A savings plan is a discount plan that provides savings over pay-as-you-go rates in exchange for a commitment to use a consistent amount of usage for a specific period of time. After a savings plan takes effect, the savings plan applies to eligible pay-as-you-go instances to reduce Elastic Compute Service (ECS) bills. This topic describes the payment options and discounts of savings plans and provides examples on how savings plans apply.
Payment options
When you purchase a savings plan, you must select a payment option. The following table describes the payment options supported by savings plans.
Important You can receive the savings provided by savings plans only when the savings plans match pay-as-you-go instances. Before you purchase savings plans, make sure that you understand the characteristics such as types, usage scenarios, and limits of savings plans. For more information, see Overview.
| Payment option | Description | Supported savings plan type |
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| All Upfront | Full payment is required at the time of purchase, with no other costs or additional hourly charges incurred throughout the duration of the savings plan. |
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| Partial Upfront | Partial payment (approximately 50% of the full amount) is required at the time of purchase and the remainder is paid at a discounted hourly rate throughout the duration of the savings plan. |
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| No Upfront | No upfront payment is required at the time of purchase. You are billed a discounted hourly rate for every hour throughout the duration of the savings plan. Note Your ECS usage determines whether you can use the No Upfront payment option. You can submit a ticket to check whether you can use the No Upfront payment option. |
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Important For a Partial Upfront or No Upfront savings plan, hourly fees are generated since the next hour after you purchase the savings plan. For an All Upfront savings plan that is not purchased at 00:00:00 and takes effect immediately, the rest of the day on which the savings plan is purchased is included in the duration of the savings plan free of charge, and you do not need to pay for the day for the savings plan. Therefore, the fees for the rest of the day on which the savings plan is purchased is included in the total amount for a Partial Upfront or No Upfront savings plan and excluded in the total amount for an All Upfront savings plan. Savings plans with a higher upfront payment provide greater discounts.
You commit to a specific amount of hourly spend with ECS compute savings plans or general-purpose savings plans, and commit to a total spend for the entire duration with elastic savings plan. You can use the following formulas to calculate the total amount for an ECS compute savings plan or general-purpose savings plan and for an elastic savings plan:
- Formula used to calculate the total amount based on an hourly spend commitment:
Total amount = Hourly spend commitment × 24 hours × 365 days × Duration in yearsThe duration of ECS compute savings plans and general-purpose savings plans is one or three years.Important Calculate hourly spend commitments based on savings plan prices. For more information, see Purchase and apply savings plans. A savings plan price and a pay-as-you-go price are available for each type of usage. You are charged the savings plan prices on the committed usage and the regular pay-as-you-go prices on usage beyond the commitment. - Formula used to calculate the hourly spend based on a total spend commitment:
Hourly spend = Total spend commitment/Duration/30 days/24 hoursThe duration of elastic savings plans is one month.Important No hourly spend commitments are made for elastic savings plans. The total spend commitment of an elastic savings plan is not used to cover your usage if no resources match the savings plan. The hourly spend commitment that is calculated based on the total spend commitment of the elastic savings plan is provided only for reference.
For example, assume that you purchased a one-year savings plan with an hourly commitment of USD 0.1, and the total fee is calculated based on the following formula: USD 0.1 per hour × 24 hours × 365 days = USD 876. Payments based on the three payment options are made in the following ways:
- All Upfront: The full amount of USD 876 is paid upfront at the time of purchase.
- Partial Upfront: 50% of the full amount, USD 438, is paid upfront at the time of purchase. The remaining USD 438 is charged at a rate of USD 0.05 per hour on an hourly basis for the duration of the savings plan, which is one year in this case.
- No Upfront: No upfront payment is made at the time of purchase. The total fee is charged at a rate of USD 0.1 per hour on an hourly basis for the duration of the savings plan.
Discounts provided by savings plans
After a savings plan takes effect, it applies to cover your pay-as-you-go usage at the savings plan rate. Elastic savings plans provide a 10% discount off pay-as-you-go prices. General-purpose savings plans and ECS compute savings plans provide a higher discount rate than elastic savings plans. The discount provided by a savings plan vary based on the following factors:
- The duration of the savings plan. The longer the duration of a savings plan, the greater the discount. Three-year savings plans provide greater discounts compared with one-year savings plans.
- The payment option of the savings plan. Savings plans with a higher upfront payment provide greater discounts. All Upfront savings plans provide the greatest discounts, followed by Partial Upfront savings plans and then No Upfront savings plans.
- The instance family of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
- The region of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
- The operating system of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
Note Go to the Discount Details page in the Billing Management console to view more information about the discounts provided by savings plans.
Examples
The following table provides examples on how savings plans apply in common scenarios.
Note The prices in the examples are provided only for reference. The prices and discounts displayed on the Savings Plan product page prevail. For more examples, see Overview.
| Pay-as-you-go instance | Savings plan | Hourly bill |
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Note When multiple savings plans match pay-as-you-go instances, the system works out an optimal scheme on how the savings plans apply.