Alibaba Cloud billing methods and cost optimization - Expenses and Costs

Alibaba Cloud billing consists of two parts: billing items (what you pay for) and billing methods (how you pay).

Total cost = resource usage per billing item x unit price. Choose the right billing method to control your cloud spending.

Billing methods

Alibaba Cloud offers two billing methods: pay-as-you-go and subscription. Subscription includes subscription instances, Savings Plans, and resource plans.

Billing method		Definition	Features
Pay-as-you-go		Use resources first, pay later. Billed hourly or by the second.	Flexible. Release resources at any time.
Subscription	Subscription	Prepaid. Get stable service for a fixed period.	Exclusive resources, more cost-effective than pay-as-you-go.
	Savings Plan	Commit to a fixed-term spend for deeper discounts than pay-as-you-go.	Offsets costs across different instances under the same product.
	Resource plan	Pre-purchase a fixed amount of usage (storage, traffic) to offset pay-as-you-go charges.	Directly offsets resource usage.

Pay-as-you-go

Pay-as-you-go is a post-paid billing method that charges based on resource runtime, data volume processed, or number of requests. Resources are available immediately with no upfront planning required, but unit prices are higher than other billing methods.

Pay-as-you-go resources are metered by the second. Billing details are generated hourly or daily, and the monthly bill is issued on the 3rd of the following month.

Key considerations:

Hourly billing data may be delayed.
Billing stops after you release the resources.
When releasing a primary instance, check whether associated resources such as Elastic IP Addresses (EIPs) and snapshots are also released to avoid unexpected charges. Enable spending alerts and use budget management tools to monitor expenses.

Subscription instances

Subscription instances let you prepay for a fixed duration to get lower unit prices. Longer terms yield deeper discounts. Resources are dedicated, immediately available after purchase, and provide predictable costs.

Key considerations:

Resources stop and data is deleted upon expiration. Enable auto-renewal to prevent service interruptions.
Refund amounts are calculated based on usage duration and applicable discounts.

Savings Plan

A Savings Plan is a discount benefit that lets you commit to a minimum hourly spend over a fixed term (1, 3, or 5 years) in exchange for discounted pay-as-you-go prices on eligible resources.

When combined with pay-as-you-go, a Savings Plan provides significant discounts while keeping resources flexible.

Key considerations:

Savings Plans do not support refunds. Confirm the offset scope before purchase.
You are charged the committed amount regardless of actual usage.
Usage beyond the committed amount is billed at standard pay-as-you-go rates.

Resource plans

A resource plan is a prepaid billing method that automatically offsets usage at prices lower than pay-as-you-go.

Two types are available:

Capacity-based: You define a total usage allowance at purchase. The allowance decreases as you consume resources and resets to zero upon expiration.
Usage-based: The allowance resets each period (hourly, daily, or monthly). Unused portions do not carry over to the next period.

Key considerations:

Allowances reset to zero upon expiration and cannot be carried over or extended.
Resource plans offset only specific products and billing items. Confirm the offset scope before purchase.
Some resource plans require specific conditions to take effect.
Refund support varies by product.

What is the difference between Savings Plans and resource plans?

A Savings Plan is spending-based: you commit to an hourly spend amount on compute resources such as ECS, ECI, and ApsaraDB RDS without locking into specific instance types. This provides flexibility across different configurations.

A resource plan is usage-based: you purchase a fixed quantity of storage or network resources such as OSS storage plans or CDN data transfer plans, measured in gigabytes or offset counts.

Billing items

A billing item is the smallest metering unit for Alibaba Cloud resources and services. Each billing item corresponds to a distinct type of resource consumption with its own metrics, billing cycle, and unit price.

Billing items fall into two categories:

Basic billing items: Charges based on compute, storage, and network usage. Examples include instance type fees (ECS), storage fees (disks, OSS), data transfer fees (outbound Internet traffic, CDN), request fees (API calls), and compute fees (CPU and memory duration).
Value-added billing items: Fees for advanced capabilities such as image processing, transfer acceleration, and software subscriptions.

Billing items combine with billing methods to calculate usage and generate bills. Final cost = usage of each billing item x unit price.

Choose a billing method

The key to choosing a billing method is understanding your workload patterns.

Stable workloads suit prepaid methods to lock in costs. Fluctuating workloads suit pay-as-you-go for elasticity. Combine methods to balance cost and flexibility.

Stable workloads: lock in costs with subscription instances

For systems with fixed configurations that run continuously, such as enterprise websites and core databases. Multi-year purchases receive higher discounts and ensure high availability.

Elastic workloads: reduce costs flexibly with Savings Plans

For scenarios that require frequent configuration changes, such as fast-iterating Internet applications and growing SaaS services. Balances discounts with upgrade and downgrade flexibility, avoiding refund losses from subscription changes.

Fluctuating workloads: elastic response with layered cost reduction

For workloads with periodic load fluctuations, such as daytime peaks and nighttime lows, or busy weekdays and idle weekends:

Base load: Use a Savings Plan to lock in costs.
Fluctuating portion: Use pay-as-you-go for on-demand scaling.

This approach balances cost optimization and resource efficiency, preventing overpayment for peak loads or idle resources during off-peak periods.

Burst workloads: start and stop on demand with zero idle costs

For unpredictable traffic surges such as sales promotions, marketing campaigns, and trending events. Use pay-as-you-go to scale out before events and release resources immediately afterward. No advance planning required, no idle costs incurred.

Exploratory workloads: experiment flexibly and pay on demand

For early-stage projects with uncertain usage, such as MVP validation, technology evaluation, and POC testing:

Use pay-as-you-go. Start resources as needed, release when finished, and pay only for actual usage.
After validation, migrate to subscription instances or a Savings Plan for lower costs.

Storage and data transfer: batch purchase with automatic offset

For stable, predictable usage such as log storage, data backup, and CDN data transfer. Estimate average monthly usage from historical consumption and purchase a matching resource plan. Offsets apply automatically with no manual intervention, offering better value than pay-as-you-go.

Combination strategies

Most production environments combine multiple billing methods. A typical strategy:

Core stable load: Use subscription instances or a Savings Plan to lock in base costs.
Elastic scaling portion: Use pay-as-you-go to handle peak demands.
Storage and data transfer: Use resource plans for bulk purchases to get discounts.

Stable workloads: lock in costs

For production systems with fixed configurations that run continuously, such as enterprise websites and core databases, subscription instances are the recommended choice. Multi-year purchases typically receive greater discounts. These workloads require high resource availability and have a low frequency of configuration changes.

For long-running workloads that require frequent configuration changes, such as fast-iterating Internet applications and growing SaaS services, a Savings Plan combined with pay-as-you-go is more suitable. This combination retains upgrade and downgrade flexibility while providing discounted pricing, avoiding the refund losses associated with subscription instance changes.

Fluctuating workloads: elastic response

When workload patterns show clear periodic fluctuations, such as daytime peaks and nighttime lows or busy weekdays and idle weekends, adopt a layered strategy: purchase a Savings Plan for base load costs and use pay-as-you-go for the fluctuating portion. This avoids overpaying for peak loads and wasting resources during off-peak periods.

For unpredictable traffic surges such as e-commerce promotions, marketing campaigns, and trending events, pay-as-you-go is the best choice. Scale out before the event to handle traffic spikes and release resources immediately afterward. No advance planning required, no idle resource costs.

Exploratory workloads: experiment flexibly

When usage is uncertain during early project stages, such as new product MVP validation, technology evaluation, or POC test environments, pay-as-you-go minimizes experimentation costs.

Create test environments on demand, release them after testing, and pay only for actual usage. After validating the business model and clarifying resource requirements, switch to a prepaid plan for better cost efficiency.

Storage and data transfer: batch purchase

For stable, predictable storage and data transfer usage such as log storage, data backup, and network acceleration traffic, resource plans offer the best value.

Estimate average monthly consumption from historical data and purchase a matching resource plan. Offsets apply automatically with no additional steps required.

FAQ

Pay-as-you-go

Why do I keep incurring fees on my account?

Pay-as-you-go resources are running on your account, possibly in a rarely used region or created by another user who shares the account. Check your resources and spending:

View the Bill Overview page. Select a billing month to analyze your consumption by product.
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console. On the Overview page, check your cloud resources across all regions. Pay special attention to regions that you do not use often.

I created an ECS instance but never logged on to use it. Why am I still being charged?

Pay-as-you-go billing starts when a resource is created, regardless of whether you log on to use it. To stop charges, use the cost-saving shutdown feature or release the resource.

I released my pay-as-you-go resources. Why am I still receiving bills?

Shutting down a resource does not always stop billing. If fees continue after release, check these causes:

Unreleased associated resources: Releasing a primary instance such as ECS does not automatically release associated resources like Elastic IP Addresses (EIPs) or snapshots. These resources continue to incur fees.
Billing delay: Pay-as-you-go bills are generated hourly. For example, if you release a resource at 10:08, the bill for the 10:00-11:00 cycle is still generated after 11:00.

Subscription

Which scenarios are suitable for subscription instances?

Subscription instances let you commit to specific resource specifications for a fixed period at lower prices than pay-as-you-go. Resources shut down upon expiration. This billing method suits workloads with clear budget planning and stable demand, such as 24/7 web services.

Savings Plan

Which scenarios are suitable for purchasing a Savings Plan?

Variable resource usage: Frequent ECS upgrades and downgrades, such as scaling up before promotions and scaling down afterward, incur hidden switching costs under subscription. A Savings Plan with pay-as-you-go eliminates these costs because you can adjust resources freely without refund penalties.
Time-varying demands: When teams use different resources at different times, such as ECS by day and ECI by night, subscriptions waste capacity during unused periods. A Savings Plan offsets both ECS and ECI pay-as-you-go fees, reducing total costs.

What advantages does a Savings Plan have over subscription and resource plans?

A Savings Plan provides significant discounts while keeping resource usage flexible.

Compared to subscriptions, a Savings Plan with pay-as-you-go lets you adjust resources freely without locking in specifications upfront.
Compared to resource plans, a Savings Plan offsets a broader range of services, improving both flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

I want to purchase an ECS Savings Plan. Does the system provide recommended purchase plans?

If you have purchased ECS or ECI pay-as-you-go resources, go to the Savings Plan Purchase Plan Calculation page to view recommended configurations and evaluate suitable purchase plans. Enter the Savings Plan type, subscription duration, and payment method. The system automatically calculates optimization suggestions and the hourly committed spend, along with expected savings for your reference.

Can I continue to use the free trial after purchasing a Savings Plan? What if I want to use the purchased portion after 3 months?

Yes. After you purchase a Savings Plan, the free trial continues to apply first. The Savings Plan offsets any usage that exceeds the trial quota.

Once a Savings Plan takes effect, you are charged the committed amount even if you have no usage to offset. To start using the Savings Plan after 3 months, specify the effective time when you purchase the plan.

How can I view the fees saved by a Savings Plan?

Go to the Savings Plan Overview page to view saved amounts, usage details, utilization rates, and coverage rates. Adjust your committed spend based on current usage and coverage data.

Can I set a stop time after a Savings Plan takes effect?

No. A Savings Plan requires you to commit to a certain amount of spend over a period of time in exchange for lower prices. You cannot pause or stop it before the term ends.

Do Savings Plans support unsubscription? If so, how is the refund amount calculated?

Savings Plans do not support unsubscription.

I purchased a Savings Plan. Why am I still receiving pay-as-you-go bills?

After purchasing a Savings Plan, you may still receive pay-as-you-go bills if your instances fall outside the plan scope, offsetting rules limit coverage, or the plan has not yet taken effect. Troubleshoot as follows:

Scope mismatch: Verify that the plan covers the service and billing items you are using.
Offset rules: Check the offset order and scope. For example, compute-optimized ECS plans are limited to specific regions and instance families.
Effective time: Confirm that the plan has started offsetting fees.

If issues persist, review the Savings Plan documentation or contact customer service.

Resource Plans

Which scenarios are suitable for purchasing resource plans?

Resource plans let you purchase a fixed amount of usage upfront at discounted pay-as-you-go prices. They suit storage and traffic products with clear budget planning and predictable consumption, while maintaining resource usage flexibility.

I purchased a resource plan. Why am I still receiving pay-as-you-go bills?

If your pay-as-you-go bills are not offset after purchasing a resource plan, check these causes:

Scope mismatch: Confirm that the resource plan covers the service and billing items you are using.
Effective time: New plans may have a delay before offsetting begins. Check whether the plan has taken effect for the current billing period.
Non-covered items: Resource plans offset only specific services. For example, a transcoding plan cannot offset storage usage. Different resource plans cannot offset each other.
Unmet conditions: Some plans require specific configurations. For example, ApsaraVideo VOD data transfer plans require an accelerated domain name with pay-by-data-transfer billing enabled.

If issues persist, review the resource plan documentation or contact customer service.

Do resource plans support unsubscription? If so, how is the refund amount calculated?

Whether a resource plan supports unsubscription depends on the specific product rules.

Resource plans that support unsubscription fall into two scenarios: full refund for unused resources and partial refund.

For partial refunds, the refund amount is calculated as follows: Refund amount = Order payable amount - Consumed amount. The consumed amount is calculated based on the following rules:

For capacity-based resource plans, the consumed amount is linearly prorated based on usage.
For usage-based resource plans, the consumed amount is calculated based on the actual usage duration.

Unsubscription Rules.