Help Center/ Elastic Cloud Server/ FAQs/ Billing FAQ/ Will I Be Billed After ECSs Are Stopped?
Updated on 2024-10-16 GMT+08:00

Will I Be Billed After ECSs Are Stopped?

ECSs support multiple billing modes. Whether you will continue to be billed after ECSs are stopped depend on the billing mode of the stopped ECSs.

  • Yearly/Monthly: a prepaid billing mode. You are billed based on the subscription term you purchase. Stopping ECSs does not affect the billing.
  • Spot pricing (for spot block): a postpaid billing mode. You are billed based on the usage duration and predefined duration. After ECSs are stopped, you will continue to be billed.
  • Pay-per-use and spot pricing (for spot instances): a postpaid billing mode. You are billed based on the usage duration. Whether you are billed after ECSs are stopped depends on the instance type. For details about the billing policy for stopped ECSs, see Table 1.
    Table 1 Billing for a stopped ECS

    Instance Type

    Description

    Billed Items

    Billed or Not

    Action on Resources

    Common instances

    Common instances include:
    • Non-bare-metal instance
    • Instances without local disks
    • Instances without FPGA cards

    ECS (compute resources including vCPUs and memory)

    No

    • If ECSs are created from public resource pools, basic resources (vCPUs and memory) are no longer retained.

      The ECS may fail to be started due to insufficient resources. Wait patiently and try again later.

    • If ECSs are created on a DeH or in an edge AZ, basic resources (vCPUs and memory) will be retained.

    Images

    No

    Resources are retained but are not billed.

    GPU

    No

    After GPU-accelerated ECSs without local disks attached are stopped, GPU resources are no longer retained.

    EVS disks (system disks and data disks)

    Yes

    The resources are still billed based on the billing rules.

    EIP bandwidth

    Yes

    The resources are still billed based on the billing rules.

    • EIP bandwidth price: pay-per-use EIPs (by bandwidth)
    • Shared bandwidth price

    For details, see EIP Billing.

    Special instances

    Special instances include:
    • Bare metal instances
    • Instances with local disks

      such as disk-intensive, ultra-high I/O ECSs.

    • ECSs with FPGA cards

    ECS (compute resources including vCPUs and memory)

    Yes

    The ECS resources are still billed based on the billing rules.

    To stop the billing, you need to delete the instance and its associated resources.

    Images

    Yes

    GPU

    Yes

    EVS disks (system disks and data disks)

    Yes

    EIP bandwidth

    Yes

For a stopped pay-per-use ECS, the startup may fail due to insufficient resources. Please wait for several minutes before attempting another restart or changing the ECS specifications.

For details, see How Can I Stop an ECS from Being Billed?

If you want to use an ECS for a long time, you can change its billing mode from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly to reduce cost. For details, see Changing Pay-per-Use to Yearly/Monthly.