Updated on 2025-03-07 GMT+08:00

Overview

There are yearly/monthly, spot pricing, and pay-per-use billing modes.

  • Yearly/Monthly is a prepaid billing. You pay in advance for a subscription term, and in exchange, you get a discounted rate. The longer the subscription term, the bigger the discount. Yearly/Monthly billing is a good option for long-term, stable services.
  • Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing. You pay as you go and just pay for what you use. The resource usage is calculated by the second but billed every hour. This mode allows you to flexibly adjust resource usage. You neither need to prepare for resources in advance, nor end up with excessive or insufficient preset resources. Pay-per-use billing is a good option for scenarios where there are sudden traffic bursts, such as e-commerce promotions.
  • Spot pricing is a postpaid billing mode. Node (ECS) prices are adjusted gradually based on long-term trends in supply and demand for spot instance capacity. The node usage is calculated by the second but billed every hour. Spot pricing enables you to buy nodes at a discounted price while maintaining the same performance level as regular nodes. However, when inventory runs low, or the market price rises and exceeds the highest price you are willing to pay, the system automatically reclaims your nodes at short notice. Spot pricing applies when you want to drive down cloud costs.

    In a CCE cluster, only nodes (ECSs) support spot pricing.

You can select different billing modes for your clusters or nodes on the CCE console. You can, for example, select pay-per-use for your nodes running in a cluster which is billed on the yearly/monthly basis.

However, on the CCE console, the related billed items (Billed Items) cannot be billed on the yearly/monthly basis. These resources are billed on the pay-per-use basis by default if they are automatically created on the CCE console. To purchase yearly/monthly cloud service resources, go to their respective consoles. For details, see their billing descriptions.

Table 1 Differences between the billing modes of a cluster

Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly

Pay-per-use

Payment

Prepaid

Billed by the subscription term you purchase

Postpaid

Billed by your actual usage duration

Billed Usage Period

Billed by the subscription term you purchase

Calculated by the second but billed every hour

Billing for a Hibernated Cluster

A cluster billed on the yearly/monthly basis cannot be hibernated.

You do not need to pay for the management of a hibernated cluster, but the cloud service resources used in the cluster, such as EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidths will be charged in their own billing modes like yearly/monthly or pay-per-use.

NOTE:

In a hibernated cluster, the worker nodes (ECSs) will not be stopped. To stop all nodes, select Shut down all nodes in the cluster. You can also stop a node on the ECS console after hibernating a cluster. For details, see Stopping a Node.

Most nodes are no longer billed after they are stopped, excluding certain types of ECSs (ones with local disks attached, such as disk-intensive and ultra-high I/O disks). For details, see Billing.

Changing the Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly can be changed to pay-per-use only after the yearly/monthly subscription expires.

Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly.

Modifying Specifications

Supported

Supported

Application Scenarios

A cost-effective option for scenarios where the resource usage duration is predictable.

Recommended for resources expected to be used for a long-term.

Recommended when the resource demands are likely to fluctuate and you want more flexibility.

Table 2 Differences between the billing modes of a node

Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly

Pay-per-use

Spot pricing

Payment

Prepaid

Billed by the subscription term you purchase

Postpaid

Billed by your actual usage duration

Postpaid

The start price is the market price when a node was purchased. The node is then billed at the market price every hour.

Conditions for Purchase

N/A

N/A

You need to set a maximum price you are willing to pay for a spot price ECS.

  • If the maximum price is greater than or equal to the market price and the inventory resources are sufficient, the spot price ECS can be purchased and will be billed at the market price.
  • If the maximum price is less than the market price, the spot price ECS cannot be purchased.

Billed Usage Period

Billed by the subscription term you purchase

Calculated by the second but billed every hour

Calculated by the second but billed every hour

Billing for Stopped ECSs

Billing stops after the subscription expires.

Billed by the subscription term you purchase

  • After a common ECS is stopped, basic resources (vCPUs, memory, image, and GPUs) will not be billed. Other resources (such as EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidth) associated with the ECS will continue to be billed.
  • If your ECS contains local disks (such as disk-intensive or ultra-high I/O disks), basic resources (vCPUs, memory, and images) and other resources (EVS disks and bandwidth) are still billed after the ECS is stopped. To avoid any additional expenditures, delete the ECS and all its resources.

    For details, see Billing for a Stopped ECS.

  • After a common ECS is stopped, basic resources (vCPUs, memory, image, and GPUs) will not be billed. Other resources (such as EVS disks, EIPs, and bandwidth) associated with the ECS will continue to be billed.
  • If your ECS contains local disks (such as disk-intensive or ultra-high I/O disks), basic resources (vCPUs, memory, and images) and other resources (EVS disks and bandwidth) are still billed after the ECS is stopped. To avoid any additional expenditures, delete the ECS and all its resources.

    For details, see Billing for a Stopped Spot Instance.

Changing the Billing Mode

Yearly/Monthly can be changed to pay-per-use.

Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly.

Spot pricing cannot be changed to pay-per-use or yearly/monthly.

Modifying Specifications

Supported

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 voluntarily.

Application Scenarios

A cost-effective option for scenarios where the resource usage duration is predictable.

Recommended for resources expected to be used for a 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.