This topic provides important information about unsubscribing from cloud resources in Alibaba Cloud. Carefully read this topic to prevent adverse impacts on your business. Unsubscription is supported for Alibaba Cloud resources in the following scenarios: unsubscribe from in-use resources, cancel the cloud resource renewal order that has not taken effect, automatically unsubscribe from cloud resources that fail to be created or updated, request a refund for the downgrade of cloud resource specifications, request a refund for the change of the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go, and request a refund for in-kind products. （Users who use cloud services via Alibaba Cloud Partners have to ask your partners about usage fees and refund.）
Unsubscription is only supported for cloud resources that are billed in the subscription method, such as resource plans. If you want to terminate a cloud service, you must release the cloud resources in the cloud service based on the unsubscription rules. Refunds are issued accordingly.
For pay-as-you-go cloud resources, you can release or delete them in the console. You cannot request refunds for used pay-as-you-go cloud resources.
For information about how to unsubscribe from cloud resources, see Methods for unsubscribing from resources.
Unsubscribe from in-use cloud resources
If you no longer require an in-use cloud resource or a cloud resource that is about to take effect in renewal cycles, you can unsubscribe from the cloud resource.
After you unsubscribe from a resource plan, the resources whose fees are deducted from the resource plan are billed in the pay-as-you-go method. Make sure that the account balance in your Alibaba Cloud account is sufficient.
Before you unsubscribe from an instance, make sure that data is migrated or backed up. You can log on to the console to view the status of the instance.
Cloud services that support self-service unsubscription
Category | Service |
Elastic computing | Simple application server |
If you purchased a service during a promotional event, and the refund rule of the promotional event conflicts with the general refund rule, the refund rule of the promotional event takes precedence. Some promotional events do not support refunds.
The usage duration refers to the actual consumption duration of the subscribed resources. For example, if you purchase an instance for one year and request a refund after you use the instance for 10 days, the usage duration is 10 days. The usage duration is accurate to days, and a usage duration that is shorter than one day is rounded up to one day.
Price of subscription resources per day = Order price/Order duration
Refund calculation
Refundable amount = Paid amount - Fees for consumed resources
"Paid amount" refers to the actual amount that you paid for the order, excluding the amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons.
Fees for consumed resources = Price of subscription resources per day x Usage duration x Discount available for the usage duration.
Cancel the cloud resource renewal order that has not taken effect
You can cancel a cloud resource renewal order that has not taken effect. For information about unsubscribing from effective cloud resources, see the "Unsubscribe from in-use cloud resources" section.
If you change the resources before the renewal order takes effect, you can unsubscribe from only the resources. In this case, you cannot cancel the resource renewal order.
You cannot cancel the renewal order that has not taken effect for resource plans.
Refund calculation
Refundable amount = Paid amount
"Paid amount" refers to the actual amount that you paid for the order, excluding the amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons.
Automatically unsubscribe from cloud resources that fail to be created or updated
If an order contains cloud resources that fail to be activated, the system automatically cancels the subscription to the resources that fail to be activated.
To view the activation status of resources in an order, see Orders.
If a package product, such as a solution package or plan, contains cloud resources that fail to be activated, the system cancels subscriptions to all resources in the package.
Refund calculation
You receive a full refund if you purchased resources that fail to be created or updated. The refund includes the coupons that you used for the order.
Request a refund for the downgrade of resource specifications
When the specifications of your subscription instance exceed your business requirements, you can downgrade the instance specifications in real time if you are granted permissions to perform real-time configuration downgrades. When you downgrade instance specifications, the system calculates the refund based on the following rules:
When you downgrade the specifications of an instance, the original order is canceled and a new order with downgraded specifications is generated. If you refund later, the usage duration and fees for consumed resources in the new order are used to calculate the refund.
If you purchase a resource during a promotional event, the refundable amount may be smaller than zero. In this case, you cannot receive a refund.
The usage duration refers to the actual consumption duration of the resources that you purchased in the order. For example, if you purchase an instance for one year and request a refund after you use the instance for 10 days, the usage duration is 10 days. The usage duration is accurate to days, and a usage duration that is shorter than one day is rounded up to one day.
Refund calculation
Refundable amount for the downgrade of resource specifications = Online refund amount × Price difference ratio between new and original orders. If you request refunds for multiple orders, the sum of the refund for each order is calculated.
Online refundable amount: Online refundable amount = Paid amount - Fees for consumed resources
"Paid amount" refers to the actual amount that you paid for the order, excluding the amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons.
Fees for consumed resources = Price of subscription resources per day x Usage duration x Discount available for the usage duration.
Price difference ratio between new and original orders: Price difference ratio between new and original orders = (Daily unit price of the original order - Daily unit price of the new order)/Daily unit price difference of the original order
Daily unit price difference of the original order
If the instance specifications are not upgraded before the downgrade is performed, the daily unit price difference of the original order is equal to the daily unit price of the original order.
If the instance specifications are upgraded before the downgrade is performed, the daily unit price difference of the original order is equal to the daily unit price of the original order minus the daily unit price of the order before the upgrade.
Daily unit price = Original order price/Actual duration of the order.
If the price difference ratio between the new order and the original order is greater than 1, the ratio is rounded up to 1.
The daily unit price of the original order, the daily unit price of the new order after the downgrade, and the daily unit price of the original order before the upgrade do not include discounts.
Request a refund after the change of the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go
After you create a subscription instance, you can change its billing method to pay-as-you-go to save costs and flexibly use the instance resources. When the billing method is changed, the fees of resources that are not consumed are refunded. The refund is calculated based on the following rules:
The refundable amount is equal to the actual amount that you paid for the order, excluding the amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons.
The usage duration refers to the actual consumption duration of the resources that you purchased in the order. For example, if you purchase an instance for one year and request a refund after you use the instance for 10 days, the usage duration is 10 days. The usage duration is accurate to days, and a usage duration that is shorter than one day is rounded up to one day.
Refund calculation
Refundable amount = Paid amount - Fees for consumed resources
"Paid amount" refers to the actual amount that you paid for the order, excluding the amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons.
Fees for consumed resources = Price of subscription resources per day x Usage duration x Discount available for the usage duration.
Request a refund for in-kind products
In-kind products are delivered offline. Before you request a refund, contact the after-sales personnel and confirm that the product is refundable. Then, submit a ticket for manual processing.
Note
If the refund period is elapsed for your product, you cannot request a refund for your product.