You can configure auto-renewal when you purchase a dedicated host or an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. You can also manually renew the dedicated host or ECS instance later. This topic describes how to renew a dedicated host and an ECS instance.

Background information

After a dedicated host expires, it is automatically shut down. The dedicated host enters the Stopped state, which lasts for 15 days. During this period, your data on the dedicated host is retained. To start the dedicated host, you only need to renew it. If you do not renew the dedicated host within 15 days, it is released and your data cannot be retrieved.

For information about expiration or overdue payments, see Expiration and overdue payments.

Renew a dedicated host

The following table describes the renewal methods of a dedicated host.
Renewal method Description References
Manual renewal After a billing cycle expires, you can manually renew your subscription. Otherwise, your dedicated host is stopped or released and your business continuity is affected. Manually renew a dedicated host
Auto-renewal

You can enable the auto-renewal feature when you purchase a subscription dedicated host. If you enable auto-renewal for a dedicated host, fees are deducted from your credit card or PayPal account on the expiration date. If fees fail to be deducted, the system attempts to deduct the fees 6 days and 14 days after the expiration date until the renewal is successful. For more information, see Configure auto-renewal.

Configure auto-renewal

Renew an ECS instance on a dedicated host

The renewal feature is applicable only to subscription ECS instances. Pay-as-you-go instances do not need to be renewed, but you must make sure that you have a sufficient balance within your Alibaba Cloud account to settle your bills. For more information, see Renewal overview.
Important When you renew a subscription ECS instance, the expiration time of the instance cannot be later than that of the dedicated host. If the auto-renewal time specified for an ECS instance is later than that of the dedicated host, the auto-renewal settings fail to take effect.
The following table describes features related to the renewal of a subscription instance.
Feature Scenarios Operation
Manual renewal You can manually renew instances in the ECS console at any time before they are automatically released. Manually renew an instance
Auto-renewal
  • Enable auto-renewal: If you enable the auto-renewal feature for an instance, the instance is automatically renewed before it expires. You can enable this feature for instances to prevent them from being automatically released.
  • View the auto-renewal status: On the Instances page or Renewal page, you can check whether the auto-renewal feature is enabled for the instance.
  • Disable auto-renewal: If you no longer need to use the auto-renewal feature for an instance after the current billing cycle of the instance ends, you can disable the auto-renewal feature before fees are automatically deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account.
Renewal and configuration downgrade If the configurations of an instance exceed your requirements, you can renew the instance and downgrade the configurations 15 days before the instance expires. Downgrade the configurations of an instance during renewal
Synchronization of expiration dates If you have multiple subscription instances that expire on different dates, you can synchronize the expiration dates to the same day of the month to simplify management and renewal. Synchronize the expiration dates of subscription instances