ApsaraDB RDS:Billing

Definition: This billing method lets you use resources of your choosing for a specified period of time on an upfront payment. Longer subscription periods offer more savings.

Scenarios: You have long-running, predictable workloads.

Billing method change: You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. For more information, see Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, and Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.

Specification changes: The price for a subscription RDS instance before and after a specification change may be different. You may need to pay the price difference or receive a refund. For more information, see Change instance specifications.

Renewal: You need to renew an expired subscription RDS instance within a specific period of time if you want to continue using it. After this period of time, instance resources such as CPU cores, memory, and disks are released, and the data stored in the RDS instance is deleted. For more information, see Renewal policy.

Definition: This billing method allows you to use resources before you pay for them. After you create a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, fees for the instance are calculated based on the resources that you use and are automatically deducted from the balance of your Alibaba Cloud account every hour.

Scenarios: You have short-term workloads. If you no longer require a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you can release the instance to reduce costs.

Specification changes: Pay-as-you-go RDS instances are billed on an hourly basis. If you change the specifications of a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you are billed based on the price of the new specifications. For more information, see Change instance specifications.

If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.

Definition: A serverless RDS instance is not billed based on instance types, but based on the actual amount of resources used each hour. Resources are measured in RDS Capacity Units (RCUs). For more information, see ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL Serverless, Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances, and Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances.

Scenarios: You have intermittent or unpredictable workloads.

Billing method change:

• You can change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go.

• You can change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless.

Specification changes: The specifications of a serverless RDS instance cannot be manually changed. During the use of the instance, the system automatically scales the RCUs to suit your workloads.

If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.