When you create clusters, you do not need to pay for the clusters in advance. You are charged for the compute capacity and storage resources that you use. If you do not use compute plans or storage plans, the fees of compute nodes and the consumed storage resources are billed by hour. The fees are deducted from your account balance on an hourly basis.
Scenarios
If workloads are light, infrequently change, and have small fluctuations, we recommend that you purchase pay-as-you-go clusters. Fees are deducted from your account based on the compute nodes that you use.
Combination with storage plans
The storage capacity of PolarDB is automatically scaled based on the amount of stored data. You do not need to specify the storage capacity. You are charged for the storage capacity that you use. The storage of each PolarDB cluster is billed based on the data volume and retention period of time. If you require a larger storage capacity, such as 1,000 GB or more, we recommend that you purchase storage plans to reduce costs.
A storage plan is a subscription-based resource plan provided by PolarDB. Storage plans can be used to offset various costs related to storage usage in PolarDB, including cluster storage, level-1 backup storage beyond the free quota, level-2 backup storage, log backup storage, cold data storage, and Serverless storage. Storage plans can reduce costs. If you select a larger capacity and a longer duration for the storage plan that you purchase, you can receive a higher discount.
For example, a monthly storage plan provides 10%-45% savings when compared with the price of a comparable pay-as-you-go cluster. The longer the duration of the plan, the more savings you get. If you purchase annual storage plans, you can save an additional 15% off the monthly price.
Storage plans can be used by all PolarDB clusters in the regions that are specified by the Plan Type parameter. You can select Chinese Mainland or Outside Chinese Mainland for this parameter.
If the capacity of your storage plan is insufficient, you can purchase an additional storage plan or upgrade the storage plan. However, you cannot downgrade storage plans that you purchase. For more information about how to upgrade a storage plan, see Upgrade a storage plan.
If the amount of the storage that is used exceeds the capacity of your storage plan, you are charged for the additional storage resources based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.
For example, you have created three PolarDB clusters that each have 400 GB of storage. If you purchase a storage plan of 1,000 GB and these clusters share the storage plan, the storage resources used in excess of 200 GB are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information, see View the database storage usage.
Price calculation
PolarDB provides the price calculator and resource plan calculator. You can use the calculators to obtain information about the product pricing, estimate costs, and select a product type that meets your business requirements.
Price calculator: allows you to estimate the overall cost based on the details and storage capacity of the cluster that you select.
Resource plan calculator: allows you to estimate required compute capacity and storage capacity based on your business requirements and usage duration. The calculator can also provide recommendations on the specifications of storage plans and compute plans.
Purchase pay-as-you-go clusters
For more information about how to purchase a pay-as-you-go cluster, see Purchase a pay-as-you-go cluster.
For more information about how to change a subscription cluster to a pay-as-you-go cluster, see Change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
For more information about storage plan discounts and how to purchase a storage plan, see Purchase a storage plan.