This topic provides an overview of the billing methods and billable items of ApsaraDB RDS.
Billing rules
Subscription
Definition: This billing method requires you to pay an upfront fee before you use the resources. Longer subscription durations offer more savings.
Scenarios: You have long-running, predictable workloads.
Billing method change: You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. For more information, see Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, and Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Specification changes: The price for a subscription RDS instance before and after a specification change may be different. You may need to pay the price difference or receive a refund. For more information, see Specification changes.
Renewal: You need to renew an expired subscription RDS instance within a specific period of time if you want to continue using it. After this period of time, instance resources such as CPU cores, memory, and disks are released, and the data stored in the RDS instance is deleted. For more information, see Renewal policy.
Pay-as-you-go
Definition: This billing method allows you to use resources before you pay for them. After you create a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, fees for the instance are calculated based on the resources that you use and are automatically deducted from the balance of your Alibaba Cloud account every hour.
Scenarios: You have short-term workloads.
Billing method change: You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription. For more information, see Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription, and Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.
Specification changes: Pay-as-you-go RDS instances are billed on an hourly basis. If you change the specifications of a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you are billed based on the price of the new specifications. For more information, see Specification changes.
If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.
Serverless
Definition: A serverless RDS instance is not billed based on instance types, but based on the actual amount of resources used each hour. Resources are measured in RDS Capacity Units (RCUs). For more information, see Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances, Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances, and Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances.
Scenarios: You have intermittent or unpredictable workloads.
Billing method change: You cannot change the billing method of a serverless RDS instance.
Specification changes: The specifications of a serverless RDS instance cannot be manually changed. During the use of the instance, the system automatically scales the RCUs to suit your workloads.
If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.
Basic billable items
The basic fee of an RDS instance consists of the fee for computing resources and the fee for storage resources.
Billing of computing resources
Billable item | Description | Billing method |
Instance type | You are charged based on the instance type. The instance type determines the number of CPU cores and the memory capacity that are provisioned. |
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RCU | RCUs are the computing resources of serverless RDS instances. The performance of an RCU is equivalent to that of an RDS instance that runs RDS Basic Edition and has 2 GB of memory. | Serverless |
Billing of storage resources
Billable item | Description | Billing method |
Storage capacity | You are charged for the storage capacity that you purchase for the primary, secondary, read-only, and disaster recovery RDS instances in your database system. The price varies based on the storage type that you select. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page. |
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In addition to the preceding types of billable items, ApsaraDB RDS also provides value-added options. For more information, see Billable items, billing methods, and pricing.
Price inquiry: Go to the ApsaraDB RDS buy page. Configure the basic parameters, and then check the price and applied discounts in the lower-right corner of the page.
If you set the Billing Method parameter to Subscription, you must configure the Subscription Duration parameter. Longer subscription durations provide more savings.
Billing details
If you want to view the billing details of an RDS instance, follow the instructions provided in View your bills. The details describe the costs categorized by different billable items, such as instance type, performance monitoring, and SQL audit.