Updated on 2023-09-18 GMT+08:00

Yearly/Monthly Billing

If you expect to use DB instances for a longer period, you can save money by selecting yearly/monthly billing. This section describes the billing rules for yearly/monthly DB instances.

Application Scenarios

If you want to ensure DB instance stability over a certain period of time, yearly/monthly billing is a good choice for the following types of workloads:

  • Long-term workloads with stable resource requirements, such as official websites, online malls, and blogs.
  • Long-term projects, such as scientific research projects and large-scale events.
  • Workloads with predictable traffic bursts, for example, e-commerce promotions or festivals.
  • Workloads with high data security requirements

Billing Items

The following table lists billing items of yearly/monthly DB instances.

Table 1 Items billed on a yearly/monthly basis

Billing Item

Description

Billing Factor

Billing Formula

(Mandatory) DB instance

Instance specifications include vCPUs, memory, and the number of nodes.

vCPUs, memory, and number of nodes

Specifications unit price x Required duration x Number of nodes

For details about the unit price, see "Specification Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

(Mandatory) Storage

Purchased storage in advance is billed at a yearly/monthly basis.

However, if the actual usage exceeds your purchased storage, you will be billed for additional storage on a pay-per-use basis.

Storage space, which is charged based on the unified standard.

Storage space unit price x Storage space x Required duration

For details about the unit price, see "Storage Space Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

(Mandatory) Backup space

GaussDB(for MySQL) provides free backup storage equal to the amount of your purchased storage space.

After the free backup space is used up, charges are applied based on the backup space pricing details. Pricing is listed on a per-hour basis, but bills are calculated based on the actual usage duration.

Backup space, which is charged based on the unified standard.

Backup space unit price x Billed backup space x Billed duration

For details about the unit price, see "Backup Storage Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

NOTE:

The billed duration refers to the length of time the billed backup space was used for.

(Optional) EIP bandwidth

  • DB instances can be accessed through a public network, and traffic fees are generated accordingly.
  • You are not billed for traffic generated through a private network.

Bandwidth fees, traffic fees, and EIP retention fees (An EIP is required if your resources need to access a public network.)

Billed by bandwidth.

Billed by fixed bandwidth

For details, see "By Bandwidth" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

(Optional) Monitoring by Seconds

One it is enabled, pricing is listed on a per-hour basis, but bills are calculated based on the actual usage duration. GaussDB(for MySQL) provides monitoring every 60 seconds for free.

Monitoring frequency, which is charged based on the unified standard.

Unit price of Monitoring by Seconds x Billed duration

For details about the unit price, see Configuring Monitoring by Seconds.

NOTE:

Billed duration: 1s or 5s (If Monitoring by Seconds is enabled, the monitoring interval can be set to 1 second or 5 seconds.)

Suppose you want to purchase a one-month DB instance with 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of memory in the CN-Hong Kong region. The DB instance contains two nodes and 40 GB of storage. At the bottom of the Buy DB Instance page, you can view pricing details (excluding the backup space prices).

Figure 1 Price details (excluding backup space price)

The prices include:

  • Instance specifications (including vCPUs and memory)
  • Selected storage space

The backup space price is not included. For details about the backup price, see the Price calculator page or the page for confirming instance settings.

  • Price Calculator page

  • Confirming instance settings page

Billed Usage Period

A yearly/monthly DB instance is billed for the purchased duration. The billing starts when you activated or renewed the subscription, and ends at 23:59:59 of the expiry date.

For example, if you purchased a one-month DB instance on March 08, 2023, 15:50:04, the billed usage period is from March 08, 2023, 15:50:04 to April 08, 2023, 23:59:59.

Billing Examples

Suppose you purchased a yearly/monthly GaussDB(for MySQL) instance in CN-Hong Kong at 15:50:04 on March 8, 2023 with the following specifications:

  • Instance specifications: dedicated edition, 2 vCPUs, 8 GB of memory, and 2 nodes
  • Storage: 40 GB

Suppose subscription was for one month, and the subscription would be manually renewed for one month before it expired, the billing details would be as follows:

  • Billed usage period 1: March 08, 2023, 15:50:04 to April 08, 2023, 23:59:59
    • Storage: 20 GB
    • Backup space: 20 GB (which is free)
    • EIP bandwidth: 6 Mbit/s
  • Billed usage period 2: April 08, 2023, 23:59:59 to May 08, 2023, 23:59:59.
    • Storage: 20 GB
    • EIP bandwidth: 6 Mbit/s
    • Backup space: 30 GB

      Of the 50 GB of backup space, 40 GB was free and 10 GB was billed from May 1, 2023, 23:59:59 to May 08, 2023, 23:59:59 (168 hours).

    • 1-second monitoring: Billed from May 4, 2023, 23:59:59 to May 08, 2023, 23:59:59 (96 hours).

The billing items include instance specifications (vCPUs, memory, and number of nodes), storage space, backup space, EIP bandwidth, and Monitoring by Seconds.

You will be billed for all usage periods. GaussDB(for MySQL) instances are billed individually as follows:

Table 2 Formulas for billing yearly/monthly DB instances

Resource

Formula

Unit Price

Instance specifications (vCPUs and memory)

Specifications unit price x Required duration x Number of nodes

See "Specification Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

Storage space

Storage space unit price x Required duration x Storage (GB)

See "Backup Storage Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

Backup space

Backup space unit price x Billed duration x (Backup space – Storage space) (GB)

NOTE:

The billed duration refers to the length of time the billed backup space was used for.

See "Backup Storage Price" in GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

EIP bandwidth

Billed by fixed bandwidth

See EIP Pricing Details.

Enabling Monitoring by Seconds

Unit price of Monitoring by Seconds x Billed duration

For details, see Configuring Monitoring by Seconds.

Figure 2 shows the billing calculation.

The price in the figure is for reference only. The actual prices are subject to GaussDB(for MySQL) Pricing Details.

Prices are calculated to two decimal places, with the third and later decimal places are truncated rather than rounded off.

Figure 2 Billing calculation example for a yearly/monthly instance (in CN-Hong Kong)

Price Change After Specification Change

If the specifications of a yearly/monthly DB instance no longer meet your needs, you can change the specifications on the console. The system will recalculate the price and either bill or refund you the difference.

  • If you upgrade your DB instance specifications, you need to pay the difference in price.
  • If you downgrade your DB instance specifications, Huawei Cloud will refund you the difference.

You are not advised to downgrade your DB instance to a lower specification because the instance performance may be affected.

Example of upgrade pricing (without any discount): Suppose you purchased a one-month DB instance (2 vCPUs | 8 GB and 3 nodes) in CN-Hong Kong on April 8, 2023, and you changed its specifications to 4 vCPUs | 16 GB and 2 nodes on April 18, 2023. The price of the original specifications was $145 USD per month, and that for the new specifications were $290 USD per month. The price difference will be calculated as follows:

Price difference for the specification upgrade = Price for the new specifications × Remaining period x Number of nodes - Price for the original specifications × Remaining period x Number of nodes

The remaining period in the formula is the remaining days of each calendar month divided by the maximum number of days in each calendar month.

In this example, Remaining period = 12 (Remaining days in April)/30 (Maximum number of days in April) + 8 (Remaining days in May)/31 (Maximum number of days in May) = 0.6581

Cost of upgrade = $190.85 USD ($290 USD x 0.6581 x 2 – $145 USD x 0.6581 x 2).

For more information, see Pricing of a Changed Specification.

Impact of Expiration

Figure 3 shows the statuses a yearly/monthly DB instance can go through throughout its lifecycle. After a DB instance is purchased, it enters the valid period and runs normally during this period. If the DB instance is not renewed after it expires, before being deleted, it first enters a grace period and then a retention period.

Figure 3 Lifecycle of a yearly/monthly DB instance

Expiration Reminder

The system will send you a reminder (by email, SMS, or in-app message) 7 days before a yearly/monthly DB instance expires to remind you to renew the subscription.

Impact of Expiration

If your yearly/monthly DB instance is not renewed after it expires, it changes to the Expired state and enters a grace period. During the grace period, you can access the DB instance but cannot:

  • Change instance specifications
  • Change the billing mode to pay-per-use
  • Unsubscribe from the DB instance
  • Create a read replica
  • Change storage

If the yearly/monthly DB instance is not renewed after the grace period ends, its status turns to Frozen and it enters a retention period. You cannot perform any operations on the DB instance while it is in the retention period.

If the yearly/monthly DB instance is not renewed by the time the retention period ends, it will be released and data cannot be restored.

  • During the retention period, you cannot access and use your DB instance but data in the DB instance will be retained. The retention period for Huawei Cloud International website is 15 days.
  • During the grace period, you can access and use only some resources of your DB instance. The grace period for Huawei Cloud International website is 15 days.
  • For details about renewals, see Overview.