Updated on 2023-11-13 GMT+08:00

Pay-per-Use Billing

Pay-per-use billing is a postpaid mode in which you pay for what you use. This billing mode requires no upfront or long-term commitments. This section describes the billing rules for pay-per-use IoTDA resources.

Scenario

Pay-per-use is suitable for applications or services that cannot be interrupted when facing temporary or sudden traffic increases or unpredictable demands, such as e-commerce flash sales, testing, and scientific computing.

Billing Items

You are billed for the following resources on a pay-per-use basis.

Table 1 Billing items

Billing Item

Description

Standard instance

You are charged based on the instance specifications and required duration.

Billed Usage Period

The usage of pay-per-use IoTDA resources is calculated by day (with partial days counted as full days) and billed at 0:00 every day (UTC+8). The billing starts from the time when the standard instance is successfully created and ends at the time when the instance is deleted.

Billing Examples

Assume you purchased a standard SU1 instance at 9:59:30 on April 18, 2023 and then deleted it at 11:45:46 on April 20, 2023. The following usage periods will be billed:

  • The first billing cycle (one day): April 18, 2023, 9:59:30 to April 19, 2023, 00:00:00
  • The second billing cycle (one day): April 19, 2023, 00:00:00 to April 20, 2023, 00:00:00
  • The third billing cycle (zero day): April 20, 2023, 00:00:00 to April 21, 2023, 00:00:00

You need to pay for each billing cycle. Table 2 lists the billing formula. The daily price of the resource is displayed in the product price details.

Table 2 Formulas for billing pay-per-use IoTDA resources

Resource

Formula

Unit Price

IoTDA standard instance

Unit price of instance specifications x Billing duration

For details, see "Specifications Price" in IoTDA Price Details.

Impact on Billing After Specifications Change

If you change the specifications of a pay-per-use instance, the original order will become invalid and a new order will be placed. You will be billed based on the new specifications.

If you change the instance configuration within one day after the purchase, the billing cycle information is generated based on the new configuration.

For example, you purchased a standard SU1 instance at 9:00:00 and upgraded it to an SU2 instance at 9:30:00, the billing cycle information of the SU2 instance will be generated for the day.

Impact of Arrears

Figure 1 shows the statuses a pay-per-use IoTDA instance can have throughout its lifecycle. After an IoTDA instance is purchased, it enters the valid period and runs normally during this period. If your account goes into arrears, the IoTDA instance enters a grace period and then a retention period.

Figure 1 IoTDA instance lifecycle

Arrears Reminder

The system will deduct fees for pay-per-use resources at the end of each billing cycle. If your account goes into arrears, we will notify you by email, SMS, or in-app message.

Impact of Arrears

If your account is insufficient to pay your amount, your account goes into arrears. However, your resources will not be stopped immediately; instead, they enter the grace period. You will need to pay for the fees incurred during the grace period, which you can see on the Billing & Costs > Billing Center > Overview page of the Huawei Cloud console. Huawei Cloud will automatically deduct this amount when you top up.

If you do not pay the arrears within the grace period, your resources will enter the retention period and become frozen. You cannot perform any operations on the pay-per-use resources during this period.

If you do not bring your account balance current before the retention period ends, your resource will be released and the data cannot be restored.