This topic describes the billing methods of Hologres and the methods of estimating costs when the billing methods are used.
Support channel
You can join the Hologres DingTalk group to obtain more professional and efficient support. For more information, see Obtain online support for Hologres.
Terms
Storage space
Storage space refers to the volume of data without data replicas that can be stored in a Hologres instance, including your business data and metadata. The storage space is charged in GB based on the volume of data actually stored.
Compute capacity
Compute capacity of exclusive resources for exclusive instances refers to the total amount of computing resources that are required for operations such as data writes and queries in Hologres. The compute capacity is charged in compute unit (CU), where 1 CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory.
When you use the following features for exclusive instances, the compute capacity is calculated in different methods.
Serverless Computing: The compute capacity refers to the amount of serverless computing resources that are used by SQL jobs. The compute capacity is charged in CU-hour.
Time-specific scaling: The compute capacity refers to the amount of elastic computing resources. The compute capacity is charged in CU-hour.
Network traffic volume
Network traffic volume refers to the amount of data that is transmitted over the network when you use the cross-region snapshot replication feature. The network traffic volume is measured in GB.
Billing methods
Hologres exclusive instances support the subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods for compute capacity, storage space, and network traffic volume. The following figure shows the detailed billing rules.
Advanced features such as Serverless Computing, backup and restoration, and cross-region snapshot replication are supported by exclusive instances, regardless of the billing method that you use. You are charged for computing resources, storage resources, and network resources that are consumed by the advanced features on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Subscription
Alibaba Cloud charges for the computing and storage resources that are estimated based on your business requirements. You can pay monthly or yearly fees in advance. For more information, see Subscription.
Pay-as-you-go
Alibaba Cloud charges for computing resources based on the specifications and running duration of instances and for storage resources based on the volume and storage duration of stored data. The payments are settled on an hourly basis. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go.
NoteEven if no task is run in a Hologres instance, the payments for computing resources are settled on an hourly basis based on the selected compute capacity.
Calculate fees
The following table describes how to calculate fees of Hologres instances in both subscription and pay-as-you-go modes.
Billing method | Instance type | Billable item | Unit price | Billing rule | Stop billing |
Exclusive instances (subscription) |
| Computing resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | The fee is prepaid. When you purchase a Hologres instance, you are charged based on the instance specifications and subscription duration. | To stop billing for an instance, you can join the Hologres DingTalk group to apply for an instance release before your instance expires. For more information, see Obtain online support for Hologres. Important After an instance is released, data and objects in the instance cannot be restored. Exercise caution when you perform the operation. |
Virtual warehouse instances | Gateway resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | The fee is prepaid. When you purchase a Hologres instance, you are charged based on the instance specifications and subscription duration. | To stop billing for an instance, you can join the Hologres DingTalk group to apply for an instance release before your instance expires. For more information, see Obtain online support for Hologres. Important After an instance is released, data and objects in the instance cannot be restored. Exercise caution when you perform the operation. | |
Computing resources of virtual warehouses | The unit price varies based on regions:
One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | ||||
Elastic resources of virtual warehouses | The unit price varies based on regions:
| The pay-as-you-go billing method is used. You are charged for elastic resources based on the amount of resources consumed and the usage duration. | To stop billing for time-specific elastic resources, you can use the reserved computing resources of the instance. | ||
| Serverless computing resources | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| The pay-as-you-go billing method is used. You are charged for serverless computing resources based on the amount of resources consumed and the usage duration. | To stop billing for serverless computing resources, you can use the reserved computing resources of the instance to execute SQL statements. | |
Standard storage resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
| The fee is prepaid. When you purchase a Hologres instance, you are charged based on the instance specifications and subscription duration. 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 join the Hologres DingTalk group to apply for an instance release before your instance expires. For more information, see Obtain online support for Hologres. Note After an instance is released, data and objects in the instance cannot be restored. Exercise caution when you perform the operation. You can also delete the data that exceeds the purchased storage space. Then, the system stops billing for excess storage resources that are used. | ||
Infrequent Access (IA) storage resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
| ||||
Backup snapshot | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| None. | To stop billing for backup snapshots, you can disable the periodic backup feature and delete the backup snapshots. | ||
Network transmission for cross-region snapshot replication | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| None. | To stop billing for network transmission resources, you can disable the cross-region snapshot replication feature. | ||
Exclusive instances (pay-as-you-go) |
| Computing resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
| You are charged immediately after you purchase an instance. Even if no task is run in a Hologres instance, the payments are settled on an hourly basis based on the purchased compute 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. |
Virtual warehouse instances | Gateway resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
| You are charged immediately after you purchase an instance. Even if no task is run in a Hologres instance, the payments are settled on an hourly basis based on the purchased compute 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. | |
| The unit price varies based on regions:
| ||||
| Serverless computing resources | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| The pay-as-you-go billing method is used. You are charged for serverless computing resources based on the amount of resources consumed and the usage duration. | To stop billing for serverless computing resources, you can use the reserved computing resources of the instance to execute SQL statements. | |
Standard storage resources | The unit price varies based on regions:
| You 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. | ||
IA storage resources | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| ||||
Backup snapshot | None. | To stop billing for backup snapshots, you can disable the periodic backup feature and delete the backup snapshots. | |||
Network transmission for cross-region snapshot replication | You are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The subscription billing method is not supported. The unit price varies based on regions:
| None. | To stop billing for network transmission resources, you can disable the cross-region snapshot replication feature. |
Sample scenarios:
Scenario 1
You purchase an instance with 64 CUs of computing resources and 500 GB standard 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. This amount is calculated based on the following formula: 31.970149 × 64 × 6 + 0.182090 × 500 × 6 = USD 12,822.80722. The billing logic for IA storage is the same as that for standard storage.
Scenario 2
You purchase an instance with 100 GB standard storage resources based on the subscription billing method in the Singapore region. If 200 GB storage resources are consumed in a specific hour due to quick expansion of your business, the extra fee that you need to pay in this hour is USD 0.0379. This amount is calculated based on the following formula: (200 - 100) × 0.000379 = USD 0.0379.
Scenario 3
You purchase an instance with 64 CUs of computing resources based on the pay-as-you-go billing method in the Singapore region. If 100 GB IA storage resources are consumed in a specific hour, the total fee in this hour is USD 11.65926. This amount is calculated based on the following formula: 0.182090 × 64 × 1 + 0.000055 × 100 × 1 = USD 11.65926.
Billing cycle
This section describes the billing cycles for Hologres instances.
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 system pushes a bill to your account on an hourly basis until no excess volume is stored.
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
Hologres supports two billing methods. You can select one based on your business requirements.
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 pay-as-you-go billing method helps you limit the computing and storage resources that can be used. This way, costs can be effectively reduced.
After your jobs become stable in the production environment, we recommend that you select the subscription billing method.