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    Elastic Compute Service:Change from Subscription to Pay-as-you-go

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    Elastic Compute Service:Change from Subscription to Pay-as-you-go

    Last Updated:Nov 05, 2025

    You can change an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance from the Subscription to the Pay-as-you-go billing method. This enables partial refunds and lets you start and stop your instance on demand. To prevent service interruptions from overdue payments, ensure your account has a sufficient balance after change.

    Impacts

    • Billing method change: The billing method for the following resources associated with your instance will be changed from subscription to pay-as-you-go: the instance type, system disk, any subscription data disks purchased with the instance, and the bound static public IP address.

    • Fees and refunds: The system calculates the remaining value of your subscription based on the refund rules for changing from subscription to pay-as-you-go. The corresponding amount you have paid will be refunded to your original payment method. Any pending renewal or upgrade orders that have not yet taken effect will be fully refunded.

      Important

      The conversion voids any complimentary subscription periods granted for reasons such as ICP Filing, service failures, or data center migrations. This complimentary time has no refundable value.

    • Discount invalidated: If your original subscription instance included a promotional discount, that discount becomes invalid after the conversion. If you switch back to a subscription in the future, the same discount might not apply.

    Usage notes

    • Switching to pay-as-you-go is not supported for the following instances: expired instances, instances that use Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server public images from Alibaba Cloud, and instances that use a marketplace image.

    • You cannot perform the conversion if your available monthly refund quota is insufficient.

      The conversion process consumes your refund quota. The conversion page displays the available quota. If you have exhausted your quota for the current month, you must wait until the first day of the next month for the quota to automatically reset.

    Procedure

    Before you convert, you can estimate the pay-as-you-go costs for your current instance configuration on the Custom Launch tab in the ECS console.

    Console

    1. Go to the Instances page in the ECS console. In the upper-left corner, select the resource group and region where your target instance is located.

    2. Find the target ECS instance and click the instance ID to open the instance details page. In the All Actions menu, select Switch to Pay-as-you-go.

    3. Carefully read the Conversion Precautions that appear in the dialog box. If you agree, select the confirmation checkbox and click Confirm.

    4. After the operation is successful, return to the Instances page to verify the change. The Billing Method for the target instance changes to Pay-as-you-go.

    To convert multiple instances at once, you can select them on the Instances page and use the batch operation feature. You can convert up to 20 instances at a time.

    API

    To change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, use the ModifyInstanceChargeType API operation.