PolarDB Cluster Expiration & Overdue Payment Policies Overview - PolarDB - Alibaba Cloud - PolarDB

PolarDB applies different rules for cluster expiration and overdue payments based on the cluster's billing method. If your cluster has expired or has an overdue payment, you can renew your subscription or add funds to your account to unlock the cluster.

Warning

An expired cluster or a cluster with an overdue payment is at risk of service suspension. You will be notified. To avoid service disruptions, renew your subscription or add funds to your account promptly.

Recommendations

To prevent service interruptions, perform a manual renewal for your subscription cluster before it expires, or enable auto-renewal.
Ensure your account has a sufficient balance.

Expiration and overdue payment policies

Subscription

Time period	Cluster status	Billing details	Actions
Days 1–15 after expiration	The cluster runs normally.	compute nodes: No fees are charged. When you renew, the new subscription period starts from the original expiration date. storage space: If your storage space billing method is subscription, no fees are charged. When you renew, the new subscription period starts from the original expiration date. Note If your data grows beyond the provisioned storage space and triggers an automatic scale-up during this period, you will be charged for the additional storage space. If your storage space billing method is pay-as-you-go, you are billed at standard rates. backup storage (exceeding the free quota): If the backup size of your cluster exceeds the free quota, you are billed for the excess usage at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged for this item. SQL Explorer and cold data archiving: If these features are enabled, you are billed at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged.	You can perform a manual renewal to prevent the cluster from being suspended and locked after the grace period.
Days 16–30 after expiration	The cluster is suspended and locked, making it inaccessible.	compute nodes, storage space, and SQL Explorer: No fees are charged. backup storage (exceeding the free quota): If the backup size of your cluster exceeds the free quota, you are billed for the excess usage at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged for this item. cold data archiving: If this feature is enabled, you are billed at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged.	While the cluster is locked, you can perform a manual renewal. After renewal, the cluster is unlocked and resumes normal operation.
Day 31 after expiration (after 15 days of suspension)	The cluster is released.	After release, the data retention policy is as follows: If your cluster's backup retention policy is set to Retain This Backup Set Permanently (Perform a Full Backup Before Release) or Retain All Backup Sets Permanently, the cluster data is retained in the cluster recycle bin, and you will be charged for storage. If your cluster's backup retention policy is set to Delete All Backup Sets Immediately, the cluster is permanently released. The data is deleted and cannot be recovered. No fees are charged.	If the cluster is moved to the cluster recycle bin after release, you can restore the released cluster.

Pay-as-you-go and serverless

When your Alibaba Cloud account has an overdue payment, all pay-as-you-go and serverless clusters under the account become overdue.

Time period	Cluster status	Billing details	Actions
Days 1–15 after payment is overdue	The cluster runs normally.	The cluster continues to be billed normally for each billable item according to standard rates.	You can add funds to your Alibaba Cloud account to prevent the cluster from being suspended and locked.
Days 16–30 after payment is overdue	The cluster is suspended and locked, making it inaccessible.	compute nodes, storage space, and SQL Explorer: No fees are charged. backup storage (exceeding the free quota): If the backup size of your cluster exceeds the free quota, you are billed for the excess usage at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged for this item. cold data archiving: If this feature is enabled, you are billed at standard rates. Otherwise, no fees are charged.	While the cluster is locked, add funds to your Alibaba Cloud account. After the payment is settled, the cluster is unlocked and resumes normal operation. Note Before you add funds, check the payment methods configured for your Alibaba Cloud account.
Day 31 after payment is overdue (after 15 days of suspension)	The cluster is released.	After release, the data retention policy is as follows: If your cluster's backup retention policy is set to Retain This Backup Set Permanently (Perform a Full Backup Before Release) or Retain All Backup Sets Permanently, the cluster data is retained in the cluster recycle bin, and you will be charged for storage. If your cluster's backup retention policy is set to Delete All Backup Sets Immediately, the cluster is permanently released. The data is deleted and cannot be recovered. No fees are charged.	If the cluster is moved to the cluster recycle bin after release, you can restore the released cluster.

FAQ

Subscription expiration fees

It depends. Fees may apply based on your cluster's storage billing method and usage, backup storage usage, use of value-added features, and the backup policy applied after the cluster is released. For details, see the billing information for expired subscription clusters.

If you no longer need the subscription cluster, manually release its resources to avoid further charges.

Billing after cluster release

Two common reasons:

Delayed pay-as-you-go bills: Pay-as-you-go charges are finalized after the billing cycle ends, so bills can arrive after you release the cluster. This applies to pay-as-you-go clusters and to pay-as-you-go items (such as storage) within a subscription cluster. Check the Bills page in the PolarDB console for details.

Backup storage after release: If your backup policy is set to When the cluster is released, the cluster data is automatically backed up, and the latest backup set is retained for a long period of time., backup storage costs continue after the cluster is released. To stop these charges, delete the backup sets from the cluster recycle bin. For details, see Permanently delete a released cluster.

My cluster is locked but still shows available storage space. What do I do?

This applies to ESSD clusters only. When an ESSD disk becomes full, PolarDB locks the disk and sets it to read-only to prevent data corruption. A 3 GB buffer is reserved, so the disk locks before the displayed available space reaches zero.

To resolve this, choose one of the following options:

Configure automatic storage scaling for ESSDs to prevent the disk from filling up again.
Manually scale out the storage capacity to immediately increase available space.

Tip: To avoid unexpected locks, configure automatic storage scaling when you set up an ESSD cluster.

For more frequently asked questions, see FAQ.