When a Resource Plan goes unused or under-used, you pay for capacity that generates no savings. The Expenses and Costs console provides four views to help you track consumption: an instance overview, a per-deduction log, a utilization report, and a coverage report. Use these views to detect waste, verify deductions against bills, and decide whether to renew, upgrade, or purchase additional Resource Plans.
View resource plan overview
The Instances tab gives you a snapshot of each Resource Plan instance: its total capacity, remaining balance, and current status.
Log on to the Resource Plan page, select Resource PlanResource Packages, then click the Instances tab.
Set Effective At and Status filters, enter a Resource Plan ID if needed, and click Search.
To check whether a Resource Plan is being consumed, compare Total capacity with Remaining capacity. If Remaining capacity is less than Total capacity, the plan has been partially used. Click Statistics in the Actions column to see the deduction breakdown for that plan.
By default, data for the current account is displayed. If you are logged on with a management account, filter by account to view data for member accounts.
The following table describes the parameters on the Instances tab.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Resource purchase account | The account that purchased the Resource Plan. |
| Product name | The Alibaba Cloud product to which the Resource Plan belongs. |
| Commodity name | The name of the Resource Plan, such as Reserved Instance or Storage Capacity Unit. |
| Resource plan type | The category of the Resource Plan, such as Compute Plan or Reserved Capacity. |
| Resource plan ID | The ID of the Resource Plan instance. |
| Instance type | The type of instance the Resource Plan can offset, such as ecs.g6.large. |
| Eligible region | The product region that the Resource Plan can offset. |
| Status | The current state of the Resource Plan. Valid values: Active (in effect and available for deductions), Exhausted (not expired but has no remaining balance), Expired (past its expiration date). |
| Commitment cycle | The quota refresh cycle of the Resource Plan (formerly "Capacity Category"). There are six types: No Period, Hourly, Daily, and Monthly. Monthly has three subtypes: Free Trial, By Calendar Month, and By Dynamic Month. See the commitment cycle table below for details. |
| Total capacity | The total resource capacity or usage you selected when purchasing the Resource Plan. |
| Remaining capacity | The remaining balance for No Period type plans. Decreases with usage. When it reaches 0, the plan is exhausted. |
| Period capacity | The remaining capacity for the current period. Applies to non-No-Period plans with Active status. For Expired plans, equals Total capacity. Displayed as "-" for No Period plans. |
| Capacity unit | The unit for the plan's capacity specification, such as GB or CU\*H. Displayed as "-" for No Period plans. |
| Purchase time | The time when the Resource Plan instance was purchased. |
| Effective/expiration time | The start and end times of the effective period. Only usage within this range can be offset by the Resource Plan. |
| Actions | Available operations: Statistics (view deduction details and consumption distribution), Renew (available for certain plan types, such as OSS storage plans), Upgrade (available for plans that support dynamic adjustments, such as storage plans), Replace (available for plans that support flexible adjustments, such as OSS storage plans). |
The following table describes the commitment cycle types.
| Commitment cycle | How it works |
|---|---|
| No Period | Deductions are made based on actual consumption until the balance reaches zero or the plan expires. |
| Hourly | A fixed quota is provided every hour. Unused quota does not carry over to the next hour. |
| Daily | A fixed quota is provided every day. Unused quota does not carry over to the next day. |
| Monthly — Free Trial | If activated mid-month, the first and last months share a single quota. In other months, unused quota does not carry over. |
| Monthly — By Calendar Month | A fixed monthly quota is restored on the first day of each month. Unused quota does not carry over. |
| Monthly — By Dynamic Month | A fixed monthly quota is restored on the day after the monthly purchase date. Unused quota does not carry over. |
View resource plan usage details
The Details tab shows a per-deduction log: which pay-as-you-go instances were offset, when, by how much, and at what deduction coefficient. Use this data to cross-reference deductions against your pay-as-you-go bills.
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.Expenses and CostsExpenses and Costs
In the left navigation pane, choose Billing Account > Resource Packages.
Click the Details tab under Resource Packages.
Set Start time of deducted instance, enter a Resource Plan ID or Deducted instance ID if needed, and click Search.
The following table describes the parameters on the Details tab.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Resource purchase account | The account that purchased the Resource Plan. |
| Product name | The Alibaba Cloud product to which the Resource Plan belongs. |
| Commodity name | The name of the Resource Plan, such as Reserved Instance or Storage Capacity Unit. |
| Resource plan type | The category of the Resource Plan, such as Compute Plan or Reserved Capacity. |
| Resource plan ID | The ID of the Resource Plan instance. |
| Commitment cycle | The quota refresh cycle of the Resource Plan. Types include No Period, Hourly, Daily, and Monthly (Free Trial, By Calendar Month, By Dynamic Month). |
| Deduct time | The time when the Resource Plan offset the usage of a pay-as-you-go cloud resource. |
| Before deduct capacity | The balance of the Resource Plan immediately before this deduction. |
| Deducted capacity | The amount of pay-as-you-go usage offset by the plan in this deduction. |
| Post deduct capacity | The remaining balance of the Resource Plan after this deduction. |
| Deducted resource owner account | The account that owns the cloud resource whose usage was offset. |
| Deducted commodity | The pay-as-you-go commodity whose usage was offset by the Resource Plan. |
| Deducted instance ID | The instance ID of the cloud resource whose usage was offset. |
| Deducted billable item | The billable item whose usage was offset, such as an instance or a system disk. |
| Original usage of instance | The actual usage of the deducted cloud resource. This may differ from Deducted capacity because of the deduct coefficient. |
| Deduct coefficient | The ratio applied when the Resource Plan offsets cloud resource usage. For example, if 0.13 GiB of SCU capacity offsets 1 GiB of PDS storage, the coefficient is 0.13. |
| Start time of deducted instance | The start time of the billing cycle for the deducted cloud resource instance. |
| End time of deducted instance | The end time of the billing cycle for the deducted cloud resource instance. |
| Resource plan owner account | The account that owns the Resource Plan instance. |
View resource plan utilization
Utilization measures how much of your purchased Resource Plan capacity is being consumed. It answers: "Am I getting full use of what I bought?" Low utilization means you are paying for unused capacity.
Utilization = Used Amount / Total Amount
For example, if a Reserved Instance (RI) provides 640 compute units per hour and your workloads consumed 576 compute units in a given hour, utilization for that hour is 90% (576 / 640).
The utilization overview is currently supported only for Reserved Instances (RI) and Storage Capacity Units (SCU).
The utilization overview also shows these summary values for the selected statistical period:
Total on-demand instance cost: The sum of the Equivalent on-demand cost within the period.
Total resource purchase cost: The sum of the costs for purchasing Resource Plans within the period.
Total savings: The sum of actual savings within the period.
Total potential savings: The savings that would be achieved at 100% utilization.
To view utilization:
Log on to the console.
In the left navigation pane, choose Account > Resource Packages.
Under Resource type, select RI or SCU, then click the Usage tab.
In the filter panel on the right, select a Budget name to filter by budget, choose a Time granularity and Range, and apply additional filters such as Service, RI type, and Operating system
The following table describes the parameters on the Usage tab.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Account | The account that owns the Resource Plan instance. |
| Resource ID | The ID of the Resource Plan instance. |
| Start/end time | The start and end time of the deduction period. |
| Status | The status of the Resource Plan: Active, Exhausted, or Expired. |
| Region | The product region that the Resource Plan can offset. |
| Zone | The product zone that the Resource Plan can offset. |
| Instance type | The type of instance the Resource Plan can offset, such as ecs.g6.large. |
| Pay-as-you-go instances reserved | The number of resources in the current Resource Plan. |
| Operating system | The operating system that the Resource Plan can offset. Currently, only Reserved Instances have an operating system. |
| Usage | The ratio of Deducted quantity to Total quantity within the statistical period. |
| Deducted quantity | The amount of pay-as-you-go cloud resource usage offset by the Resource Plan during the period. |
| Total quantity | The total capacity the Resource Plan provides during the period. For example, an RI might provide 640 compute units per hour. |
| Resource price | The total cost of purchasing the Resource Plan during the period. |
| Equivalent Pay-as-you-go Price | The pay-as-you-go cost that would have been incurred for the usage that was offset by the Resource Plan. |
| Net savings | Net Savings = Equivalent Pay-as-you-go Price - Resource purchase cost. |
| Potential net savings | The savings that would be achieved at 100% utilization. |
View resource plan coverage
Coverage measures how much of your pay-as-you-go instance usage is protected by Resource Plans. It answers: "Have I purchased enough Resource Plans to cover my workloads?" Low coverage means pay-as-you-go costs remain that could be reduced by purchasing additional Resource Plans.
Coverage = Deducted Quantity / Total Usage
For example, if 10 identical instances are running and 9 are covered by a Resource Plan, coverage is 90% (9 / 10). The remaining 10% is billed at pay-as-you-go rates.
The coverage overview is currently supported only for Reserved Instances (RI) and Storage Capacity Units (SCU).
To view coverage:
Log on to the console.
In the left navigation pane, choose Account > Resource Packages.
Under Resource type, select RI or SCU, then click the Coverage tab.
In the filter panel on the right, choose a Time granularity and Range, and apply filters such as Product detail, Owner account name, and Operating system. Click Search to view the coverage overview and details.
The following table describes the parameters on the Coverage tab.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Account name | The account to which the pay-as-you-go cloud resource instance belongs. |
| Owner account name | The account that owns the pay-as-you-go instance. |
| Product name | The product name of the pay-as-you-go instance. |
| Article name | The commodity to which the pay-as-you-go cloud resource instance belongs. |
| Pay-as-you-go instance ID | The ID of the pay-as-you-go cloud resource instance. |
| Start/end time | The time range for which coverage is calculated. |
| Region | The region of the pay-as-you-go cloud resource instance. |
| Instance type | The type of the pay-as-you-go cloud resource instance. |
| Coverage | The ratio of Deducted quantity to Total usage. |
| Deducted quantity | The total usage of the pay-as-you-go resource instance offset during the period, for example, 100 GB. |
| Total quantity | The total usage of the pay-as-you-go resource instance during the period, for example, 120 GB. |
| Require amount | The billable amount for the pay-as-you-go instance after deductions are applied. |