This topic describes the frequently asked questions about savings plans.
What is the hourly commitment of a savings plan?
If you purchase a savings plan, you commit to a purchase duration and a consumption amount of resources. The hourly commitment is the minimum amount of resources that you commit to consume per hour in the unit of USD. In the hourly bills that are generated, charges for the resource consumption within your commitment are discounted. If you select the Partial Upfront payment option for your savings plan, you must pay 50% of your hourly commitment when the consumption amount in your bill for a specific hour is less than your hourly commitment. If you select the No Upfront payment option for your savings plan, you must pay 100% of your hourly commitment when the consumption amount in your bill for a specific hour is less than your hourly commitment.
Each savings plan can be applied to offset the discounted hourly consumption amount of pay-as-you-go instances up to your hourly commitment. The resource consumption amount of pay-as-you-go instances within the hourly commitment is discounted and then offset by savings plans. Example:
The following prices are for reference only. The actual prices are displayed on the buy page.
The regular unit price of a pay-as-you-go Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance of the ecs.ic5.large instance type in the China (Shanghai) region is USD 0.09/instance/hour. A 1-year general-purpose savings plan of the All Upfront payment option provides savings of 57.8% off the pay-as-you-go price for the ecs.ic5 instance family in the China (Shanghai) region. If you commit an hourly consumption amount of USD 1, the number of ecs.ic5.large instances that can be discounted by the savings plan per hour is 1/(0.09 × 0.422) = 26.33.
How does a savings plan work when the number of instances to which the savings plan can be applied is not an integer?
For example, if your savings plan can be applied to 38.22 instances per hour and 39 instances are running, the hourly fees of 38 instances are fully offset by your savings plan. For the additional instance, 22% of the hourly fees are offset by your savings plan, and the remaining 78% of the hourly fees are paid at the regular pay-as-you-go unit price. If 38 instances are running, the offset for 0.22 instances per hour is wasted in this savings plan.
Where do I view the recommendation and buy pages for a savings plan?
You can purchase a savings plan on the Savings Plans buy page or obtain savings plan recommendations on the Recommended page. After you specify the information such as historical consumption data, savings plan type, and payment option on the Recommended page, the system automatically recommends a savings plan for you.
Log on to the User Center console and click Savings Plan in the left-side navigation pane.
How do I query the discount offered in a savings plan?
To query the discount offered in a savings plan, you can go to the View Details tab and search for the savings plan.
How do I view the cost savings provided by savings plans?
You can view the cost savings provided by savings plans on the Overview tab of savings plans, including the accumulated savings, savings for the current year, and savings for the current month.
Can I have multiple effective savings plans at the same time?
Yes, you can apply multiple savings plans at the same time. The system automatically applies the optimal savings plan.
Can I purchase reserved instances if I have purchased savings plans?
Yes, you can purchase reserved instances and savings plans at the same time. However, reserved instances take precedence over savings plans to offset the bills of pay-as-you-go instances.
Can I purchase SCUs if I have purchased savings plans?
Yes, you can purchase storage capacity units (SCUs) and savings plans at the same time. However, SCUs take precedence over savings plans to offset the bills of pay-as-you-go instances.
Do savings plans provide reserved resources?
No, savings plans do not provide reserved resources. No resources are specified when you purchase savings plans.
Can savings plans be applied to preemptible instances?
No, savings plans cannot be applied to preemptible instances.
What is the impact of the expiration of savings plans?
After your savings plans expire, the discounts provided by your savings plans are no longer applicable. Your eligible pay-as-you-go instances are billed at the regular pay-as-you-go unit prices. The pay-as-you-go instances to which your savings plans are applied are not released. The expiration of savings plans does not affect your business.