Billing Modes

Description

Yearly/Monthly
Yearly/Monthly is a prepaid billing mode. You pay in advance for a subscription term, and in exchange, you get a discounted rate. Yearly/Monthly billing is a good option for long-term, stable services.
Pay-per-use
Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing mode. You are billed for how long you use each ECS. You can purchase or delete such an ECS at any time.
Spot pricing
Spot pricing is a postpaid billing mode where you are billed for your service usage at a discounted price compared to pay-per-use billing.

Spot ECSs: Billed at the market price, which varies according to the changes in supply and demand. The maximum price you are willing to pay is not used as a billing basis. A higher price ensures a greater success rate for you to purchase such an ECS.

A spot ECS can be used only when your maximum price is greater than or equal to the market price and inventory resources are sufficient. When the market price exceeds the maximum price, the ECS will be reclaimed.

Spot block ECSs: Billed based on the predefined duration, which is the duration that you specify for your spot block ECS. Prices vary depending on the predefined duration.

During the predefined duration, if your spot block ECS is automatically terminated by the system, you will not be billed for the resource usage within the predefined duration. If you release your spot block ECS within the predefined duration, you will be billed based on the usage duration.

Spot ECSs and spot block ECSs may be reclaimed at any time and are not suitable for services that require high stability. When the inventory resources are insufficient, or the market price is higher than the maximum price you are willing to pay, the ECSs will be reclaimed. Therefore, back up data when using such ECSs.

The ECSs purchased on the Quick Config page support yearly/monthly and pay-per-use billing modes.

Differences among the three billing modes

Billing Mode	Yearly/Monthly	Pay-per-Use	Spot Pricing (for Spot Instances)	Spot Pricing (for Spot Block Instances)
Scenarios	A cost-effective option for scenarios where the resource usage duration is predictable. Recommended for resources expected to be in use long term.	Recommended when the resource demands are likely to fluctuate and you want more flexibility.	Ideal for stateless, cost-sensitive applications that can tolerate interruptions. Not recommended for workloads that need to run for a long time or that require high stability.	Ideal for stateless, cost-sensitive applications that can tolerate interruptions. Not recommended for workloads that need to run for a long time or that require high stability.
Payment	Prepaid Billed by the subscription term you purchase Yearly/Monthly	Postpaid Billed by usage duration. Pay-per-Use	Postpaid Billed at the market price, which varies according to the changes in supply and demand. The start price is the market price when the ECS was purchased. The ECS is then billed at the market price every hour. Spot Pricing (for Spot Instances)	Postpaid Billed based on the usage duration and predefined duration. After the ECS is released, a new line item is generated on each hour. Spot Pricing (for Spot Block Instances)
Conditions for Purchase	N/A	N/A	You need to set a maximum price you are willing to pay for a spot instance. If your maximum price is greater than or equal to the market price and the inventory resources are sufficient, you will be provisioned with a spot instance. This spot instance will be billed at the current market price. If your maximum price is less than the market price, you will not be provisioned with a spot instance.	You need to set a predefined duration and the number of durations. Prices vary depending on the predefined duration.
Billing Cycle	Billed by the subscription term you purchase	Calculated by the second but billed every hour	Calculated by the second but billed every hour	Calculated by the second but billed every hour
Billed Items	Compute resources (vCPUs and memory), images, EVS disks, and EIPs	Compute resources (vCPUs and memory), images, EVS disks, and EIPs	Compute resources (including vCPUs and memory)	Compute resources (including vCPUs and memory)
Billing for Stopped ECSs	Stopping an ECS has no impact on the billing of a yearly/monthly ECS. ECSs are billed based on the subscription term you purchase.	After a common ECS is stopped, basic resources (vCPUs, memory, and image) will not be billed. Other resources (EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidth) associated with the ECS instance will continue to be billed. After a special ECS instance is stopped, its resources will be retained and continue to be billed. NOTE: Common instances include: Non-bare-metal instances Instances without local disks Instances without FPGA cards Special instances include: Bare metal instances ECSs attached with local disks, such as disk-intensive ECSs and ultra-high I/O ECSs ECSs with FPGA cards	After a common ECS is stopped, basic resources (vCPUs, memory, image, and GPUs) will not be billed. Other resources (EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidth) associated with the ECS instance will continue to be billed. After a special ECS instance is stopped, its resources will be retained and continue to be billed. NOTE: Common instances include: Non-bare-metal instances Instances without local disks Instances without FPGA cards Special instances include: Bare metal instances ECSs attached with local disks, such as disk-intensive ECSs and ultra-high I/O ECSs ECSs with FPGA cards	The ECS will continue to be billed after it is stopped. To stop the ECS from being billed, delete it and its associated resources.
Billing Mode Change	Yearly/Monthly can be changed to pay-per-use. For details, see Yearly/Monthly to Pay-per-Use.	Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly. For details, see Pay-per-Use to Yearly/Monthly.	Spot pricing cannot be changed to pay-per-use or yearly/monthly.	Spot pricing cannot be changed to pay-per-use or yearly/monthly.
Specification change	Supported	Supported	Not supported	Not supported
Conditions for Reclaiming	N/A	N/A	The market price is higher than the maximum price you are willing to pay. The inventory resources are insufficient. You release the ECS instances voluntarily.	The inventory resources are insufficient. You release the ECS instances voluntarily.

Combined billing
In addition to the yearly/monthly, pay-per-use, and spot pricing billing modes, you can also combine billing items with the following to reduce costs.

Shared data package: is a prepaid package for EIP traffic. It is more cost-effective than postpaid traffic. A shared data package is available immediately after your purchase. It automatically offsets the traffic expenditures generated by the pay-per-use EIP bandwidth (billed by traffic) until the package is used up or expires. For details, see Shared Data Package.

Reserved instance (RI): An RI is a discount that can be applied to the use of pay-per-use ECSs. When the attributes of your pay-per-use ECSs match those of an RI, the RI's discounted rate is automatically applied to your ECSs. You can use RIs and pay-per-use ECSs together to maximize the flexibility of pay-per-use resources and save costs. For details, see Reserved Instance Overview.

FAQs

Which One Is More Cost-Effective?

The yearly/monthly billing is more cost-effective than the pay-per-use billing in a certain period of time.

Yearly/Monthly is ideal when the duration of ECS usage is predictable.

Pay-per-use is ideal when you want more flexibility and control on ECS usage. Pay-per-use ECSs can be purchased or deleted at any time.

Select a billing mode based on the application scenario.

Can I Switch Between Yearly/Monthly and Pay-per-Use Billing?

Figure 1 Changing the billing mode

Change from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly
If you need to use an ECS for a longer time, you can change its billing mode from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly to reduce costs. For details, see Changing Pay-per-Use to Yearly/Monthly.
Change from yearly/monthly to pay-per-use
If you require a more flexible billing mode, you can change the billing mode from yearly/monthly to pay-per-use.

A yearly/monthly subscription can be changed to pay-per-use before it expires. However, the change takes effect only after the subscription expires. For details, see Changing Yearly/Monthly to Pay-per-Use.

Do I Have to Pay for a Stopped Pay-per-Use ECS?

Billing rules for a stopped pay-per-use ECS:

If you have a common ECS (non-bare metal ECS and without local disks or FPGAs attached), you do not need to pay for the basic resources (vCPUs, memory, and image), but you need to pay for the system disk capacity you use as well as the associated resources (such as EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidth) based on their billing modes (yearly/monthly or pay-per-use).
If you have a special ECS (an ECS with local disks attached, FPGA-based ECS, or bare metal ECS), you still need to pay for it. To stop the ECS from being billed, delete it and its associated resources.

How Can I Stop an ECS from Being Billed?

If a pay-per-use product, such as an ECS or EVS disk is not required anymore, delete it to stop billing.
If the ECS that you are using has local disks or FPGAs attached, charges will continue to be incurred for such ECSs even after they are stopped. To stop the ECS from being billed, delete it and its associated resources.
When you purchase a yearly/monthly resource, such as a yearly/monthly ECS or EVS disk, you make a one-time up-front payment. By default, the billing automatically stops when the subscription expires. If you stop using the resource before the subscription expires, you will not be eligible for a refund.

What Should I Do If an ECS Expires?

After a yearly/monthly ECS expires, renew your subscription on the management console.

FAQs About Renewals

Why Is My Spot ECS Released?

Spot ECSs and spot block ECSs may be reclaimed at any time and are not suitable for services that require high stability. When the inventory resources are insufficient, or the maximum price you are willing to pay is lower than the market price, the ECSs will be reclaimed. Therefore, back up data when using such ECSs.

Spot ECSs: When the market price is higher than the maximum price you are willing to pay, the inventory resources are insufficient, or you release the spot ECSs, the ECSs will be reclaimed.
Spot block ECSs: When the inventory resources are insufficient, or you release the spot block ECSs, the ECSs will be reclaimed.

FAQs About Spot ECSs