This topic describes how to change the billing method of a disk when the current billing method of the disk does not meet your requirements. The billing methods of data disks attached to subscription instances can be separately changed. The billing methods of system disks and data disks attached to pay-as-you-go instances can be changed only together with that of the instances.

Prerequisites

The disk is attached to an instance, and the instance is in the Running or Stopped state.

Background information

The following limits apply when you change the billing method of a disk:
  • Alibaba Cloud determines whether the billing method of your instance can be changed based on your calculated instance usage. You can perform the operations described in this topic to go to the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) console to check whether the corresponding entry point exists. If the corresponding entry point does not exist, the billing method of the instance cannot be changed.
  • You must wait at least 5 minutes between two consecutive billing method changes.

Change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go

This section describes how to change the billing method of a data disk attached to a subscription instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. For information about how to change the billing methods of system disks, see Change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.

Note You may receive a refund when you use the configuration downgrade feature to change the billing method of a data disk from subscription to pay-as-you-go. The refund amount is the difference between the price of the new configurations and the remaining price of the original configurations before the configuration downgrade.
  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  3. Choose one of the following methods to change the billing methods of your disks:
    • If you want to change the billing methods of multiple data disks that are attached to the same instance, we recommend that you perform the operations on the Instances page.
      1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
      2. Find the instance and click Upgrade/Downgrade in the Actions column.
      3. In the Upgrade/Downgrade Wizard dialog box, choose Downgrade > Disk Billing Method to Pay-as-you-go, and click Continue.
      4. Select the subscription data disks whose billing methods you want to change.
    • If you want to change the billing method of a specific data disk, we recommend that you perform the operations on the Disks page.
      1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Storage & Snapshots > Disks.
      2. Find the data disk and choose More > Switch to Pay-As-You-Go in the Actions column.
  4. Verify the refund amount, read and select ECS Service Terms, and then click Downgrade Now.
    By default, after the billing method of a disk is changed to pay-as-you-go, the disk is retained after the instance to which the disk is attached is released. You can configure whether the disk is released together with the instance to which the disk is attached in the ECS console. For more information, see Release a disk.

Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription

This section describes how to change the billing method of a data disk attached to a subscription instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription. For information about how to change the billing methods of system disks and pay-as-you-go data disks attached to pay-as-you-go instances, see Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.

  1. Log on to the ECS console.
  2. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  3. Choose one of the following methods to change the billing methods of your disks:
    • If you want to change the billing methods of multiple data disks that are attached to the same instance, we recommend that you perform the operations on the Instances page.
      1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Instances & Images > Instances.
      2. Find the instance and click Upgrade/Downgrade in the Actions column.
      3. In the Upgrade/Downgrade Wizard dialog box, select Upgrade and then click Continue.
      4. Select the pay-as-you-go data disks whose billing method you want to change.
    • If you want to change the billing method of a specific data disk, we recommend that you perform the operations on the Disks page.
      1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Storage & Snapshots > Disks.
      2. Find the data disk and choose More > Switch to Subscription in the Actions column.
  4. Read the notes, read and select ECS Service Terms, and then click Create Order.
  5. Complete the payment and confirm that the billing method of the disk is changed to subscription.