Pay-per-Use Billing

Pay-per-use billing means you pay nothing up front and are not tied into any contract or commitment. This section describes the billing rules for pay-per-use SFS file systems.

Application Scenarios

Pay-per-use billing is good for short-term, bursty, or unpredictable workloads that cannot tolerate any interruptions, such as applications for e-commerce flash sales, temporary testing, and scientific computing.

Billed Items

SFS Capacity-Oriented and General Purpose File System

Pay-per-use billing is preset by default. You can purchase an SFS Capacity-Oriented file system for free and pay only for the used storage space based on for how long you use the file system. You will be billed for the file system by the hour, and there is no minimum cost. Any usage period of less than an hour is rounded up to an hour.

**Table 1** SFS Capacity-Oriented and General Purpose File System billing model
Billed Item	Description
Storage space	Storage space used by the file system

SFS Turbo file systems

Pay-per-use billing is preset by default. You will be billed for the storage capacity based on for how long you use the SFS Turbo file system. The billing starts right after you create a file system. The file system usage is billed by the hour, and any usage period of less than an hour is rounded up to an hour.

**Table 2** SFS Turbo billing model
Billed Item	Billing Factor
SFS Turbo file system	Purchased capacity

Billed Usage Period

The minimum billed usage period of a file system is an hour regardless of when you purchase it. For example, if you purchased a pay-per-use file system at sometime between 18:00:00 to 19:00:00, the usage period of an hour would be billed (18:00:00 to 19:00:00).

Billing Formula

Storage price = Unit price per GB x Storage capacity x Usage period

Billing Examples

Suppose you purchased a 40 MB/s/TiB SFS Turbo file system (500 GB capacity). In a region that charges $0.45 USD/GB-month, you would be billed $225 USD ($0.45 USD/GB-month x 500 GB x 1 month).

Price Change After Specification Change

If you change the specifications of a pay-per-use SFS file system, 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 file system specifications within a given hour, multiple records will be generated. Different records record the billing for different specifications.

For example, if you purchased a pay-per-use, 40 MB/s/TiB SFS Turbo file system (500 GB capacity) at 09:00:00 and expanded the file system capacity to 600 GB at 09:30:00, the following items would be billed:

500 GB file system from 09:00:00 to 09:30:00
600 GB file system from 09:30:00 to 10:00:00

Impact of Arrears

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

Figure 1 Life cycle of a pay-per-use SFS file system

Arrears Reminder

The system will bill you for pay-per-use resources after each billing cycle ends. If your Huawei account goes into arrears, we will notify you by email, SMS, or in-app message.

Arrears Impact

If your account is insufficient to pay your amount due, your account goes into arrears, and your pay-per-use file systems enter a grace period. You are still responsible for expenditures generated during the grace period. You can view the charges on the Billing & Costs > Overview page and pay any past due balance as needed.

If you do not bring your account balance current before the grace period expires, the file systems turn to Frozen and enter a retention period. You cannot perform any operations on pay-per-use file systems in the Frozen status.

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