Package Overview

Package Type

The discount of a package depends on the resource quota and validity period of the package. The higher the quota, the longer the validity period, and the greater the discount. (For details about the packages, see Table 1 and Table 2.) You can purchase more than one package at the same time to meet your requirements. You can select a package type based on the resource usage and required duration.

• If you need to use a resource for a long time, you can purchase a yearly package at a quota of 1.x times the estimated annual usage. If you need multiple packages, you can configure usage alerts and purchase new packages when the existing packages run out. The longer the validity period of a package, the greater the discount. In addition, the quota of a package should be slightly higher than the estimated usage to handle bursty traffic or temporary service volume fluctuation, so that resources will not be billed on a pay-per-use basis after the package runs out. By configuring usage alerts and buying new packages before the existing packages run out, you can prolong the package usage duration and avoid excessive purchase quota.

  For example, if you estimate that 87,280 vCPU-hours are required in a year and want to purchase a yearly package at the quota of 95999.2 vCPU-hours (87272 × 1.1), you need to purchase eight Autopilot general-computing 12,000 vCPU-hours CPU yearly packages. You are advised to purchase packages in batches and set usage alerts. For example, you can purchase two 12,000 vCPU-hours CPU yearly packages first. After you receive the message or email about the usage alert, you can purchase another two 12,000 vCPU-hours CPU yearly packages. In this way, you can prolong the usage duration of the eight general-computing 12,000 vCPU-hours CPU yearly packages and avoid excessive vCPUs at a time.

• For short-term use, you are advised to purchase a monthly package and configure the usage alert. The package quota can be slightly less than the monthly usage to prevent the package from becoming invalid when the remaining quota is not used up within the package validity period. After receiving the usage alert, you can purchase a new package.

Scenario 2 provides examples for your reference.

NOTE:

When you purchase a package, note the following:

• vCPU-hours indicate the number of vCPUs used during a period of time. For example, 1,000 vCPU-hours indicate that one core is used for 1,000 hours (about 41.67 days) or two cores are used for 500 hours (about 20.83 days).
• GiB-hours indicate the memory used during a period of time. For example, 1,000 GiB-hours indicate that 1-GiB memory is used for 1,000 hours (about 41.67 days) or 2-GiB memory for 500 hours (about 20.83 days).

For example, if a pod requires 4 vCPUs and 8-GiB memory, a 1,000 vCPU-hours CPU package can be used for 10.42 days, and a 1,000 GiB-hours memory package can be used for 5.21 days.

Package Purchase

For details about how to purchase a package, see Purchasing a Package. If a package is insufficient or expires, you can purchase another package or renew the package. The differences between new purchase and renewal are as follows:

• New purchase: The package will be used immediately after you purchase it. You can buy a new package where the purchase period of the current package has not ended but the resource in the package is about to be used up. You can purchase a package on the Overview page or by clicking Buy Again in Billing Center. For details, see Buying a Package and Buying a Package Again.
• Renewal: When a package is about to expire and you want to continue using this package, you can renew the package. After the package is renewed, the renewal period will not start before the current period expires. For details, see Renewing a Package..

Package Usage Query

Go to Billing Center > Resource Packages, view the remaining and used resources in a package. For details, see Resource Packages.

Package Billing Cycle

The billing cycle of a package is determined by the purchase duration (GMT+08:00). When you purchase a package, it takes effect immediately in the current settlement period. The start time of the billing cycle is the start time of the settlement period (accurate to second), and the end time is 23:59:59 on the expiration date of the package.

Figure 2 Example billing cycle

You created a pod at 15:04:00 on March 8, 2024 and purchased a 1,000 vCPU-hours CPU monthly package at 15:50:04 on March 8, 2024. Because the settlement is performed every hour, the CPU settlement period of the pod was from 15:04:00 on March 8, 2024 to 16:00:00 on March 8, 2024, and the billing cycle of the package was from 15:04:00 on March 8, 2024 to 23:59:59 on April 8, 2024. After 23:59:59 on April 8, 2024, vCPU usage were billed on a pay-per-use basis.

Package Use Sequence

If there are multiple packages with the same attributes, they will be used in the order of their effective and expiration times.

You purchased two CPU packages in the AP-Bangkok region.

• Package A: An Autopilot general-computing 1,000 vCPU-hours CPU monthly package that was effective from 15:00:00 on March 8, 2024 to 23:59:59 on April 8, 2024
• Package B: An Autopilot general-computing 10,000 vCPU-hours CPU monthly package that was effective from 15:00:00 on March 15, 2024 to 23:59:59 on April 15, 2024