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E-MapReduce:Subscription

Last Updated:Mar 26, 2026

E-MapReduce (EMR) supports subscription and pay-as-you-go billing. Subscription is a prepaid model: you pay upfront for a fixed term and reserve capacity for the duration. For workloads with predictable, long-running resource needs, subscription is more cost-effective than pay-as-you-go in most business scenarios.

When to use subscription

Subscription suits workloads that meet all of the following conditions:

  • The usage period is predictable.

  • Resource demand is stable, without frequent spikes or drops.

  • Resources are needed for an extended period.

For short-lived or variable workloads, use pay-as-you-go instead.

Billing details

ItemDetails
Billing rulePrepaid. Pay before use, with resource reservation for the committed term.
PricingView the full price breakdown in the order generated when you purchase an EMR cluster in the EMR console.
Billing cycleStarts at the exact second the subscription resource is purchased or renewed (UTC+8). Ends at 00:00:00 on the day after the expiration date. The unit is calendar months or years.
RefundingRefunds are available for clusters that have not yet expired. For details, see Refund policy.
Overdue paymentsFor details, see Overdue payments.

Billing cycle example

You purchased a subscription EMR cluster at 10:23:30 on January 1, 2023, with a three-month term. The cluster expires at 00:00:00 on April 2, 2023.

Note

The billing cycle unit is calendar months or years, not fixed 30-day periods. This means the end date depends on the actual calendar.

Pay-as-you-go resources in a subscription cluster

Some resources within a subscription cluster are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis:

  • Pay-as-you-go resources in the cluster: If the cluster includes pay-as-you-go resources, bills are generated for the associated ECS instances and EMR service usage. For details, see Pay-as-you-go.

  • Auto scaling nodes: If node groups in the cluster have auto scaling rules configured, ECS instances added by auto scaling and the associated EMR service usage are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information about auto scaling rules, see Configure custom auto scaling rules.

Impact after instance expiration

When instances in a subscription EMR cluster expire, the following operations are restricted:

  • Service operations: adding, restarting, stopping, and configuring parameters

  • User management operations

  • Auto scaling operations

  • Node operations: scaling and configuration upgrade

  • Viewing application performance monitoring data

  • Bootstrap action and script operations