To optimize your resource costs with a savings plan, first assess your business needs. You can purchase a plan based on the recommendations calculated by Alibaba Cloud, or you can perform a manual calculation before proceeding to the buy page. When you manually calculate a purchase plan, you must look up the discounts for your specific conditions, including your budget, payment option, and resource usage duration. After you determine the savings plan type, specifications, hourly commitment, and other order details, you can proceed with the purchase. This topic describes how to calculate, assess, and purchase a savings plan that meets your business needs.
Overall purchase process
Before you purchase a savings plan, you must perform calculations and assessments. Alibaba Cloud provides two types of recommended plans based on your resource purchase history. If you prefer to perform a manual calculation, Alibaba Cloud also provides methods and examples to help you assess your options before you go to the savings plan buy page to configure and place your order.
To upgrade your savings plan, see Upgrade your current Savings Plan.
On the buy page, modifying purchase options other than the hourly commitment and duration does not change your total payment amount. However, it does affect the amount of resources that your savings plan can cover per hour. We strongly recommend using the recommended plan or performing a manual pre-purchase assessment before placing an order. If you have other discounts, the final payment amount on your bill takes precedence.
Purchase a savings plan based on recommendations
Use recommendations based on historical resource usage
To optimize costs for existing pay-as-you-go Elastic Compute Service (ECS) or Elastic Container Instance (ECI) resources: Go to the Savings Plan Purchase Scheme Calculation page to view recommended configurations.
On the Savings Plan Purchase Scheme Calculation page, select the Type, Duration, and Payment Method (payment option) parameters and click Calculate. The system automatically calculates an optimization suggestion, an hourly commitment, and the expected savings for your reference.
If the recommended plan meets your needs, click Buy.
Use recommendations based on resource requirements
For new pay-as-you-go ECS or ECI resources: Use the Savings Plan Calculator to select your desired ECS configuration and view a recommended purchase plan based on the on-screen instructions.
On the Savings Plan Calculator page, enter your desired instance configuration and click Add to List.
After you add all instance configurations, click the Savings Plan Calculator button in the upper-right corner of the page to view the recommended plan.
If the recommended plan meets your needs, click Buy.
Calculate and purchase a savings plan
If you are not satisfied with the recommendations or have a limited consumption history, you can manually calculate a suitable hourly commitment and then go to the savings plan buy page to make a purchase. The main process for manual calculation and purchase is shown in the figure.
Go to the discount query page to find discounts based on your filter criteria. Determine a purchase plan that includes the savings plan type, duration, and payment method, and note the corresponding discount.
Calculate the required hourly commitment based on the discount, your purchase details, and the official pay-as-you-go rates of the target resources.
After you complete the calculation and assessment, go to the savings plan buy page, configure the purchase options according to your plan, and enter the calculated hourly commitment.
Select an activation time for the savings plan and complete the payment. The plan becomes active at the specified time and automatically applies to your pay-as-you-go resource consumption.
When you purchase an ECS compute savings plan, if an instance type family package includes the required instances, we recommend that you select the package. The choice between a single instance type and an instance type family package does not affect the discount, but the package offers greater flexibility for changes.
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Query discounts for eligible resources
Different eligible resources receive different discount rates with a savings plan. The discount for a single eligible resource is also affected by multiple factors. When you select a savings plan type, you can query the corresponding discounts on the Discount Details page in the Expenses and Costs console. For a list of resources that a savings plan supports, see Eligible resources and deduction rules of savings plans.
The discount for a single eligible resource depends on the following factors:
Duration: A longer duration provides a greater discount. 3-year savings plans provide greater discounts than 1-year savings plans.
Payment option: A higher upfront payment provides a greater discount. The discount rates are ranked from highest to lowest for All Upfront, Partial Upfront, and No Upfront payment options.
Type of savings plan.
Instance type family of the instance to which the discount applies.
Region of the instance to which the discount applies.
During your pre-purchase assessment, remember that a higher discount for a resource means you can cover more of that resource's usage with the same hourly commitment.
Select a savings plan type
Choose an ECS compute or general-purpose savings plan to receive discounts on your ECS or ECI instances. Before you purchase a plan, refer to the following comparison table to select a savings plan type that meets your business needs.
If your business serves users across multiple regions and requires region flexibility, or if it uses various ECS instance type families, we recommend that you purchase a general-purpose savings plan.
If your resource usage is stable over a long period and you want the highest possible discount, we recommend that you purchase a 3-year, All Upfront, ECS compute savings plan.
Item | ECS compute savings plan | General-purpose savings plan | ||
Scenario | Businesses with stable resource usage, such as for system upgrades or cluster deployments. Although instances may be released and recreated, the overall usage remains relatively stable. | Businesses with stable resource usage, such as for system upgrades or cluster deployments. Although instances may be released and recreated, the overall usage remains relatively stable. | ||
Region flexibility | Not supported. | Supported. | ||
Resource flexibility | Supports discounts for pay-as-you-go ECS and ECI instances created with specified instance types, and for capacity reservations that take effect immediately. Note For more information about supported resources, see Eligible resources and deduction rules of savings plans. | In addition to the resources supported by the ECS compute savings plan, this plan also supports discounts for data disks, burstable cloud disk performance, and the vCPU and memory costs of ECI instances created in basic mode. | ||
Instance type flexibility | Allows changes between instance types in an instance family or an instance family set. | Allows changes between instance types. | ||
Select a payment option
Alibaba Cloud provides the following payment options for savings plans: All Upfront, Partial Upfront, and No Upfront. The discount provided by a savings plan varies based on the payment option. Savings plans of higher upfront payment options provide higher discounts and can be used to offset higher pay-as-you-go resource spend. Select a payment option based on your business requirements.
All Upfront: You pay the entire cost at the time of purchase. No other fees are incurred during the plan's term.
Partial Upfront: You pay a portion of the hourly commitment upfront (approximately 50%). During the plan's term, you are billed hourly for the remaining portion of the commitment.
No Upfront: You pay nothing at the time of purchase. During the plan's term, you are billed hourly for the full commitment amount. Your eligibility for the No Upfront option depends on your ECS usage history. To use the No Upfront option, contact your business manager.
Select a duration
When you purchase a general-purpose or ECS compute savings plan, set the duration of the savings plan to 1 Year or 3 Years.
Calculate the hourly commitment
The hourly commitment is the maximum amount of pay-as-you-go bills your savings plan can cover each hour. Within this limit, your pay-as-you-go bills are first discounted and then deducted. After you select the type of savings plan, you must calculate a suitable hourly commitment to maximize your cost savings. When you purchase a savings plan, you must place the order based on the calculated hourly commitment. Alibaba Cloud provides an example of how to manually calculate the hourly commitment. Refer to the example and complete the calculation based on your business needs.
Select an activation date and place the order
If you are a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, you must be granted the necessary permissions to purchase a savings plan. For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM user.
After you manually calculate the hourly commitment for your savings plan, go to the savings plan buy page to make the purchase with the corresponding configuration. The system automatically calculates the total cost based on your selected duration and hourly commitment.
When you place the order, Alibaba Cloud lets you choose to activate the plan Immediately Activate or Activated at Specified Point in Time.
Immediately Activate: The plan takes effect and starts applying deductions at the top of the hour (HH:00:00) in which you complete the payment.
Activated at Specified Point in Time: You can schedule the activation for up to one year after you place the order. You can select a specific hour for the plan to take effect. The plan starts applying deductions at the top of the selected hour (HH:00:00).