When you create an ECS instance from a paid image, you may incur software license fees. This topic describes the billing rules for images, provides pricing examples, and explains how to query billing details.
Cost components
Operating system license fees apply when you create an ECS instance from a paid commercial image or from a custom image derived from a paid commercial image.
Using custom images may incur fees for other products, such as snapshots. For more information, see Billing for image-related operations.
If you are still charged for an image after releasing an instance, ensure that you have also released all related billable resources. For more information, see Stop billing for images.
The following table describes the scenarios in which you are charged operating system license fees.
Image type | Description |
Public image | You are charged an operating system license fee if you select a public image that uses a Red Hat, SUSE or Windows operating system. For Windows, the fee applies only to instances created in the China (Hong Kong) region or regions outside the Chinese mainland. |
Custom image |
|
Shared image | When you create an ECS instance from an image whose ultimate source is a paid operating system, you are charged an operating system license fee. |
Community image | |
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image | Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are provided by independent software vendors (ISVs). When you use a paid Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image to create an instance, you are charged a software application license fee in addition to the operating system license fee. For pricing details, refer to the image purchase page in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. |
Billing methods
The billing duration for an image's software license fee matches the billing duration of the ECS instance. The following table describes how image software license fees are charged for different instance billing methods.
Billing rule | Subscription | Pay-as-you-go |
Instance billing method | Subscription | Pay-as-you-go, spot instance |
Billing duration | By default, the billing duration matches the subscription period. If you unsubscribe early, billing starts when the subscription ECS instance using the paid image is created and ends when the instance is released. | Billing is metered by the second, starting when the instance is created and ending when it is released or its operating system is changed. |
License prices
Windows
If you use a Windows Server operating system in the China (Hong Kong) region or a region outside the Chinese mainland, you are charged an operating system license fee. The specific fee is displayed on the instance creation page.
Red Hat
Pricing for Red Hat images is tiered based on the number of vCPUs in the instance. The price is calculated using the components shown below:
The following table lists the tiered unit prices per vCPU for different billing methods.
Image type | vCPUs | Pay-as-you-go price (USD/vCPU/hour) | Monthly price (USD/vCPU/month) | Annual price (USD/vCPU/year) |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) | 1 to 8 vCPUs | 0.015 | 10.15 | 105.54 |
9 to 127 vCPUs | 0.011 | 7.61 | 79.16 | |
128 or more vCPUs | 0.01 | 6.60 | 68.60 | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP with HA and US (RHEL for SAP) | 1 to 8 vCPUs | 0.023 | 15.26 | 158.72 |
9 to 127 vCPUs | 0.017 | 11.45 | 119.04 | |
128 or more vCPUs | 0.016 | 9.92 | 103.17 |
The subscription prices for Red Hat products on Alibaba Cloud, including RHEL and RHEL for SAP, were updated on July 31, 2024 to align with Red Hat's new pricing model. As a result, the fees for your ECS instances that use RHEL or RHEL for SAP images have changed. For more information, see Announcement on Red Hat Product Subscription Price Changes on Alibaba Cloud.
After June 30, 2024, RHEL 7 enters its Extended Life (ELS) phase. We recommend that you upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8. If you must continue to use RHEL 7, you can purchase an RHEL 7 ELS Add-on subscription to continue receiving security updates and bug fixes. To purchase the add-on, submit a ticket for consultation. For more information and pricing details of the RHEL 7 ELS Add-on subscription, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems.
SUSE
Pricing for SUSE images is tiered based on the number of vCPUs in the instance. Unlike Red Hat images, SUSE pricing is a flat rate for each vCPU tier and is not calculated on a per-vCPU basis. The price is calculated using the components shown below:
The following table lists the tiered unit prices for different billing methods.
Image type | vCPUs | Pay-as-you-go price (USD/hour) | Monthly price (USD/month) | Annual price (USD/year) |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | 1 to 2 vCPUs | 0.064 | 24.46 | 235.23 |
3 to 4 vCPUs | 0.127 | 50.15 | 471.54 | |
5 or more vCPUs | 0.152 | 58.62 | 564.60 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP | 1 to 4 vCPUs | 0.387 | 186.07 | 1898.69 |
5 or more vCPUs | 0.466 | 224.17 | 2285.92 |
Billing example
Suppose you create a 32-vCPU ECS instance using a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) public image. The following tables show the image software license fee calculations for subscription and pay-as-you-go instances over 24 hours, 3 months, and 1 year.
The prices in this example are for reference only. The prices displayed on the buy page prevail.
For a 32-vCPU ECS instance, the applicable unit prices from the License prices section are as follows:
vCPUs | Pay-as-you-go price (USD/vCPU/hour) | Monthly price (USD/vCPU/month) | Annual price (USD/vCPU/year) |
9 to 127 vCPUs | 0.011 | 7.61 | 79.16 |
Based on the billing formula, the costs are calculated as follows:
Duration | Subscription | Pay-as-you-go |
24 hours | This scenario does not apply to subscription instances because their minimum billing duration is one month, and both instance and image fees are prepaid. | Fee for 24 hours of use = USD 0.011/vCPU/hour × 32 vCPUs × 24 hours = USD 8.448 |
3 months (91 days) | Fee for a 3-month subscription = USD 7.61/vCPU/month × 32 vCPUs × 3 months = USD 730.56 | Fee for 91 days of use = USD 0.011/vCPU/hour × 32 vCPUs × 2,184 hours= USD 768.768 |
1 year (365 days) | Fee for a 1-year subscription = USD 79.16/vCPU/year × 32 vCPUs × 1 year = USD 2,533.12 | Fee for 365 days of use = USD 0.011/vCPU/hour × 32 vCPUs × 8,760 hours = USD 3,083.52 |
Related costs
In addition to the software license fee for the image itself, using custom image features may incur extra fees for snapshot storage, as well as Object Storage Service (OSS) storage, traffic, and API requests. Snapshots are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis by default. For more information, see Snapshot billing. For OSS billing details, see Billing overview.
When you create a custom image from an instance, a snapshot is created by default. Retaining the custom image incurs snapshot storage fees.
When you copy a custom image, the resulting copy incurs snapshot storage fees.
When you import a local image to Alibaba Cloud to create a custom image, a snapshot is created by default, which incurs snapshot storage fees. You are also charged for OSS storage, traffic, and API request fees.
When you export an image file, it is stored in an OSS bucket. This operation incurs fees for OSS storage, traffic, and API requests.
Cost optimization
To optimize costs for operating system license fees, you can enable economical mode or purchase Alibaba Cloud discount plans to offset the costs.
Economical mode
For pay-as-you-go or spot instances, you can stop the instance in economical mode to save on resource costs while retaining the instance's data and configuration. When an instance is stopped in economical mode, you are no longer charged image software license fees. However, other resources, such as cloud disks (system and data disks), elastic IP addresses, and snapshots, continue to be billed. For detailed billing rules about economical mode, see Economical mode.
Use discount plans
If you use a public image with the Windows Server operating system when you create an instance in the China (Hong Kong) region or a region outside the Chinese mainland, you can use the following discount plans to offset the operating system license fees for pay-as-you-go instances:
Purchase a savings plan: Commit to a certain amount of hourly spend over a period in exchange for a lower discounted rate on resource usage. For more information about savings plans and how to purchase them, see What is a savings plan?.
Purchase a reserved instance: You can purchase a Windows-specific reserved instance in the corresponding region to offset image software license fees.
Expiration and overdue payments
Images on subscription and pay-as-you-go instances are handled differently upon expiration or if payments become overdue.
Subscription: If auto-renewal is not enabled for the instance, the image becomes unavailable upon expiration. For more information, see Subscription.
Pay-as-you-go: If your account has an overdue payment, the availability of the image may be affected. For more information, see Overdue payments.
Billing details
To learn how to view the details of your billable items, see View your billing details.
Unsubscription
Unsubscription is available only for prepaid resources, such as subscription instances and resource plans. If you want to terminate a service, Alibaba Cloud reclaims the resource and issues a refund according to the unsubscription rules.
To unsubscribe from a subscription instance and its associated resources and to learn about refunds, see Unsubscribe from resources.
Stop billing
Scenario 1: You have created an instance from a custom image but no longer need the image. You can delete the custom image and its associated snapshots to save costs.
Scenario 2: You have created an ECS instance with a paid image and want to save on image costs. You can replace the operating system with a free one. The license fee for an image is tied to the lifecycle of the ECS instance. When you release the ECS instance, billing for the image stops.
References
For answers to frequently asked questions about image billing, see FAQ about image fees.
For more information about image types and usage, see Images overview.
When you use ECS, you should follow the lifecycle plans that are published by the official vendors of your images' operating systems. This helps you update to stable software versions in a timely manner. For more information, see Maintenance support for operating systems.
When an operating system is no longer supported due to its lifecycle, third-party support policies, or open source project evolution, you can migrate or upgrade it to a stable version to continue receiving maintenance and technical support while preserving the data on your ECS instance's system disk. For instructions, see OS migration.