Yearly/Monthly Billing

Yearly/Monthly billing is a prepaid billing mode in which you pay before using resources. It is suitable when your resource requirements are fixed because you can pay less by using longer. You can purchase instance resources in advance and enjoy price discounts. This section describes the billing rules of yearly/monthly API Data Security Protection instances.

Applicable Scenarios

In yearly/monthly billing mode, you need to pay for a required duration in advance. This mode is suitable for long-term and relatively fixed service requirements. The yearly/monthly billing mode is recommended for the following scenarios:

Stable services: enterprise websites, online malls, blogs, and others. Yearly/Monthly billing provides higher cost efficiency.
Long-term projects: scientific research projects, large-scale events, and others. Yearly/Monthly billing facilitates stable supply of resources throughout the project.
Service peak estimation: e-commerce promotion season, festivals, holidays, and others. Resources insufficiency can be avoided by pre-purchasing resources for peak demands.
High data security: For services that require high data security, yearly/monthly billing facilitates continuous usage of the resources.

Applicable Billing Items

API Data Security Protection instance specifications

Billing Period

For yearly or monthly billing, the billing period is determined by the purchased duration (UTC+8). The billing period starts from the time you activate or renew your subscription (precise to seconds), and ends at 23:59:59 on the expiration date.

Consider a scenario where a professional edition API Data Security Protection instance was purchased at 15:50:04 (UTC+8) on March 8, 2023.

Billing Examples

Assume that you purchased a professional edition API Data Security Protection instance at 15:50:04 on March 8, 2023. The initial subscription duration was one month, and you manually renewed it for an additional month prior to its expiration. The billing details are as follows:

The first billing period: Mar 08, 2023, 15:50:04–Apr 08, 2023, 23:59:59
The second billing period: Apr 08, 2023, 23:59:59–May 08, 2023, 23:59:59

Figure 1 shows the billing calculation.

Figure 1 Billing example of a yearly/monthly instance
Click to enlarge

Impacts of Expiration

Figure 2 describes the status of yearly/monthly API Data Security Protection resources in each phase. Upon purchase, an API Data Security Protection instance enters its valid service period and operates normally. If the instance is not renewed upon expiration, it will first enter a grace period and subsequently a retention period before being permanently deleted.

Figure 2 Resource lifecycle
Click to enlarge

Expiration Reminder

From the 7th day before a yearly/monthly API Data Security Protection subscription expires, the system will send an expiration reminder to the creator of the account by email, SMS, and internal message.

Impacts of Expiration

If your yearly/monthly API Data Security Protection instance is not renewed after it expires, the resource status will transition to Expired. During the grace period, you can still access the API Data Security Protection instance.

If the yearly or monthly API Data Security Protection instance is not renewed within the grace period, the instance will enter the retention period, and the resource status will change to Frozen. During the retention period, you will not be able to perform any operations on the instance.

If the yearly or monthly API Data Security Protection instance remains unrenewed after the retention period ends, the instance will be released, and all associated data will be permanently lost.