Elastic GPU Service uses the same billing model as Elastic Compute Service (ECS). This topic covers billable items, billing methods, renewal options, and how to handle expiration and overdue payments.
Billing methods
Each billable resource supports one or more of the following billing methods. See Billable items for the billing methods that each resource type supports.
Subscription — Pay upfront for a fixed term (monthly or yearly). Best for stable, predictable workloads.
Pay-as-you-go — Pay by the second for what you use. Make sure that your account has sufficient balance.
Preemptible instance — Use spare capacity at a significant discount. Instances may be reclaimed when capacity is needed.
Reserved instance — Commit to a specific instance configuration to reduce pay-as-you-go costs.
Savings plan — Commit to a consistent hourly spend to reduce costs. More flexible than reserved instances.
Storage capacity unit (SCU) — A prepaid storage capacity package that offsets pay-as-you-go storage costs across multiple resource types.
Choose a billing method: For GPU workloads that run continuously, subscription offers the most predictable cost. To reduce pay-as-you-go costs, commit to usage with reserved instances or savings plans; savings plans are more flexible than reserved instances. For intermittent or experimental workloads, pay-as-you-go gives you flexibility. Use preemptible instances for fault-tolerant, interruptible jobs where cost matters most. Use SCUs to offset pay-as-you-go storage costs across multiple resource types.
For pay-as-you-go GPU-accelerated instances, enable economical mode to stop being charged for GPU resources. For details about the billing rules of economical mode, see Economical mode.
For the cost structure, cost advantages, and cost optimization suggestions of Elastic Compute Service (ECS), see Best practices for cost optimization.
Billable items
A GPU-accelerated instance includes computing resources (vCPUs, memory, and GPUs) and may include images, block storage devices, Internet bandwidth, and snapshots. The price of the same instance type can differ by region. For pricing details, see the pricing page.
| Billable item | Billing methods | Reference |
| Computing resources (vCPU, memory, and GPU) | Subscription, pay-as-you-go, preemptible instance; pay-as-you-go combined with reserved instances or savings plans | Instance types |
| Image | Subscription and pay-as-you-go; pay-as-you-go combined with reserved instances | Images |
| Block storage device | Subscription, pay-as-you-go, SCU; pay-as-you-go combined with savings plans | Block storage devices |
| Internet bandwidth | Pay-by-bandwidth and pay-by-data-transfer | Public bandwidth |
| Snapshot | Pay-as-you-go, storage capacity unit (SCU), and the Standard locally redundant storage (LRS) storage plan. | Snapshots |
Computing resources are charged based on the instance type, which bundles vCPUs, memory, and GPU resources together.
Images are classified into public images, custom images, shared images, and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images. Image fees vary by image type and usage duration. The fee for a Windows reserved instance includes the public image fee. An image must be used with an ECS instance and cannot be purchased separately.
Block storage devices include cloud disks and local disks. Cloud disk fees depend on the unit price, storage capacity, and usage duration, and the way you create a cloud disk determines which billing methods it supports. Local disks are created with specific instance types and cannot be purchased separately; their fees are included in the instance type fee.
Internet bandwidth fees depend on how the instance accesses the Internet:
Access through a static public IP address: you are charged only for outbound Internet bandwidth.
Access through elastic IP addresses (EIPs) or NAT gateways: EIPs and NAT gateways must be purchased separately and are billed on their own. For details, see EIP billing overview and Billing of Internet NAT gateways.
Snapshots are charged for storage based on snapshot size. Storage prices vary by region. Copying a snapshot incurs both snapshot storage fees and data transfer fees.
Billing method switching
| Billable item | Switch direction | Reference |
| Computing resources | Subscription → pay-as-you-go | Change from subscription to pay-as-you-go |
| Computing resources | Pay-as-you-go → subscription | Change from pay-as-you-go to subscription |
| Cloud disk | Any supported direction | Change the billing method of a cloud disk |
| Internet bandwidth (static public IP address) | Pay-by-bandwidth ↔ pay-by-data-transfer | Change the billing method for network usage |
Renewal options
Renewal applies only to subscription instances. Pay-as-you-go instances do not need to be renewed. Make sure that your account has sufficient balance. For more information, see Renew a subscription instance.
The following table describes the renewal options available for subscription instances.
| Option | When to use | Reference |
| Manual renewal | Renew an instance in the ECS console before the instance is automatically released. Renewal extends the expiration date of the instance. | Renew a subscription instance |
| Auto-renewal | Automatically renew the instance before each expiration date to prevent automatic release when you forget to renew manually. You can check whether auto-renewal is enabled on the instance list page or the renewal management page, and cancel it before the next deduction if you no longer need the instance after the current billing cycle. | Configure auto-renewal settings |
| Renewal with configuration downgrade | Downgrade the configurations of an over-provisioned instance while you renew it, within 15 days before the expiration date, or after the instance expires but before it is released. | Renew an instance and downgrade its configurations |
| Unified expiration date | Align the expiration dates of multiple subscription instances to the same day, which simplifies daily management and renewal. | Synchronize expiration dates of subscription instances |
Bills
View the bills of your ECS and Elastic GPU Service (EGS) resources in Expenses and Costs to see how the resources are consumed in detail. For more information, see Bill Query.
Expiration and overdue payments
The state of an ECS resource after expiration and the way overdue payments are handled depend on the billing method. For more information, see Overdue payments.
FAQ and support
For billing questions that arise when you purchase or use Elastic GPU Service, see FAQ about billing. To escalate an issue, submit a ticket..