If you can accurately estimate your Object Storage Service (OSS) resource usage, we recommend that you purchase a resource plan to save your costs.
When to purchase a resource plan
If you can accurately estimate your resource usage, such as storage capacity and outbound traffic, for a specific period of time in the future, purchasing a resource plan is an economical and efficient choice. For example, if you expect that the storage usage of your Standard zone-redundant storage (ZRS) objects is 100 GB over the next three months, we recommend that you purchase a Standard (ZRS) storage plan of 100 GB with a validity period of three months.
How to determine which resource plan to purchase
Select a resource plan type based on billable items
If you have an OSS bill, you can select a suitable resource plan type and capacity based on the billable items and usage in the bill.
Match of billable items: If the major costs in your bill are the storage fees for Standard (ZRS) objects, you can select a Standard (ZRS) storage plan to offset the fees.
Match of usage: If the storage capacity per hour in your bill is 40 GB, you can purchase a Standard (ZRS) storage plan with a storage capacity of 40 GB to precisely cover the actual usage.
Select a resource plan based on use scenarios
The following items describe the recommended resource plans in common scenarios:
Object storage: If the buckets in your Alibaba Cloud account are used to store objects such as texts, images, audios, and videos, and the storage class of the buckets is Standard (ZRS), we recommend that you purchase a Standard (ZRS) storage plan.
Object access from external networks: If you want to view or download OSS objects from external networks, we recommend that you also purchase an outbound traffic plan to cover the fees for outbound traffic.
Storage of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) snapshots: If you want to create and save ECS snapshots, we recommend that you purchase a Standard locally redundant storage (LRS) storage plan to offset the fees.
Process
When you purchase a resource plan, take the following factors into consideration: services required by business, business volume, and region (if resources plans are sold by region).
For information about resource plan types and supported regions, see Resource plans.
Usage notes
You can purchase OSS resource plans without activating OSS. In this case, you must manually activate OSS after purchasing a plan so that fees can be automatically offset when you use OSS.
Procedure
Log on to the OSS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, select .
On the Resource Plans page, click Purchase Resource Plan.
Select the resource plan type, region, capacity, and validity period based on your business requirements. Then, click Buy Now.
ImportantAfter purchasing a resource plan, you cannot change the resource plan type. A resource plan of a specific type can only be used to offset fees generated by billable items corresponding to the resource plan type. When purchasing a resource plan, select a suitable resource plan type.
A resource plan takes effect immediately after you purchase it. You do not need to manually establish a connection before fees for the corresponding billable items are automatically offset.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the purchase.
Example
In March, 2022, Mr. Green purchased a global Standard (LRS) storage plan of 500 GB of and a global outbound traffic plan of 100 GB. The following items describe his resource usage in March, 2022:
In the China (Hangzhou) region, the storage capacity of Standard (LRS) objects is 300 GB, the outbound traffic is 110 GB, and the number of API requests is 100,000.
In the China (Shanghai) region, the storage capacity of Standard (LRS) objects is 100 GB and the storage capacity of Standard (ZRS) objects is 200 GB.
The following table shows the billing.
Region | Resource plan offset | Pay-as-you-go |
China (Hangzhou) | The 500 GB of storage capacity in the Standard (LRS) storage plan is used to offset the 300 GB of storage capacity used by Standard (LRS) objects. | 100,000 API requests. |
The 100 GB of traffic in the outbound traffic plan is used to offset the 100 GB of used traffic. | The remaining 10 GB of outbound traffic. | |
China (Shanghai) | The 500 GB of storage capacity in the Standard (LRS) storage plan is used to offset the 100 GB storage capacity used by Standard (LRS) objects. | The 200 GB of storage capacity used by Standard (ZRS) objects. |
FAQ
What should I do if I purchased a wrong resource plan?
If you purchase a resource plan that does not meet your business requirements, resolve the issue based on its usage and days of purchase.
If it remains unused within five days from the date of purchase
Request a full refund. After the refund is completed, purchase the correct resource plan.
If it is used within five days from the date of purchase or remains unused for more than five days from the date of purchase
Select a solution based on the offset method of the resource plan.
Offset method
Plan type
Solution
Description
Fixed total amount
Standard (LRS) storage plan
IA (LRS) storage plan
Request a partial refund.
Refund amount = Paid amount - (Original price/Purchase duration in days) × used days.
If you do not want to request a partial refund, you can convert the redundancy type of the bucket from LRS to ZRS, then use the ZRS plan to offset the corresponding storage capacity.
After converting the redundancy type, you are charged based on ZRS instead of LRS. The price of ZRS is higher than that of LRS. For more information, see OSS pricing details.
DDoS protection basic plan
Request a partial refund.
Refund amount = Paid amount - (Original price/Purchase duration in days) × used days.
Decreasing total capacity
Transfer acceleration plan
Request a partial refund.
Refund amount = Paid amount - (Original price/Purchase duration in days) × used days.
Monthly subscription
Outbound traffic plan
Not refundable.
Not refundable.
For more information about full or partial refunds, see Refund resource plans.
What do I do if a resource plan of the desired capacity is not available on the buy page?
You can purchase resource plans with different capacities, such as 100 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 10 TB, on the OSS buy page. If resource plans of specific capacities are not available, such as 9 TB, you can use one of the following methods to resolve the issue:
Resource plans that support combination
For resource plans that support combination, such as outbound traffic plans, you can purchase multiple resource plans. For example, to purchase an outbound traffic of 9 TB, you can purchase one outbound traffic plan of 5 TB and two outbound traffic plans of 2 TB.
Resource plans that do not support combination
For resource plans that do not support combination, such as Standard (LRS) storage plans, you can use one of the following methods to purchase a capacity of 9 TB:
Purchase a Standard (LRS) storage plan of 10 TB.
Purchase a Standard (LRS) storage plan of 5 TB and use the pay-as-you-go billing method for the excess 4 TB of storage capacity.
For information about resource plans that support combination, see Supported operations.