After purchasing savings plans, track their effectiveness on the Overview tab of the Savings Plan page in the Expenses and Costs console. Two reports — the utilization report and the coverage report — show how well your plans are working and where to act.
View savings plan usage
Utilization report
The utilization report shows how much of each savings plan's committed spend has been applied to your pay-as-you-go resources. High utilization means you are getting full value from your commitment.
Utilization = Amount offset by savings plan ÷ Total amount of savings plan
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Amount offset | The amount applied by the savings plan to pay-as-you-go resource charges |
| Total amount | Hourly commitment amount × Specified time period |
For details on viewing utilization data, see View the usage of savings plans.
Coverage report
The coverage report shows how much of your eligible pay-as-you-go resource spend is covered by savings plans. High coverage means savings plans are reducing more of your costs across your resource usage.
Coverage = Amount offset by savings plans ÷ Total eligible resource spend
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Amount offset | The total amount applied by all savings plans to pay-as-you-go resource charges |
| Total eligible resource spend | Total amount of savings plans + amount charged at regular pay-as-you-go rates for resource usage that exceeds the commitments of the savings plans |
The coverage figure in the Expenses and Costs console spans all Alibaba Cloud services eligible for savings plans. To see coverage for a specific service, search for that service in the console and check its discount details.
For details on viewing coverage data, see View the coverage of savings plans.
Interpret the reports
Use both metrics together to diagnose your savings plan situation and decide what to do next.
| Utilization | Coverage | What it means | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | High | Plans match your usage and are fully applied — costs are being reduced effectively | No immediate action needed |
| High | Low | Plans are well-utilized but cover only a small portion of eligible spend | Increase the hourly commitment amounts to cover more eligible resource spend |
| Low | Low | Plans are under-utilized and not reducing costs effectively | Apply savings plans to as much eligible pay-as-you-go usage as possible |
| Low | High | Only a small portion of eligible spend needs coverage; plans are under-utilized | Wait until current plans expire, then determine the discount plans you need |
Optimize savings plan usage
Review your utilization and coverage reports regularly and adjust your savings plans as your resource usage changes. If usage grows beyond what your current plans cover, or if business changes leave plans under-utilized, address this by purchasing additional savings plans or upgrading an existing one.
If your current Savings Plan covers most of your resources but your actual spend is much lower than your commitment, increase utilization by sharing the plan across multiple accounts.
Use a single account within your organization to centrally purchase and manage Savings Plans. When you purchase a new Savings Plan based on an optimization suggestion, share the new plan with the same accounts that were included in the calculation. For more information, see Enable multi-account sharing for Savings Plans.
Purchase savings plans
Multiple savings plans can coexist in an account. When more than one plan is active, they are applied in a defined order — see Usage priorities of multiple savings plans.
To get recommendations tailored to your usage:
Go to the Recommended page in the Expenses and Costs console.
Set Savings Plan Type, Duration, and Payment Method, then click View.
Review the recommended savings plans and hourly commitment amounts. Alibaba Cloud recommends savings plans and hourly commitment amounts based on your specified conditions and calculates the expected savings.
If a recommendation fits your requirements, click Buy Now to purchase.
Upgrade a savings plan
If you prefer to consolidate into fewer plans, upgrade an existing savings plan to increase its hourly commitment amount rather than adding a new plan.
Upgrade rules
| Rule | Details |
|---|---|
| Effective time | The new commitment amount takes effect at the start of the next billing cycle. For example, if you complete an upgrade at 15:30, the price difference is calculated from 16:00 onward, and the hourly commitment amount increases automatically at 16:00. |
| Payable amount | (Hourly commitment amount after upgrade × Remaining hours − Hourly commitment amount before upgrade × Remaining hours) × Upfront payment percentage |
| Expiration time | Upgrading does not change the plan's expiration time. |
Upgrade steps
Log on to the .Expenses and Costs console
On the Overview tab, find the savings plan and click Upgrade in the Actions column.
On the Savings Plan | Upgrade/Downgrade page, enter the new commitment amount and click Buy Now. Complete the payment as prompted.
Share a Savings Plan across multiple accounts
If your organization has pay-as-you-go ECS and ECI resources across multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts, you can use a single Savings Plan to cover them. If you have a Savings Plan in one account and eligible pay-as-you-go resources in other accounts, enable multi-account sharing to increase your plan's utilization. For more information, see Enable multi-account sharing for Savings Plans.