PolarDB provides storage plans to reduce the storage costs of your clusters.

Storage plans

The storage capacity of PolarDB is automatically scaled based on the amount of stored data. You do not need to manually specify the storage capacity. Fees are charged only for the used storage. The storage of each PolarDB cluster is charged based on the data volume and retention period. If you require a larger storage capacity, such as 1,000 GB or more, we recommend that you purchase storage plans to reduce costs.

A storage plan is a subscription-based resource plan provided by PolarDB. You can use storage plans to offset storage fees and fees for level-1 backups that exceed the free quota. Storage plans can help you reduce costs for storage resources and level-1 backups. A storage plan of larger capacity and longer duration delivers higher cost reduction.

For example, a monthly storage plan costs 10% to 45% less than using the pay-as-you-go method for the storage of a cluster. The longer the duration of the storage plan, the higher the cost reduction. If you purchase annual storage plans, you can save an additional 15% off the monthly price.

  • Purchase storage plans

    For more information about storage plans and how to purchase storage plans, see Purchase a storage plan.

    Note
    • Storage plans can be used by all PolarDB clusters in the regions that are specified by the Plan Type parameter. You can select Chinese Mainland or Outside Chinese Mainland.
    • If the capacity of your storage plan is insufficient, you can Upgrade a storage plan. However, storage plans that are already purchased cannot be downgraded.
    • If the amount of used storage exceeds the capacity of your storage plan, you are charged for the additional storage resources based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.

      For example, assume that you have created three PolarDB clusters that each requires 400 GB of storage. If you purchase a storage plan of 1,000 GB and these clusters share the storage plan, the storage resources used in excess of 200 GB are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information, see View the database storage usage.

  • Apply storage plans
    PolarDB provides the following billing methods for compute nodes: pay-as-you-go and subscription. The pricing of clusters varies based on the billing method used. For more information about how to apply storage plans to compute nodes that use these billing methods, see the following topics:
  • Manage storage plans