Subscription is a billing method that allows you to pay in advance for the use of resources. This billing method allows you to reserve resources at discounted rates and reduce costs. This topic describes the billing rules for subscription Elastic Compute Service (ECS) resources.

Overview

Before you can use subscription resources, you must create a subscription instance. When you create a subscription instance on the Custom Launch or Quick Launch tab in the ECS console, supported subscription durations are displayed on the instance buy page.

When you create a subscription instance, subscription resources are billed separately to generate a total price. Subscription resources can be used only after the total price has been paid. For more information about how prices are calculated, see Billing.

After a subscription instance is created, you can change its configurations or extend the subscription cloud disks that are attached to the instance. For more information, see Overview of instance configuration changes and Overview.

After a subscription instance expires, you can renew the instance to continue to use it. For more information, see Renewal overview.

Applicable resources

The combination of computing resources (vCPUs and memory), Elastic Block Storage (EBS) devices, an image, and a network type uniquely determines the service form of an ECS instance. The following table describes the ECS resources that support the subscription billing method.
Resource Description
Computing resource (vCPUs and memory) When you create an instance, you must specify whether to use the subscription billing method.
Image The image that you select when you create a subscription instance also uses the subscription billing method.
Cloud disk Cloud disks created along with a subscription instance also use the subscription billing method.

After a subscription instance is created, you can create subscription disks for the instance or attach pay-as-you-go disks that were separately created to the instance. For more information, see Create a subscription disk and Attach a data disk.

Public bandwidth (pay-by-bandwidth) If you select pay-by-bandwidth as the billing method for network usage when you create a subscription instance, the amount of public bandwidth allocated to the instance is also billed on a subscription basis. For more information, see Public bandwidth.
You can view the total price of the preceding resources in the lower part of the instance buy page in the ECS console, as shown in the following figure.
  • Total indicates the total price of the following resources:
    • Computing resources (vCPUs and memory)
    • Cloud disks
    • Public bandwidth (pay-by-bandwidth)
      Note If you select pay-by-traffic as the billing method for network usage, the total price does not include the price of public bandwidth. For more information, see Public bandwidth.
  • Marketplace Image Fees: If you selected a paid Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image, Marketplace Image Fees are displayed.

You can use the ECS TCO Calculator to analyze your cloud migration costs.

Billing

The billing cycle of a subscription instance is the time commitment you made when you purchased the instance (based on UTC+8:00). The billing cycle begins at the time when the subscription instance is purchased or renewed (accurate to the second) and ends at 00:00:00 on the day after the expiration date.
Note The billing cycles of subscription resources are in the unit of calendar years or months.
For example, assume that you created a one-month subscription instance at 13:00:00 on August 9, 2019 and that the instance had computing resources (vCPUs and memory), an image, and a cloud disk (system disk). Assume that you manually renewed the instance for another one month. The following billing cycles apply:
  • The first billing cycle is from 13:00:00 on August 9, 2019 to 00:00:00 on September 10, 2019.
  • The second billing cycle is from 00:00:00 on September 10, 2019 to 00:00:00 on October 10, 2019.
Resources are billed separately. You must pay for the resources before you can use them. You can calculate the total price for each billing cycle based on your selected configurations. The following table describes the formulas used to calculate the fee of each resource.
Resource Formula Unit price
Computing resource (vCPUs and memory) Unit price of an instance type × Subscription duration For more information, see the Instance section on the Pricing tab of the Elastic Compute Service product page.
Note Local disks are tied to specific instance types. The prices of local disks are included in the prices of corresponding instance types.
Image Unit price of an image × Subscription duration You can view the price on the instance buy page in the ECS console or in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.
Cloud disk (system disk) Unit price of a disk × Disk capacity × Subscription duration For more information, see System Cloud Disk Fee in the Storage section on the Pricing tab of the Elastic Compute Service product page.
Note The prices for pay-as-you-go disks displayed on the page are prices in USD per 100 GiB-hour, divided by 100 to obtain the unit prices.
Cloud disk (data disk) Unit price of a disk × Disk capacity × Subscription duration For more information, see Data Cloud Disk Fee in the Storage section on the Pricing tab of the Elastic Compute Service product page.
Note The prices for pay-as-you-go disks displayed on the page are prices in USD per 100 GiB-hour, divided by 100 to obtain the unit prices.
Public bandwidth (pay-by-bandwidth) Unit price of bandwidth × Bandwidth value × Subscription duration

For more information, see Public bandwidth.

A tiered billing model is used for bandwidth. You can select a bandwidth value on the instance buy page to view the fee schedule.
For example, assume that you created a three-month subscription instance in the China (Qingdao) region. The following figure shows the process of calculating the instance price.
Note The prices in the following figure are for reference only. For more information about actual prices, visit the URLs in the preceding table.

Changes in resource states after a subscription instance expires

Notice After a subscription instance expires, it may be stopped. The system sends you notifications for renewing the instance. Renew your instance at your earliest convenience to ensure service availability. If you have other questions, submit a ticket.
If the auto-renewal feature is not enabled for a subscription instance, the instance stops providing services at some point from 00:00:00 on the expiration date to 00:00:00 the next day.
Note You cannot enable the auto-renewal feature for an expired subscription instance.
The following table describes the resource states for an expired subscription instance.
Resource Within 15 days after the instance expires More than 15 days after the instance expires
Computing resource (vCPUs and memory) The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are retained, but the instance stops providing services.
Note After an instance is stopped, you cannot connect to the instance or access websites deployed on the instance, and service errors may occur.
The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are released.
Image The image is unavailable. The image is unavailable.
EBS device
  • Cloud disks and their data are retained, but the cloud disks cannot be used.
  • Local disks and their data are retained, but the local disks cannot be used.
  • Subscription disks are released and their data cannot be recovered.
    Note If you have manually attached pay-as-you-go cloud disks to the instance and have not set the release mode of the disks to Release with Instance, these disks stop working.
  • Local disks are released and their data cannot be recovered.
Public IP address
  • If the instance is located in the classic network, its public IP address is retained.
  • If the instance is located in a virtual private cloud (VPC), the following rules apply:
    • The public IP address is retained.
    • The elastic IP address (EIP) associated with the instance remains unchanged.
  • If the instance is located in the classic network, its public IP address is released.
  • If the instance is located in a VPC, the following rules apply:
    • The public IP address is released.
    • The EIP is disassociated from the instance.

If the auto-renewal feature is enabled for a subscription instance but the instance fails to renew, the instance stops providing services at some point from 00:00:00 on the 15th day after it expires to 00:00:00 on the 16th day after it expires.

The following table describes the resource states for an expired subscription instance.
Resource Within 15 days after the instance expires 16 to 30 days after the instance expires More than 30 days after the instance expires
Computing resource (vCPUs and memory) The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are retained, and the instance works normally.
Note When an instance works normally, you can start or stop the instance and connect to the instance by using management terminals or other connection methods.
The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are retained, but the instance stops providing services.
Note After an instance is stopped, you cannot connect to the instance or access websites deployed on the instance, and service errors may occur.
The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are released.
Image The image is available. The image is unavailable. The image is unavailable.
EBS device
  • Cloud disks and their data are retained. The cloud disks can work normally.
  • Local disks and their data are retained. The local disks can work normally.
  • Cloud disks and their data are retained, but the cloud disks cannot be used.
  • Local disks and their data are retained, but the local disks cannot be used.
  • Subscription disks are released and their data cannot be recovered.
    Note If you have manually attached pay-as-you-go cloud disks to the instance and have not set the release mode of the disks to Release with Instance, these disks stop working.
  • Local disks are released and their data cannot be recovered.
Public IP address
  • If the instance is located in the classic network, its public IP address is retained.
  • If the instance is located in a VPC, the following rules apply:
    • The public IP address is retained.
    • The EIP associated with the instance remains unchanged.
  • If the instance is located in the classic network, its public IP address is retained.
  • If the instance is located in a VPC, the following rules apply:
    • The public IP address is retained.
    • The EIP associated with the instance remains unchanged.
  • If the instance is located in the classic network, its public IP address is released.
  • If the instance is located in a VPC, the following rules apply:
    • The public IP address is released.
    • The EIP is disassociated from the instance.
After an instance expires, Data Storage is displayed in the Actions column corresponding to the instance on the Instances page. Before the instance is released, you can create a custom image from the instance or create snapshots to back up disk data. Data Storage

Overdue payments

If you have overdue payments within your account, you can use your subscription resources normally but cannot perform operations that incur charges on them, such as purchasing instances, upgrading instance configurations, or renewing resources. For more information, see Overdue payments.