After you purchase and use a Savings Plan, go to the Savings Plan Overview page to view your purchased Savings Plans and their performance. Alibaba Cloud generates two reports based on how your Savings Plan is applied. Use these reports and your business needs to adjust your current Savings Plans for better cost optimization.
View Savings Plan usage
The utilization report shows whether any part of your Savings Plan is wasted. The coverage report shows how effectively your Savings Plan reduces resource costs.
Utilization report
View the utilization of one or more Savings Plans. Utilization is the percentage of your purchased Savings Plan that is applied to offset costs. Higher utilization means your Savings Plan is more effective.
Savings Plan utilization = Amount offset by Savings Plan / Total Savings Plan amount
Amount offset by Savings Plan: The pay-as-you-go bills covered by your Savings Plan after purchase.
Total Savings Plan amount: The total cost of the Savings Plan within the selected time range. This is calculated by multiplying the hourly committed spend by the number of hours in the selected time range.
For more information, see Query Savings Plan utilization.
Coverage report
Coverage shows your resource usage. View the combined coverage of all Savings Plans in your account. Higher coverage means your Savings Plan is more effective at reducing your costs.
Savings Plan coverage = Amount offset by Savings Plan / Total spend on Savings Plan-eligible resources
Amount offset by Savings Plan: The pay-as-you-go bills covered by your Savings Plan after purchase.
Total spend on Savings Plan-eligible resources: The total Savings Plan amount plus the amount billed at the standard pay-as-you-go rate for usage that exceeds the plan's commitment.
The coverage shown under Expenses and Costs includes all products that support Savings Plans. To view coverage for a single product, filter the report by that product.
For more information, see Query Savings Plan coverage.
Interpreting utilization and coverage reports
High utilization, high coverage: This means your purchased Savings Plan commitment is appropriate. No commitment is wasted, and you are effectively saving costs.
High utilization, low coverage: This means there is more room for savings. Consider increasing your Savings Plan's committed spend to reduce costs further.
Low utilization, low coverage: This means you are missing significant potential savings. Your purchased plan is covering a small portion of your usage, leading to higher costs. Adjust your usage to maximize how much of your pay-as-you-go bills are covered by the Savings Plan.
Low utilization, high coverage: This means there is little room for additional savings. Wait for the current Savings Plan to expire before re-evaluating your discount product purchases.
Savings Plan usage optimization
To use Savings Plans more effectively and reduce resource costs, regularly review your reports. Adjust your Savings Plan configurations based on actual usage to maintain high utilization and coverage.
If business growth causes your ECS usage to exceed expectations, or if business changes mean your current plan no longer provides enough coverage, your existing plan may not be effective. In this case, purchase a new Savings Plan or upgrade your current one to increase coverage.
Purchase a new Savings Plan
Alibaba Cloud lets you have multiple Savings Plans. Use your coverage report to decide whether to purchase a new plan to increase coverage. Multiple Savings Plans are applied in a specific offset order. Before you purchase, see Offset priority of multiple Savings Plans.
Go to the Savings Plan Purchase Recommendation page to view recommended configurations. On the Savings Plan Purchase Plan Calculation page, enter the Savings Plan type, duration, and payment type, and then click Calculate. The system automatically calculates optimization suggestions, the hourly committed spend, and the expected savings. If the recommended plan meets your needs, click Purchase.
Upgrade your current Savings Plan
If you do not want to have multiple Savings Plans, you can upgrade your current plan. Go to the Savings Plan Purchase Recommendation page. Use the purchase recommendations based on your current resources to upgrade your plan. Increasing your committed spend can give you a larger discount.
Upgrade rules
The upgrade rules are as follows:
Effective period: The upgrade takes effect in the next billing cycle. For example, if you start and pay for an upgrade at 15:30, the system starts calculating the price difference at 16:00. At 16:00, the system automatically changes the committed spend to the higher amount. The expiration date of the original Savings Plan remains the same.
Upgrade payment amount: (Hourly committed spend after upgrade × Remaining hours − Hourly committed spend before upgrade × Remaining hours) × Upfront payment ratio.
Manually upgrade a Savings Plan
Log on to the Expenses and Costs.
On the Overview tab, find the Savings Plan you want to upgrade and click Upgrade in the Actions column.
On the Savings Plan | Upgrade/Downgrade page, enter the committed spend, click Purchase, and complete the payment as prompted.