PolarDB:Billing rules for storage

Precautions

• 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 plan 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.

Benefits

• 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).

  Note

  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.

• 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

Scenarios

Your Alibaba Cloud account has a small amount of data stored in the clusters in specific regions, and the amount of data generated by your business is prone to frequent fluctuations.

Pricing

Hourly prices of pay-as-you-go storage