Help Center/ Object Storage Service/ Billing/ Billing Modes/ Overview
Updated on 2026-11-02 GMT+08:00
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Overview

There are two OBS billing modes: resource packages and pay-per-use.

  • Using resource packages is a prepaid billing mode. A resource package is a resource quota you buy in advance. Eligible pay-per-use usage is deducted from the resource package first. Discounts increase with longer subscription terms and larger purchase volumes. Resource packages are recommended for stable, long-term storage workloads. If your resource packages are used up or expire, you will be billed on a pay-per-use basis.
  • Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing mode. You pay as you go and just pay for what you use. The OBS usage is calculated by the second but billed every hour. Pay-per-use billing lets you scale resources based on actual business requirements without purchasing capacity in advance, helping avoid overprovisioning or underprovisioning. This option is ideal for workloads with highly variable storage demands, such as e-commerce flash sales.

Table 1 lists the differences between these billing modes.

Table 1 Differences between billing modes

Billing Mode

Resource packages

Pay-per-use

Payment

Prepaid

Resource packages are preferentially used to cover the usage.

Postpaid

Billed by the actual OBS usage

Billed Usage Period

Hour

Hour

CAUTION:

Deep Archive request charges are billed monthly (typically on the first day of each month) and settled monthly.

Billing Items

Single-AZ Standard storage

Multi-AZ Standard storage

Single-AZ Archive storage

Outbound Internet traffic

Pull traffic

Cross-region replication traffic

All OBS items can be billed on a pay-per-use basis. For details, see Pay-per-Use Billing.

Billing Mode Change

You can switch to pay-per-use billing.

The pay-per-use billing applies only when your resource packages are used up or expire. For details, see Billing Mode Changes.

You can choose to use resource packages. For details, see Billing Mode Changes.

Application Scenarios

Recommended for resources expected to be in use long-term. A cost-effective option for scenarios where the resource usage duration is predictable.

Good for short-term, bursty, or unpredictable workloads that cannot tolerate any interruptions, such as requests, data read, and image processing.

Checking the Billing Mode of an Item in a Bill

In a bill, you can check whether an item is billed on a pay-per-use basis or covered by a resource package.

  1. In the navigation pane of OBS Console, choose Buckets.
  2. In the bucket list, copy the name of the bucket whose bill you want to view.
  3. On the right of the top navigation bar, click Billing & Costs.
  4. In the navigation pane, choose Billing > Expenditure Details. On the page displayed, view all expenditure details.
  5. Choose a billing cycle and specify a dimension (Usage by default).
  6. Select Resource ID as the search criteria, enter the bucket name copied in 2, and click the icon.

    Figure 1 Searching for a bill

    You can also click on the right side to export the bill details.

  7. In the Billing Mode column of the bill, check how an item is billed, either on a pay-per-use basis or covered by a resource package.

Parent topic: Billing Modes