Subscription is a billing method that allows you to pay in advance for resources to use. The subscription billing method for Hologres supports dynamic configuration changes. You can scale your Hologres resources to meet your business requirements. This topic describes the subscription billing method for Hologres.
Lifecycle management
If you use the subscription billing method, you must make payment before you can use Hologres. The following figure shows the lifecycle management process of a subscription instance.
Instance expiration
Example: You purchase a subscription instance in the Hologres console for a duration of four months. After you pay the subscription fees, the instance is available for use. The Hologres instance is available to you for four months. After the subscription duration ends, Hologres stops providing services, and the instance is stopped. If you want to continue using the instance, you must renew it. If you do not renew the instance within 14 days, the instance is released and deleted from the Hologres console. Data in the instance is deleted and cannot be recovered. In the 14 days, the system does not send you bills. If you cancel the subscription for the instance, the instance is immediately released.
Overdue payment
Example: You purchase a subscription instance in the Hologres console. However, during your use of the instance, a payment becomes overdue within your Alibaba Cloud account. The instance remains available for 24 hours after the payment becomes overdue. If you settle the overdue payment within 24 hours, you can continue to use the instance. If you do not settle the overdue payment within 24 hours, the instance is locked and becomes unavailable until it expires. The instance is immediately stopped after it expires. If you settle the overdue payment within 14 days after the instance expires, you can continue to use the instance. Otherwise, the instance is released, and data in the instance is no longer retained.
The billing method of Hologres instances can be changed from pay-as-you-go to subscription, but cannot be changed from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Billing rules
The following table describes the billable items and pricing of the subscription billing method in different regions.
The subscription fees do not include the fees for advanced features such as Serverless Computing, backup and restoration, and cross-region snapshot replication. You are charged for computing resources, storage resources, and network resources that are consumed when you use advanced features on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Resource type | Specification | Unit price | Description |
Computing resources |
| The unit price varies based on regions:
One compute unit (CU) represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. |
Reserved computing resources of instances | Virtual warehouse instances | The unit price varies based on regions:
One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. |
Elastic computing resources of virtual warehouses | Virtual warehouse instances | The unit price varies based on regions:
| One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. |
Gateway resources | Virtual warehouse instances | The unit price varies based on regions:
One CU represents 1 CPU core and 4 GB of memory. | 1CU=1 core 4GB |
Serverless computing resources |
| 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. |
Storage resources | Standard storage | The unit price varies based on regions:
| None. |
Infrequent Access (IA) storage | The unit price varies based on regions:
| ||
Backup set storage | The unit price varies based on regions:
| The size of a backup set varies based on the backup policy and the data volume. Therefore, the backup set storage resources of subscription instances are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. | |
Network resources | Network transmission for cross-region snapshot replication | The unit price is the same as that of the pay-as-you-go billing method. Network resources do not support the subscription billing method.
| None. |
The fee for a Hologres instance is calculated based on the following formula: Subscription fee = Compute capacity × Unit price × Subscription duration + Storage space × Unit price × Subscription duration.
Example: You purchase a subscription instance with 128 CUs of compute capacity and 500 GB of storage space in the Singapore region for a duration of six months. The total fee is calculated based on the following formula: 128 × 31.970149 × 6 + 500 × 0.182090 × 6 = USD 25,099.344432.
Configuration upgrade
If your subscription instance does not have sufficient resources to meet your business requirements, you can upgrade the configurations of the instance.
The upgrade fees are calculated based on the following formulas:
Original configurations:
Paid amount = Compute capacity × Subscription duration × Unit price + Storage space × Subscription duration × Unit price
Used amount = Paid amount/Number of hours of the subscription duration × Number of hours for which the instance is used
Remaining amount = Paid amount ‒ Used amount
New configurations:
Total payable = Compute capacity × Subscription duration × Unit price + Storage space × Subscription duration × Unit price
Actual payable = Total payable/Number of hours of the subscription duration × Number of remaining hours to use the instance
Configuration upgrade: Upgrade fees = Actual payable for the new configurations ‒ Remaining amount of the original configurations
Example: You purchase a subscription instance with 64 CUs of compute capacity and 300 GB of storage space in the Singapore region for a duration of two months on March 1. The instance is expected to expire on April 30. On March 13, you upgrade the instance configurations to 128 CUs of compute capacity and 500 GB of storage space without changing the expiration time. The fees for the upgrade are calculated based on the following formulas:
Paid amount of the original configurations = 64 × 2 × 31.970149 + 300 × 2 × 0.182090 = USD 4,201.433072.
Used amount of the original configurations = 4,201.433072/1,440 × 288 = USD 840.2866144.
NoteThe subscription duration for the original configurations is two months, 30 days each. The instance has been used for 12 days from March 1 to March 13. The number of hours of the subscription duration is calculated based on the following formula: 2 × 30 × 24 = 1,440 hours. The number of hours the instance is used is calculated based on the following formula: 12 × 24 = 288 hours.
Remaining amount of the original configurations = 4,201.433072 ‒ 840.2866144 = USD 3,361.1464576.
Total payable for the new configurations = 128 × 2 × 31.970149 + 500 × 2 × 0.182090 = USD 8,366.448144.
Actual payable for the new configurations = 8,366.448144/1,440 × 1,152 = USD 6,693.1585152.
NoteThe subscription duration for the new configurations is two months, 30 days each. You can use the instance for 48 days from March 13 to April 30. The number of hours of the subscription duration is calculated based on the following formula: 2 × 30 × 24 = 1,440 hours. The number of remaining hours to use the instance is calculated based on the following formula: 48 × 24 = 1,152 hours.
Amount to be paid for upgrading the instance configurations = 6,693.1585152 ‒ 3,361.1464576 = USD 3,332.0120576.
In this example, each month is assumed to contain 30 days to simplify the calculation.
This example is used only to illustrate the billing logic of configuration upgrade. Refer to your bill for the accurate amount.
Configuration downgrade
If the resources of your subscription instance are excessive, you can downgrade the instance configurations to reduce costs.
The downgrade fees are calculated based on the following formulas:
Original configurations:
Paid amount = Compute capacity × Subscription duration × Unit price + Storage space × Subscription duration × Unit price
Used amount = Paid amount/Number of hours of the subscription duration × Number of hours for which the instance is used
Remaining amount = Paid amount ‒ Used amount
New configurations:
Total payable = Compute capacity × Subscription duration × Unit price + Storage space × Subscription duration × Unit price
Actual payable = Total payable/Number of hours of the subscription duration × Number of remaining hours to use the instance
Configuration downgrade: Downgrade fee = Actual payable for the new configurations ‒ Remaining amount of the original configurations
Example: You purchase a subscription instance with 128 CUs of compute capacity and 500 GB of storage space in the Singapore region for a duration of three months on March 1. The instance is expected to expire on May 31. On March 21, you downgrade the instance configurations to 64 CUs of compute capacity and 300 GB of storage space without changing the expiration time. The fees for the downgrade are calculated based on the following formulas:
Paid amount of the original configurations = 128 × 3 × 31.970149 + 500 × 3 × 0.182090 = USD 12,549.672216.
Used amount of the original configurations = 12,549.672216/2,160 × 480 = USD 2,788.816.
NoteThe subscription duration for the original configurations is three months, 30 days each. The instance has been used for 20 days from March 1 to March 21. The number of hours of the subscription duration is calculated based on the following formula: 3 × 30 × 24 = 2,160 hours. The number of hours the instance is used is calculated based on the following formula: 20 × 24 = 480 hours.
Remaining amount of the original configurations = 12,549.672216 ‒ 2,788.816 = USD 9,760.856216.
Total payable for the new configurations = 64 × 3 × 31.970149 + 300 × 3 × 0.182090 = USD 6,302.149608.
Actual payable for the new configurations = 6,302.149608/2,160 × 1,680 = USD 4,901.67192.
NoteYou are expected to pay for the new resources for three months, 30 days each. However, you can use the instance only for 70 days from March 21 to May 31. The number of hours of the subscription duration is calculated based on the following formula: 3 × 30 × 24 = 2,160 hours. The number of remaining hours to use the instance is calculated based on the following formula: 70 × 24 = 1,680 hours.
Amount to be paid for downgrading the instance configurations = 4,901.67192 ‒ 9,760.856216 = USD -4,859.1843.
Alibaba Cloud must refund USD 4,859.1843 to your account.
In this example, each month is assumed to contain 30 days to simplify the calculation.
This example is used only to illustrate the billing logic of configuration downgrade. Refer to your bill for the accurate amount.
Message notification mechanism
The following table describes the message notification mechanism for subscription instances.
Billing method | Reminder time for service suspension due to instance expiration | Service suspension | Reminder time for instance release |
Subscription | Seven days before the expiration date | The instance immediately stops upon expiration. | Seven days before release |
Three days before expiration | Three days before release | ||
One day before expiration | One day before release |
Example: You purchase a subscription instance for a duration of two months. Seven days, three days, and one day before the instance expires, you receive expiration notifications by text message, phone call, or email. When the instance expires, it is immediately stopped, and Hologres stops providing services. If you do not renew the instance within 14 days after it expires, the instance is automatically released. Seven days, three days, and one day before the release, you receive release notifications by text message, phone call, or email.