

An EIP is required if an instance needs to access the Internet.

You are billed for bandwidth, traffic, and IP address reservation.

  • EIP for a yearly/monthly instance: billed by bandwidth
  • EIP for a pay-per-use instance: billed by bandwidth, traffic, or shared bandwidth. You are also billed for IP reservation.

Yearly/Monthly and pay-per-use

You can purchase a bandwidth add-on package or a shared traffic package.

Tiered pricing based on fixed bandwidth

  • 0 Mbit/s to 5 Mbit/s (included): billed at a fixed unit price per Mbit/s
  • Greater than 5 Mbit/s: billed at a different price per Mbit/s

For details, see the estimated EIP bandwidth unit price in ECS Price Calculator or EIP Price Calculator.

Functions Supported by Different Instance Types

Function Set

Function

Classic Storage

Cloud Native Storage

Specifications change

Changing the vCPUs and memory of an instance or node

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Manually adding nodes

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Configuring autoscaling for an instance

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Manually deleting nodes

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Manually scaling up instance storage

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Configuring storage autoscaling

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Manually scaling down instance storage

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Upgrading the kernel minor version

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Data backup

Automated backup

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Manual backup

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Cross-region backup

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Table-level backup

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Data restoration

Rebuilding an instance

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Restoring a backup to a new instance

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Restoring a backup to a specified point in time

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Parent Topic: Working with GeminiDB DynamoDB-Compatible API