If you use the pay-as-you-go + storage plans billing method for your cluster, the consumed storage is first deducted from the available amount in the storage plans. After your storage plans are exhausted, you are charged for the excess storage capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis. This is the recommended billing method.
Usage notes
Storage plans can be applied to all PolarDB clusters in the regions that are specified by the Resource Plan Type parameter. You can select Chinese Mainland or Outside Chinese Mainland for the parameter.
If the storage plan capacity is insufficient, you can purchase a new storage plan or upgrade the storage plan. For information about how to upgrade a storage plan, see the "Upgrade a storage plan" section of the Renew or upgrade a storage package topic. You cannot downgrade a storage plan after you purchase it.
If the amount of used storage exceeds the capacity of your storage plan, you are charged for excess storage usage on a pay-as-you-go basis.
For example, you created three PolarDB clusters that each have 400 GB of storage. If you purchase a storage plan that has 1,000 GB of capacity and the clusters share the storage plan, the excess 200 GB of storage usage is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information, see View the database storage usage.
Advantages
The pay-as-you-go + storage plans billing method offers the cost-effectiveness of the subscription billing method and the flexibility of the pay-as-you-go billing method.
A serverless architecture is adopted for billing excess storage, eliminating the need to specify storage capacity during cluster purchases. The storage capacity automatically scales with data volume, and you are charged only for the storage you use.
In most cases, the pay-as-you-go + storage plans billing method is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method. The discount rate offered by a storage plan varies based on the storage capacity and validity period of the storage plan. The discount rate can reach 45%, compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method.
This billing method has extensive coverage. Storage plans take effect for all clusters in a specific region within your Alibaba Cloud account instead of only for a single cluster.
A Chinese Mainland storage plan applies to the storage capacity consumed by all clusters in all the Chinese mainland regions under your Alibaba Cloud account.
An Outside Chinese Mainland storage plan applies to the storage capacity consumed by all clusters in the following regions under your Alibaba Cloud account: China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London).
NoteStorage plans can be used only on clusters that use the pay-as-you-go billing method for storage, and cannot be used on clusters that use the subscription billing method for storage.
When your storage plans are exhausted, data can still be written to your clusters. You are charged for the excess storage usage on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Scenarios
Your Alibaba Cloud account has a large amount of data stored in the clusters of specific regions. If you need to store a large amount of data, such as 1,000 GB or more, storage plans are more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method. Higher discounts are offered to the storage plans that provide larger storage capacities. For more information, see Purchase a storage plan.
The amount of data generated by your business is prone to frequent fluctuations.
You have multiple pay-as-you-go clusters.
Pricing
Prices of storage plans
A monthly storage plan offers savings of 10% to 25% compared to the cost of a comparable pay-as-you-go cluster. The discount increases with the duration of the storage plan. You can also upgrade a storage plan. In addition, purchasing annual storage plans entitles you to an additional 15% discount off the monthly rate. The following table describes the prices.
Capacity (GB) | Region in the Chinese mainland (USD/month) (1.7% to 28.0% off compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method) | Region outside the Chinese mainland (USD/month) (1.6% to 28.1% off compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method) |
50 | 28 (No discount) | 31 (No discount) |
100 | 55 (approximately 1.7% off) | 61 (approximately 1.6% off) |
200 | 109 (approximately 2.7% off) | 121 (approximately 2.4% off) |
300 | 163 (approximately 3% off) | 182 (approximately 2.6% off) |
500 | 271 (approximately 3.2% off) | 302 (approximately 2.6% off) |
1,000 | 490 (approximately 12.5% off) | 550 (approximately 11.3% off) |
2,000 | 980 (approximately 12.5% off) | 1,090 (approximately 12.1% off) |
3,000 | 1,210 (approximately 28.0% off) | 1,340 (approximately 28.0% off) |
5,000 | 2,020 (approximately 28.0% off) | 2,230 (approximately 28.1% off) |
Offset rules for storage plans
Storage plans can be used only on clusters that use the pay-as-you-go billing method for storage, and cannot be used on clusters that use the subscription billing method for storage.
If you want to use the dual-zone deployment architecture with hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled, contact us.
Storage plans can be used to deduct the consumed storage capacity at specific ratios. The following table lists the ratios.
Storage type | Deduction ratio | The ratios based on which storage plans are deducted for consumed storage capacity | |||
Regions in the Chinese mainland | China (Hong Kong) and regions outside China | Regions in the Chinese mainland | China (Hong Kong) and regions outside China | ||
PSL4 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 0.65 | 1.54 GB | ||
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 0.325 | 3.08 GB | |||
PSL5 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 1 | 1 GB | ||
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 0.5 | 2 GB | |||
For example, if you purchase a 50-GB storage plan for a cluster that is deployed in a region inside the Chinese mainland, has the hot standby storage cluster feature enabled, and uses PolarStore Level 4 (PSL4) to store data, the storage plan can offset the storage usage of 76.92 GB (1/0.65 × 50). If the storage plan is exhausted, you are charged for the excess storage usage on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The following table lists the actual amount of storage capacity that can be deducted from storage plans.
Capacity of a storage plan (GB) | PSL4 (GB) | PSL5 (GB) | |
50 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 76.92 | 50 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 153.84 | 100 | |
100 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 153.84 | 100 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 307.69 | 200 | |
200 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 307.69 | 200 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 615.38 | 400 | |
300 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 461.54 | 300 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 923.08 | 600 | |
500 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 769.23 | 500 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 1,538.46 | 1,000 | |
1,000 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 1,538.46 | 1,000 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 3,076.92 | 2,000 | |
2,000 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 3,076.92 | 2,000 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 6153.84 | 4,000 | |
3,000 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 4,615.38 | 3,000 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 9,230.76 | 6,000 | |
5,000 | Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster enabled) | 7,692.31 | 5,000 |
Dual-zone (hot standby storage cluster and standby compute node enabled) | |||
Single-zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled) | 15,384.62 | 10,000 | |
After your storage plans are exhausted, you are charged for the excess storage capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information about billing rules, see Billing method 2: pay-as-you-go.
Use the pay-as-you-go + storage plans billing method
For more information about how to use the pay-as-you-go billing method for your clusters, see Purchase a pay-as-you-go cluster and Purchase a subscription cluster.
For more information about the discount rates of storage plans and about how to purchase storage plans, see Purchase a storage plan.