Billing
This topic describes the billing methods, billing formulas, and the impact of overdue payments on resources for Elastic Accelerator Instance (EAIS) instances.
This topic describes only the billing information for EAIS instances. For more information about the billing rules for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, see Pay-as-you-go.
Prerequisites for creating an EAIS instance
When you create a pay-as-you-go EAIS resource, the total value of your Alibaba Cloud account balance (cash balance) and coupons must be at least CNY 100.00.
For information about how to top up your account, see How do I top up my account?.
Billable items
(Recommended) Create an instance in the EAIS console or by calling the CreateEaisEi operation
When you create an EAIS instance in the EAIS console or using the CreateEaisEi operation, the billable items for EAIS are as follows:
Billing method
Pay-as-you-go. You are charged for the resources that you use.
Billing formula
Cost = Unit price of instance type × Billing duration
Unit price of instance type: The unit price of an EAIS instance is measured in hours. When you use the billing formula to calculate costs, divide the hourly price by 3,600 to obtain the price per second.
Billing duration: The actual usage duration of a single EAIS instance. Billing starts when a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance is successfully started and ends when the instance is stopped. The duration is measured in seconds.
ImportantIn the following scenarios, billing for the EAIS instance continues. To stop billing, you must stop the EAIS instance. For more information, see Stop an EAIS instance.
The EAIS instance is not stopped before the associated ECS instance is released.
The ECS instance to which the EAIS instance is attached is stopped, but the EAIS instance is not stopped during the downtime.
Billing cycle
Billing is performed on an hourly basis. A bill is generated at the top of each hour (UTC+8). If the usage duration is less than 1 hour, you are charged for the actual usage duration, accurate to the second.
If the available credit in your account (including your Alibaba Cloud account balance, vouchers, and coupons) is less than the amount of an unsettled bill, you will receive a notification by text message or email.
For example:
You create and start a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance at 01:30:30 and then stop the instance at 01:55:30.
The billing cycle is from 01:00:00 to 02:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 01:30:30 to 01:55:30. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 25 minutes, which is 1,500 seconds.
You create a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance at 10:30:30, start the instance at 10:59:30, and then stop the instance at 11:50:30.
The first billing cycle is from 10:00:00 to 11:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 10:59:30 to 11:00:00. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 30 seconds.
The second billing cycle is from 11:00:00 to 12:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 11:00:00 to 11:50:30. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 50 minutes and 30 seconds, which is 3,030 seconds.
Create an instance by calling the CreateEai operation
When you create an EAIS instance using the CreateEai operation, the billable items for EAIS are as follows:
Billing method
Pay-as-you-go. You are charged for the resources that you use.
Billing formula
Cost = Unit price of instance type × Billing duration
Unit price of instance type: The unit price of an EAIS instance is measured in hours. When you use the billing formula to calculate costs, divide the hourly price by 3,600 to obtain the price per second.
Billing duration: The actual usage duration of a single EAIS instance. Billing starts when a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance is successfully created and ends when the instance is released. The duration is measured in seconds.
ImportantIn the following scenarios, billing for the EAIS instance continues. To stop billing, you must release the EAIS instance. For more information, see Release an EAIS instance.
The EAIS instance is not detached before the associated ECS instance is released.
The ECS instance to which the EAIS instance is attached is stopped.
Billing cycle
Billing is performed on an hourly basis. A bill is generated at the top of each hour (UTC+8). If the usage duration is less than 1 hour, you are charged for the actual usage duration, accurate to the second.
If the available credit in your account (including your Alibaba Cloud account balance, vouchers, and coupons) is less than the amount of an unsettled bill, you will receive a notification by text message or email.
For example:
You create a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance at 01:30:30 and then release the instance at 01:55:30.
The billing cycle is from 01:00:00 to 02:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 01:30:30 to 01:55:30. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 25 minutes, which is 1,500 seconds.
You create a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance at 10:59:30 and then release the instance at 11:50:30.
The first billing cycle is from 10:00:00 to 11:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 10:59:30 to 11:00:00. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 30 seconds.
The second billing cycle is from 11:00:00 to 12:00:00. You are charged for the usage from 11:00:00 to 11:50:30. The billing duration in this billing cycle is 50 minutes and 30 seconds, which is 3,030 seconds.
Billing example
Assume that you create a pay-as-you-go EAIS instance in the China (Beijing) region. The instance is used from 10:59:30 to 11:50:30. The following figure shows how the fees are calculated for this example.
Resource changes after an overdue payment
If the available credit in your account (including your Alibaba Cloud account balance, vouchers, and coupons) is less than the amount of an unsettled bill, your account has an overdue payment.
Alibaba Cloud provides a service suspension policy. This policy lets you continue using Alibaba Cloud services for a specific period of time or within a specific quota after a payment for a pay-as-you-go resource becomes overdue. You are charged for the resources that you use during this period. The quota is not the upper limit for the total overdue payment. The applicable quota or time period is automatically calculated and updated each month based on your historical consumption on Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see Overdue payment and service suspension.
Resource type | Time | Resource change | Procedure |
EAIS instance | Within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue | The EAIS instance is retained, but it is stopped due to the overdue payment and the service becomes unavailable. | Top up your account to pay the bill. The EAIS instance is then automatically restarted and recovered. |
More than 15 days after the payment becomes overdue | The EAIS instance is released. The system sends you a notification by text message and email. | The EAIS instance cannot be recovered. You must create a new instance. |
Query bills
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and choose Bills > Bill Details. You can then filter, view, and export consumption details by dimensions such as account, product, or service entity.
For more information about how to view bill details, see Bill details.