PAI-Lingjun AI Computing Service uses a subscription billing model. Reserved capacity is billed immediately when you place an order. Other services that Lingjun requires, such as Cloud Parallel File Storage (CPFS) and Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), are billed separately. For details, see the billing documentation for each service.
Purchase procedure
Submit requirements: Fill out a form to submit your cluster requirements and confirm that the requested resources are available.
Place an order: Use the purchase link that Alibaba Cloud sends you to place an order.
Charges are deducted immediately after you place an order. Alibaba Cloud notifies you of the fee deduction by email, text message, and internal message.
If Lingjun compute node inventory is insufficient at the time of purchase, a refund is initiated directly.
Configure the cluster: Get the console link from the purchase success page or the text message sent to you, then configure the cluster in the console.
PAI-Lingjun AI Computing Service resources do not support refunds after payment is complete.
Billing and payment
View bills and usage
Bills for compute nodes are generated at the end of each month. If your usage duration is less than one month, it is rounded up to one month.
Go to Expenses and Costs to view monthly bills, usage records, and repayment dates for your Alibaba Cloud services.
Deduction order
For pay-as-you-go bills, Alibaba Cloud deducts fees in the following order:
| Priority | Payment source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valid vouchers | Applied first if available |
| 2 | Valid stored-value cards | Applied if no valid vouchers |
| 3 | Cash balance | Funds transferred from other accounts are deducted before funds you added yourself |
Add funds to your account in advance to prevent payment failures.
Overdue payments
If your account has overdue payments or the service expires, you lose access to purchased Lingjun compute nodes through Lingjun connection instances, and those nodes can no longer access resources in the associated virtual private cloud (VPC).
First occurrence: Alibaba Cloud suspends all or part of your operation permissions on the service upon expiration or the occurrence of overdue payments. Your service instances and data are retained for 15 days from the point when permissions are suspended. During this period, you are still charged for any non-suspended portion of the service.
After 15 days: If you do not resolve the overdue payment, Alibaba Cloud releases your instances and deletes all instance data. Released instances and deleted data cannot be recovered.
To avoid suspension, make sure your account balance is sufficient before the due date.
Renewal
Renewal notifications
Alibaba Cloud sends text message notifications at the following intervals:
| Trigger | Notification timing |
|---|---|
| Before service expiration | 7 days, 3 days, and 1 day before expiration |
| Before service suspension or resource release | 3 days and 1 day in advance |
| When an instance is released | At the time of release |
What happens when the service expires
After expiration, your data is retained for 15 calendar days. You can choose not to renew the service or manually renew the service.
If you renew within 15 calendar days, Alibaba Cloud resumes the service.
If you do not renew within 15 calendar days, the service stops and all data stored in Alibaba Cloud is deleted and cannot be recovered.
Example: If you purchase PAI-Lingjun AI Computing Service at 14:00 on August 15 for six months, the service expires at 00:00 on February 16 the following year. If you do not renew, Lingjun resources are released 15 calendar days after that date.
To keep your service running, renew before the expiration date or make sure your account balance is sufficient.
Specification changes
Compute nodes
| Operation | Description |
|---|---|
| Scale out | Purchase additional nodes and follow the purchase procedure to add them to the cluster. |
| Change node specifications | You can increase or decrease the number of nodes in a cluster, but you cannot downgrade the specifications of existing compute nodes. Lingjun compute nodes do not support refunds. For details, see Manage Lingjun clusters and nodes. |
Lingjun connection instances
Upgrade: An upgrade takes effect immediately, and the previous billing plan ends immediately. For example, if you upgrade from 1 Gbit/s to 10 Gbit/s, you are charged at 10 Gbit/s from the moment the upgrade completes.
Downgrade: A downgrade takes effect immediately, but the previous billing plan continues until the next calendar day. For example, if you downgrade from 10 Gbit/s to 2 Gbit/s:
A new bill at 2 Gbit/s is generated immediately.
The original 10 Gbit/s bill ends on the next calendar day.
You receive a refund after deducting the payable amount — the fee for 10 Gbit/s before the downgrade plus the fee for 2 Gbit/s after the downgrade. If the usage duration is less than one day, it is rounded up to one day.
Avoid frequent downgrades of Lingjun connection instances, as each downgrade incurs a financial loss.