This topic describes how to change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. After you create a subscription instance, you can change its billing method to pay-as-you-go if you want to pay for only the actual usage of your resources. After the change, make sure that you have sufficient funds in your account. Otherwise, overdue payments will affect the running of your services.

Prerequisites

  • The instance for which you want to change the billing method is in the Running or Stopped state.
  • The availability of this feature is dynamically determined based on your ECS usage.

Background information

The following content shows the billing methods of related resources after the change:
  • The billing method of the following resources is changed to pay-as-you-go:
    • The instance
    • The system disk
    • Data disks attached to the instance
  • The billing method for network usage remains unchanged.
  • After the billing method is changed, the subscription duration that was offered for reasons such as the ICP filing, failure, or migration from on-premises data centers is automatically invalidated.
Note If the No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) feature is enabled and the instance is in the Stopped state before the change, the instance will not automatically enter the No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) state after its billing method is changed to pay-as-you-go. You must manually restart the instance and then stop it for the instance to enter the No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) state.
The following content lists the refund rules for changing the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go:
  • A refund generated from the billing method change will consume the refund quota. If your account has reached the refund quota, you cannot apply for another refund until the refund record is cleared on the first day of next month. For more information about the refund quota, see Limits.

    The refund amount resulting from the billing method change can be calculated based on the number of vCPUs and the remaining hours in the current billing cycle. Example: 1 refund unit = 1 vCPU × 1 hour.

    Assume that you have purchased a subscription instance equipped with four vCPUs for six months. Four months later, you change the billing method to pay-as-you-go. In this case, the refund amount for this instance is calculated based on the following formula: 4 (vCPUs) × 60 (remaining days) × 24 (hours/day) = 5760 (refund units).

  • If the instance involves renewal or upgrade orders that have not taken effect, a full refund is made. If the orders have already taken effect, only a partial refund is made.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. Choose one of the following methods to change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go:
    • Change the billing method of a single instance: Find the target instance, choose More > Configuration Change > Switch to Pay-As-You-Go in the Actions column.
    • Change the billing method of multiple instances: Select the instances and choose More > Configuration Change > Switch to Pay-As-You-Go in the lower part of the page.
  5. Read the notes. Read and select ECS Service Terms and then click Switch.

Result

After the billing method is changed, you can go to the ECS console to view the billing method of the instance:
  • On the Instances page, the billing method of the instance has been changed to Pay-As-You-Go in the Billing Method column.
  • Click the instance ID to go to the Instance Details page. In the left-side navigation pane, click Disks. The billing method of the system disk and data disks (if any) is changed to Pay-As-You-Go in the Billing Method column.

What to do next

You can set the auto-release time for the instance to automatically release when you no longer need the instance to stop it from incurring costs. For more information, see Release an instance.