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Elastic Container Instance:Billing overview

更新時間:Nov 02, 2023

This topic describes billable resources of Elastic Container Instance and how to bill the resources.

Billable items

When you use Elastic Container Instance, you are charged for the following resources:

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Resource

Billing

References

Elastic container instances (computing resources)

One of the following billing modes is applied based on how you create elastic container instances:

  • Billing based on the vCPU and memory specifications

  • Billing based on the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance type

Elastic container instances

Image caches

  • You are not charged for image caches that are automatically created by the system. However, if you manually create an image cache, you are charged for temporary resources and snapshots.

  • If you use image caches, you are charged for the use of cloud disks or temporary storage space based on the type and size of the used image caches.

Image caches

Data caches

  • If you create a data cache, you are charged for temporary resources and snapshots.

  • When you use a data cache by creating an elastic container instance, you are charged for the instance and the disk that is attached to the instance.

Data caches

Temporary storage space

If you increase the capacity of temporary storage space when you create an elastic container instance, you are charged for the increased capacity.

Temporary storage space

Note

The charges for elastic container instances and temporary storage space are included in the bill under Elastic Container Instance, while the charges for cloud disks and snapshots are included in the bill under Elastic Block Storage. For more information about how to view bills, see Query bills.

You may need to use the network and storage resources that are provided by Alibaba Cloud based on your business requirements. The following table describes how you are billed for these resources.

Resource

Billing

References

Network

If your elastic container instances need to access other resources over the Internet, you must configure elastic IP addresses (EIPs) or NAT gateways for the elastic container instances. You are charged for the used network resources.

Note

If you want to pull images and data over the Internet when you create an image cache or a data cache, you also need to configure an EIP or a NAT gateway.

Storage

If you need to persistently store data on your elastic container instances, you can attach cloud disks and mount Apsara File Storage NAS (NAS) file systems to your elastic container instances. You are charged for the storage resources that you use.

Billing methods

By default, all billable resources, including elastic container instances, image caches, data caches, and temporary storage space in Elastic Container Instance are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Note

You can also use other billing methods to save costs. The following are some examples:

  • If you use elastic container instances, you can use savings plans, reserved instances, and preemptible instances to save costs.

  • You can use Object Storage Service (OSS) storage plans and Storage Capacity Unit (SCU) plans to offset prices of snapshots.

The following part describes the pay-as-you-go billing rules:

  • Billing cycle: The billing cycle is 1 second. You are charged for resources in 1-second increments. The price per second for each type of resource is equal to its hourly price divided by 3,600.

  • Settlement cycle: Bills are generated on the hour.

For example, you create an elastic container instance that has 2 vCPUs and 4 GiB of memory, but you do not use image caches. The instance enters the Pending state at 10:49:30 and is released at 11:20:05. In this case, two bills are generated for the instance:

  • Bill 1: The billing cycle is from 10:00:00 to 11:00:00. The instance is billed between 10:49:30 and 11:00:00, and the billing duration is 630 seconds.

  • Bill 2: The billing cycle is from 11:00:00 to 12:00:00. The instance is billed between 11:00:00 and 11:20:05, and the billing duration is 1,205 seconds.

Overdue payments

If the available credit (the total balance and payment instruments such as vouchers) in your Alibaba Cloud account is less than the payable amount, your account is deemed to have an overdue payment. This may cause your elastic container instances to be released. When you use Elastic Container Instance, make sure that you have sufficient credit in your account so that your business is not affected by instance releases due to overdue payments.