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Cloud Backup:Purchase resource plans

Last Updated:Apr 29, 2026

Resource plans reduce your backup costs by offering prepaid capacity at a lower rate than pay-as-you-go pricing. Choose the right plans for your backup scenarios across all regions under your Alibaba Cloud account.

How resource plans work

  • Size plans by total required capacity, not per source. For database backup on ECS instances, purchase one plan that covers the total backup capacity across all databases. For all other data sources, backup storage plans are shared across sources.

  • Plans cover every region. A single plan covers backup fees in all regions under your Alibaba Cloud account. To increase capacity, purchase additional plans--your total available capacity is the sum of all purchased plans.

  • Plans are not tied to specific backup data. They serve only as billing deductions. You do not need to reassign plans after purchasing new ones, replacing clients, or creating or deleting backup vaults.

  • Plans are account-specific. Only the purchasing Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users can use a plan. Plans cannot be transferred between accounts.

  • Resource plans deduct first, pay-as-you-go follows. Cloud Backup deducts from your resource plan balance before charging pay-as-you-go rates. Usage that exceeds your plan capacity is billed at pay-as-you-go rates. Purchase resource plans.

  • ECS Backup Essential Edition is a subscription service and does not use resource plans. Purchase subscription instances based on the number of ECS instances to protect. One-year auto-renewal is supported.

  • What resource plans do not cover: The following fees are always billed at pay-as-you-go rates and cannot be offset by resource plans: traffic fees, and ECS instance backup snapshot charges (billed by the snapshot service, including snapshot storage, destination-region storage, and cross-region replication traffic). For traffic pricing details, see the (China site) or pricing page (international site).

Identify your scenario

To choose the right resource plan, first identify which row in the table below matches your backup workload. Each row shows which resource plan types are required for that scenario.

Important
  • In the table, ✓ means the plan is required, x means not required, and Optional means the plan is needed only if you use the backup point virus scan feature in that scenario.

  • Database backup covers MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server databases on ECS instances or local servers. SAP HANA is not included.

  • Some scenarios also include pay-as-you-go billable items. For details, see Billing methods and billable items.

Scenario

Backup storage

Backup source quantity

ECS instances

SAP HANA quantity

VMware disk size

Database backup vault

Storage space for database backup

Block storage capacity on ECS to back up

Backup point virus detection

ECS File Backup Essential Edition

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

ECS file backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

ECS instance backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Self-managed SAP HANA on ECS backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

ECS database backup

x

x

x

x

x

(Purchase an additional plan if your backup data exceeds the 100 GiB free quota included with the backup vault.)

x

x

Alibaba Cloud OSS backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

Alibaba Cloud Tablestore backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Alibaba Cloud NAS backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

Alibaba Cloud CPFS backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

On-premises NAS backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

Local file backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

Optional

On-premises database backup

x

x

x

x

x

(Purchase an additional plan if your backup data exceeds the 100 GiB free quota included with the backup vault.)

x

x

On-premises VMware VM backup

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Size your resource plans

After identifying your scenario, use the table below to determine which plan types you need and how to size each one. Find your backup source type and follow the sizing guidance in the third column.

Backup source type

Resource plan type

Sizing guidance

ECS File Backup Essential Edition

Block storage capacity on ECS to back up

Purchase a plan matching the total capacity of block storage attached to the ECS instances you plan to back up, across all regions. The plan deducts fees after your usage exceeds the 100 GiB free quota. For example, if you have 500 GiB of attached block storage across all regions, purchase a 500 GiB plan.

ECS files or local files

Backup source quantity

Purchase one plan per local server or ECS instance to back up.

Backup storage

Purchase a plan with twice the capacity of your source data. For example, for 500 GiB of source data, purchase a 1 TiB backup storage plan. Use the backup capacity calculator for a more precise estimate.

ECS instance

ECS instances

Purchase one plan per ECS instance to back up.

Note

Snapshot storage for ECS instance backups, snapshot storage in the destination region, and cross-region traffic from cross-region replication are billed by the snapshot service. For snapshot billing details, see Snapshot billing.

Self-managed SAP HANA on ECS

SAP HANA quantity

Purchase one plan per SAP HANA instance to back up.

Backup storage

Purchase a plan with twice the capacity of your source data. Use the backup capacity calculator for a more precise estimate.

ECS-hosted database or on-premises database

Database backup vault

Purchase one plan per backup vault that contains the databases to back up.

Storage space for database backup

Purchase a plan with twice the combined raw data size of all databases. If you enable real-time backup, add the estimated log storage: multiply the daily log size by the retention period, then add this to the plan capacity. Purchase additional plans if usage exceeds the plan capacity.

OSS, NAS, CPFS, or Tablestore

Backup storage

Purchase a plan with twice the capacity of your source data. Use the backup capacity calculator for a more precise estimate.

On-premises VMware VM

VMware disk size

Purchase a plan matching the total provisioned size of the VMware virtual disks to back up.

Backup storage

Purchase a plan with twice the capacity of your source data. Use the backup capacity calculator for a more precise estimate.

Backup point virus detection

Backup point virus detection

Purchased capacity defines the monthly deduction quota for virus scans during the plan's validity period. Purchase a plan matching the total number of files to scan for viruses under your account.

Important

This fee applies only when using the backup point virus scan feature in: ECS File Backup (New), Local File Backup (New), OSS Backup, CPFS Backup, Alibaba Cloud NAS Backup, and On-premises NAS Backup.

Resource plan prices

For pricing, see the page for the China site, the Pricing page for the international site, or the purchase page.

Old and new resource plans

Resource plans purchased previously remain valid but can no longer be upgraded or renewed. Purchase new plans to use the latest plan types.

Old resource plan

New resource plan

Description

Rental of database backup vaults

Database backup vaults

--

Storage capacity for database backups

Storage space for database backup

--

Storage capacity for log backups

Storage space for database backup

The new plan also offsets log backup fees.

Storage capacity for backups

Backup storage

--

File backup clients

File backup source quantity

--

SAP HANA backup clients

SAP HANA quantity

--

VMware VM backup clients

VMware disk size specification

The old plan name used "clients" to refer to VMware VM disk size.