Elasticsearch:Billing and Orders

Manage billing for Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch: view bills, renew instances, switch billing methods, unsubscribe, and understand expiration and overdue payment policies.

View bills

View monthly product consumption

On the Billing Overview page, view monthly charges for all cloud products. Top up your account to settle the Amount Due.

View billing details

On the Billing Details page, you can customize the Statistical items and Statistical cycle to view your billing details.

Amount payable: The final amount you must pay after all discounts, Savings Plan benefits, and coupons are applied.

Expiration and overdue payments

When a subscription expires or a payment becomes overdue, your Elasticsearch instance progresses through service suspension, data deletion, and release.

Subscription instance expiration

1. Before expiration

   • If auto-renewal is enabled and your account balance is sufficient, the system deducts payment starting 9 days before expiration. Cancel auto-renewal before the first deduction to avoid charges.

   • The system sends expiration reminders 7 days, 3 days, and 1 day before your instance expires.

2. Service suspended upon expiration

   The instance is suspended — no reads or writes. Your data is retained. Renew the instance to restore service.

3. Instance released 8 days after expiration

   The system releases the instance at 00:00 on the 8th day after expiration.

   • Data deletion: After the instance is released, all data is permanently deleted within 24 hours and cannot be recovered.

   • Physical resources: The physical resources are released and cannot be recovered.

Pay-as-you-go overdue payments

1. Within 24 hours of payment becoming overdue

   • When your account balance falls below USD 0, the system sends you an overdue payment notification.

   • The instance remains available, and billing continues.

   • Top up your account to avoid service suspension.

2. Service suspended after 24 hours of overdue payment

   • The instance is suspended — no reads or writes. Billing stops.

   • Top up your account above USD 0 to restore service.

3. Within 7 days of service suspension

   Top up your account above 0 USD to continue using the instance.

4. Instance released 7 days after service suspension

   After 7 days, the system releases the instance:

   • Data deletion: After the instance is released, all data is permanently deleted within 24 hours and cannot be recovered.

   • Physical resources: The physical resources are released and cannot be recovered.

Renewal management

Renewal rules

• Subscription renewal behavior depends on timing:

  • Before expiration: A running instance continues without interruption after renewal.

  • After expiration: A suspended instance resumes automatically after renewal.

• Pay-as-you-go instances do not require renewal. Maintain a sufficient account balance to avoid service interruption.

Manual renewal

1. In the Elasticsearch or Logstash instance list, find the target instance and click Renew.

   

2. On the Renew page, select a renewal duration and complete the payment.

Auto-renewal

Enable auto-renewal to renew instances automatically before expiration.

Enable auto-renewal:

• When you create a subscription instance, select Auto-renewal.

  

• Log in to the Renewal Management page. On the Manual Renewal tab, select one or more products to renew and click Renew or Enable auto-renewal.

  

  

Cancel auto-renewal

Cancel auto-renewal before the system begins deductions 9 days prior to expiration.

1. In the console, find the instance for which you want to cancel auto-renewal and click Renew.

   

2. Click Renewal.

3. Select the product that you no longer want to renew and click Do Not Renew.

   

Change billing method

Prerequisites

• The instance is running in a normal state, and your Alibaba Cloud account has no unpaid orders.

• The data node specifications are not 1-core 2 GB or 2-core 2 GB.

• The Elasticsearch version is not 7.4.

  Important

  As of May 2021, Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch no longer supports the purchase of new instances of version 7.4. Version 7.10 is recommended. Existing instances are not affected.

Convert from pay-as-you-go to subscription

1. In the Elasticsearch or Logstash instance list, find the target instance and click Switch to Subscription or > Switch to Subscription.

   Alternatively, click the instance ID to open its details page. In the Cluster Statistics section of the Basic Information page, click Switch to Subscription.

2. On the Switch to Subscription Billing page, select a duration of at least one month and complete the payment.

Convert from subscription to pay-as-you-go

Converting a subscription instance to pay-as-you-go refunds the remaining subscription fee and switches to usage-based billing.

Limitations

Instances in Finance Cloud and Government Cloud cannot be converted from subscription to pay-as-you-go.

Refund rules and amount

• When you convert a subscription instance to pay-as-you-go, a 15% handling fee is charged on the refund amount.

  Refund amount = Amount paid - Consumed amount

• The system refunds the actual amount paid and any prepaid card balance to the original payment method. Coupons and vouchers are not refunded.

• If the instance being converted has pending renewal or upgrade orders that have not yet taken effect, the system issues a full refund for those orders.

• Renewal orders created as compensation for ICP filing, service faults, or data center migrations are not eligible for a refund. The refundable amount is USD 0.

Procedure

1. In the Elasticsearch or Logstash instance list, find the target instance and click > Switch to Pay-as-you-go.

2. On the Switch to Pay-as-you-go Billing page, confirm the details and complete the payment.

Unsubscription and refunds

Unsubscription rules

Billing method	Unsubscription rule	Conditions	Refund amount
Subscription	5-day unconditional full refund	The resource was purchased within 5 days and is not part of malicious unsubscription activity. The product is eligible for a 5-day unconditional full refund.	Refund Amount = Actual amount paid. This is the cash amount you paid and excludes any portion covered by vouchers or coupons.
	Partial refund	The resource was purchased more than 5 days ago or has been used.	Refund Amount = Amount paid - Consumed amount.
	Unsubscribe from a pending renewal order	If a resource has been renewed but the new term has not started, and no changes such as upgrades or downgrades have been made, you can cancel the pending renewal order.	Refund Amount = Actual amount paid. This is the cash amount you paid and excludes any portion covered by vouchers or coupons.
Pay-as-you-go	You pay after you use the service. Refunds are not applicable.

Unsubscription procedure

1. Log in to the Unsubscription Management page and check the status of your ES instance.

   • Order has taken effect: The instance appears on the Unsubscribe Resources or Unsubscribe In-Use Resources tab. If you choose to unsubscribe, both the current (active) order and any pending renewal orders are canceled.

   • Order has not taken effect: The instance appears on the Unsubscribe Pending Renewals or Unsubscribe Renewal Period tab. If you choose to unsubscribe, only the pending order is canceled. Your currently active service is not affected.

2. On the Unsubscription Management page, switch between the tabs for standard cloud resources, resource plans, Cloud Marketplace products, and virtual hosts to find and unsubscribe from the target resource.

3. On the Unsubscribe Resources page, carefully review the resource information, confirm the unsubscription terms and refund amount, then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

Other refund scenarios

• Scaling down nodes

  • Subscription: The fee for the scaled-down nodes is refunded based on the remaining billing period.

  • Pay-as-you-go: Billing is based on the actual number of nodes used.

• Downgrade or billing method change

  Refunds are processed according to the unsubscription rules.

Refund destination

Refunds are issued to the original payment method. Check refund status on the My Orders page in Billing and Costs.

• For orders paid via Alipay after March 29, 2019, if a refund occurs within 18 months (548 days) of payment, the refund is sent to the Alipay account used for the payment. If the refund to the original source fails, the amount is credited to your Alibaba Cloud account balance.

• For orders paid via online banking, if a refund occurs within 90 days of payment, the refund is generally returned to the original bank card. If the bank refund fails, the amount is credited to your Alibaba Cloud account balance.

• For orders paid with your account balance, the refund is directly credited to your account balance.

• For orders paid via other payment methods (such as WeChat Pay and UnionPay QuickPass), the system first attempts to issue the refund to the original payment source. If that fails, the amount is credited to your Alibaba Cloud account balance.

Special cases

• Refunds for invoiced orders:

  • If the refund amount is less than the current invoiceable amount for the account, the refund is returned to the original payment method. If the time limit for refunding to the original source has passed, the refund is credited to your account balance.

• Refund amount limits:

  The portion of a payment made with a coupon is not refundable. Only the amount paid with cash or a prepaid card is eligible for a refund.

Refund processing time

• Refunds are typically processed within 2 business days. Only amounts paid by cash or prepaid card are refunded. Vouchers and coupons are not refunded.

• For orders paid via online banking that are eligible for a refund to the original payment method, the refund may take 2 to 3 business days to arrive, depending on the bank's processing time.