PolarDB provides two billing methods for storage space: pay-as-you-go and subscription. Each billing method corresponds to a different pricing plan.
Introduction and comparison
PolarDB charges for the PSL4 and PSL5 storage classes based on storage capacity. The following table compares the two billing methods.
Billing method | Storage cost calculation | Benefits | Scenarios |
Pay-as-you-go by capacity | Charges are based on the actual storage space occupied by data. Fees are deducted from the account on an hourly basis. | Flexible | Small total storage usage for all clusters in a region under an Alibaba Cloud account, with frequent fluctuations in business volume. |
Space-based billing (subscription) | Prepay for the storage space of a cluster when you create it. | Cost-effective | Total storage usage for all clusters in a region under an Alibaba Cloud account is less than 10 TB, and business volume does not fluctuate frequently. |