Expenses and Costs:Resource plan FAQ

What is a resource plan and when should I use one?

A resource plan is a pricing model that offers discounts on pay-as-you-go rates in exchange for a commitment to a specific amount of usage. It is ideal for services like storage and data transfer when you want to lower costs with a predictable budget while retaining resource elasticity.

When does a purchased resource plan take effect?

Most resource plans take effect immediately after purchase. For certain products, you can specify an effective time, such as Storage Capacity Units (SCUs), Global Accelerator (GA) resource plan, and Application Load Balancer (ALB) resource plan.

Can resource plans be shared across accounts?

The Enterprise Finance model allows you to share reserved instances and Storage Capacity Units (SCUs) across accounts. Other resource plans do not currently support this feature.

How can I avoid pay-as-you-go bills after buying a resource plan?

If your usage exceeds the resource plan's capacity or the plan expires, the system automatically charges you at pay-as-you-go rates.

• For total-capacity resource plans, avoid exceeding the capacity: Set a balance alert to be notified when you are close to the limit. When you receive an alert, purchase a new resource plan promptly to avoid extra pay-as-you-go charges.

• Renew before expiration: To continue using a resource plan after it expires, you can renew it. If a plan does not support renewal, purchase a new one before the current plan expires.

• Stack resource plans with configurable effective times: When purchasing multiple resource plans that allow a configurable effective time (such as SCUs), set the new plan's effective time to coincide with the current plan's expiration. This prevents billing gaps and unexpected pay-as-you-go charges.

  Example

  Suppose you have a one-year resource plan (Plan A) that expires on January 1, 2024. You then purchase another one-year resource plan (Plan B). To ensure Plan B takes effect immediately after Plan A expires, set the effective time of Plan B to January 1, 2024. This practice prevents a billing gap that would result in pay-as-you-go charges.

How do I check if my purchased resource plan is being applied?

1. Navigate to the Resource Plans page.

2. In the Resource Type area, select Resource plans, and then click the Usage Details tab. Enter details such as the Resource Plan ID and Deducted Instance ID, then click Search to view the plan's usage.

I bought a resource plan, so why did I still receive a pay-as-you-go bill?

A resource plan may not offset your pay-as-you-go bill for one of the following reasons:

1. Mismatch between the resource plan and your usage scenario

   • Region or service limitations: The resource plan must exactly match the cloud product's region and service type. For example, an OSS storage plan purchased for the China (Hangzhou) region cannot be used to offset OSS storage costs in other regions.

   • Billing item mismatch: A resource plan covers only specific billing items, such as storage, data transfer, or requests. For example, an OSS resource plan offsets only storage costs. Data transfer or API requests are still billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

2. Resource plan is inactive or expired

   • Activation delay: There may be a delay before a newly purchased resource plan becomes active. Check whether the resource usage occurred before the plan's effective time. You can view the resource consumption time on the Bill Details page to confirm when the plan started offsetting charges.

   • Expired validity period: Check if the resource plan has expired. After expiration, the system automatically switches to pay-as-you-go billing.

3. Insufficient resource plan quota

   • Usage exceeds quota: When a resource plan's quota is exhausted (for example, after using all 50 GB of a data transfer plan), any additional usage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

   • Priority of multiple plans: If you have multiple resource plans that cover the same service, the system may prioritize one over the others, leaving some plans partially unused. The system applies the following deduction logic:

     • Specificity priority: The system first uses the resource plan with a more specific scope and stricter conditions.

     • Expiration priority: For similar resource plans, the system first uses the one that is closest to its expiration date.

   To avoid partial deductions caused by fragmented plan quotas, plan your resource plan purchases strategically. You can consolidate purchases or adjust validity periods to improve resource efficiency. You can also set a balance alert for a resource plan and adjust your strategy based on the notifications that you receive.

4. Configuration does not meet plan requirements

   • Mandatory configuration binding: Some resource plans must be bound to a specific configuration to take effect. For example, an ApsaraVideo VOD data transfer plan requires that you bind an accelerated domain name and ensure the domain's billing method is pay-by-data-transfer. If these conditions are not met, the resource plan is not applied.

   • Service not used: A resource plan offsets charges only when you use the corresponding service. If you do not call the relevant APIs or use the features, the system does not consume the plan's quota.

Review these possible reasons to diagnose why your resource plan is not being applied to your bills. For more information about your purchased resource plans, see Query the usage of a resource plan.

Why do I have overdue payments even after I buy a resource plan?

You may still have overdue payments after purchasing a resource plan for the following reasons:

• Your pay-as-you-go instances incurred charges for multiple billing items, but your resource plan covers only some of them.

• You purchased a resource plan for a specific region, but the usage occurred in a different region.

• Your resource plan's capacity was insufficient, and your actual usage exceeded the plan's limit.

• Billing system latency: A resource plan automatically offsets usage fees after it becomes effective, but a delay can occur in the Alibaba Cloud billing system. For example, if your plan becomes effective at 09:00, you might still receive a bill at 10:00 for charges incurred before 09:00, resulting in an overdue payment.

How is usage billed when it exceeds the resource plan quota?

After you purchase a resource plan, it first offsets your usage. The system then charges any usage exceeding the plan's quota at pay-as-you-go rates. If your usage significantly exceeds the quota, consider upgrading your resource plan or purchasing additional plans to stack capacity.

Can I buy a resource plan to cover existing overdue payments?

No. A resource plan can only offset usage generated after its purchase. To settle existing overdue payments, you must add funds to your account.

How is the pay-as-you-go equivalent cost for a reserved instance calculated?

The pay-as-you-go equivalent cost represents the cost of the usage offset by a reserved instance, calculated at standard pay-as-you-go rates.

Why do my resource plan and subscription instance have different expiration times?

• A subscription instance is analogous to purchasing a physical device. To account for creation and setup time, the day of purchase is provided at no cost.

• A resource plan is analogous to purchasing a discount coupon. Its validity period is calculated strictly from the time of purchase for the specified duration, with no grace period.

For example, assume that you place an order at 15:30 on June 29 for a 1-month term.

Why do resource plans have different activation times?

This difference is determined automatically by the billing cycle of the covered cloud service.

This ensures the resource plan can immediately cover the first bill generated after your purchase.

• When offsetting billing items that are billed on an hourly basis:

  • The resource plan activates on the hour.

  • For example, if you make a purchase at 15:30, the plan activates at 15:00 to offset the bill that is generated from 15:00 to 16:00.

• When offsetting billing items that are billed on a daily basis:

  • The resource plan activates at midnight on the day of purchase.

  • For example, if you make a purchase at 15:30 on June 29, the plan activates at 00:00 on June 29 to offset the bill for the entire day of June 29.

What happens when a resource plan expires?

If you have another applicable resource plan, the system automatically uses it. Otherwise, the system bills your usage at pay-as-you-go rates.

What to do with expiring or expired resource plans?

Before the resource plan expires: If you want to continue to benefit from the discounts of a resource plan, you can choose to renew the resource plan. If you want to offset usage only with the remaining quota within the current validity period, no action is required.

After the resource plan expires: Expiration does not affect your pay-as-you-go instances. If you want to continue to benefit from the discounts of a resource plan, you can buy a new one. If you do not want to continue to use a resource plan, no action is required. If you no longer need the underlying instance, release it to prevent further pay-as-you-go charges.

Can I renew a resource plan?

Resource plans that have an hourly or daily commitment period support renewal. For resource plans that do not support renewal, you can buy a new one.

Can I unsubscribe from a resource plan, and how is the refund calculated?

To check if your resource plan supports unsubscription, go to the Unsubscribe page and select the Resource plans tab. This tab lists all plans eligible for unsubscription. If your plan is not on the list, it is not eligible.

To unsubscribe, you can initiate an unsubscription for the resource plan.

Refunds are issued as either a full refund or a partial refund, based on the following rules:

• Full refund: You can receive a full refund if the resource plan has zero usage and you unsubscribe within its validity period. If you specified a future effective date at the time of purchase, you can receive a full refund by unsubscribing before it takes effect.

• Partial refund: This applies to resource plans that have been partially used but still have a remaining balance. The refund amount is calculated as: Order Payment Amount – Consumed Amount. For more information, see Unsubscription rules.

Does unsubscribing affect usage and data?

Unsubscribing from a resource plan does not affect product usage or data. Your resources automatically switch to pay-as-you-go billing. Make sure that your account has a sufficient balance. An insufficient balance will result in overdue payments and may lead to service suspension. If overdue payments are not settled, the associated resources will be released, causing permanent data loss.

What happens to unused capacity when a plan expires?

When you buy a resource plan, you must select a validity period. The plan expires at the end of this period and cannot be refunded or used afterward. We recommend monitoring your resource plan validity period (expiration time) and setting a balance alert for a resource plan.

What if I buy the wrong resource plan?

If you purchased the wrong resource plan, first review how to choose a resource plan. Then, go to the product's purchase page, select a suitable resource plan, and complete the purchase.