This topic describes the billing methods of Hologres and how to estimate costs when the billing methods are used.
Terms
- storage space
Storage space refers to the volume of data without data replica that can be stored in a Hologres instance, including your business data, metadata, and intermediate results that are processed by Hologres. In most cases, this volume is greater than 50% of the volume of your business data. Check your bill for the actual volume. The storage space is charged in GB.
- computing capacity
Computing capacity refers to the total amount of computing resources that are required for operations such as data write and query in Hologres. The computing capacity is charged in CU, where 1 CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB memory.
Billing methods
- Subscription
Alibaba Cloud charges for the computing and storage resources that are estimated for your business needs. You can pay monthly or yearly fees in advance. For more information, see Subscription.
- Pay-as-you-goAlibaba Cloud charges for computing resources based on the specifications and running duration of instances and storage resources based on the volume and duration of stored data. The payments are settled on an hourly basis. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go.Note Even if no task is run in a Hologres instance, the payments for computing resources are also settled on an hourly basis.
Calculate fees
| Billing method | Billable item | Unit price | Billing rule | How to stop billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Computing | The fee of computing resources varies based on different countries and regions.
|
The fee is prepaid. When you purchase a Hologres instance, you are charged for the computing capacity and subscription duration that you select. | To stop billing for an instance, you can submit a ticket to release the instance.
Note After an instance is released, data and objects in the instance cannot be recovered.
Exercise caution when you perform the operation.
|
| Storage | The fee of storage resources varies based on different countries and regions.
|
The fee is prepaid. When you purchase a Hologres instance, you are charged for the storage space and subscription duration that you select. If the volume of data that is stored in this instance exceeds the purchased storage space, you are charged for excess storage resources in pay-as-you-go mode. | To stop billing for an instance, you can submit a ticket to release the instance.
Note After an instance is released, data and objects in the instance cannot be recovered.
Exercise caution when you perform the operation.
|
|
| Pay-as-you-go | Computing | The fee of computing resources varies based on different countries and regions.
|
You are charged for the computing resources immediately after you purchase an instance. Even if no task is run in a Hologres instance, the payments for computing resources are settled on an hourly basis based on the selected computing capacity. | To stop billing for an instance, you can log on to the Hologres console, find the instance for which you want to stop billing, and then click Stop in the Actions column. |
| Storage | The fee of storage resources varies based on different countries and regions.
|
The storage resources are immediately charged when data is stored in the instance. The payments are settled on an hourly basis. | The system stops billing for the storage resources after the stored data is deleted. |
- Scenario 1
Assume that you purchase an instance with 64 CUs of computing resources and 500 GB storage resources based on the subscription billing method in the Singapore region. If you want to use this instance for six months, the total fee that you need to pay is USD 12,822.80722, which is calculated based on the following formula: USD 31.970149/CU/month × 64 CUs × 6 months + USD 0.182090/GB/month × 500 GB × 6 months = USD 12,822.80722.
- Scenario 2
Assume that you purchase an instance with 100 GB storage resources based on the subscription billing method in the Singapore region. However, you store 200 GB data in this instance in one hour due to quick expansion of your business. The extra fee in this hour is USD 0.0379, which is calculated based on the following formula: (200 GB - 100 GB) × USD 0.000379/GB/hour × 1 hour = USD 0.0379.
- Scenario 3
Assume that you purchase an instance based on the pay-as-you-go billing method in the Singapore region. If 64 CUs of computing resources and 100 GB storage resources are consumed in one hour, the total fee in this hour is USD 11.69166, which is calculated based on the following formula: USD 0.182090/CU/hour × 64 CUs × 1 hour + USD 0.000379/GB/hour × 100 GB × 1 hour = USD 11.69166.
Change billing methods
If you purchase a Hologres instance based on the pay-as-you-go billing method, you can log on to the Hologres console and change the billing method to subscription.
- After the billing method is changed, you are charged for computing resources based on the subscription billing method.
- After the billing method is changed, the storage space is 0 GB by default. If data is stored in the current instance, you are charged for storage resources based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. You must purchase storage resources before you are charged for storage resources based on the subscription billing method.
- If you purchase a Hologres instance based on the subscription billing method, you cannot change the billing method. If you change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription, the billing method cannot be restored.
Billing cycle
- Subscription: The system pushes a bill to your Alibaba Cloud account when you purchase a Hologres instance and select the subscription billing method. If the volume of data that is stored in this instance exceeds the specified limit, you are charged for the excess volume based on the pay-as-you-go billing method and the payments are settled on an hourly basis. The system pushes a bill to your Alibaba Cloud account that is used to purchase this instance on an hourly basis.
- Pay-as-you-go: The system pushes a bill to your Alibaba Cloud account that is used to purchase this instance on an hourly basis.
Select a billing method
- The pay-as-you-go billing method is suitable for developers and analysts. If you want to perform data analytics from time to time and the amount of data to be analyzed is small, we recommend that you select this method. The subscription billing method helps you limit the computing and storage resources that can be used. This way, costs can be effectively reduced.
- If you want to regularly perform data analytics in the production environment, we recommend that you select the subscription billing method to prevent idle resources.