Refund policy for ECS resources-Elastic Compute Service(ECS)-阿里云帮助中心

Unsubscriptions and refunds apply only to subscription products, such as subscription instances and resource plans. If you want to stop a service, Alibaba Cloud revokes the resource and refunds the corresponding payment based on the unsubscription rules. Pay-as-you-go products do not involve refunds. To stop billing for pay-as-you-go products, you can release or delete the resource in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console by following the instructions for the specific billable item.

Unsubscription flow

1. Before you unsubscribe

Confirm if unsubscription is supported

Subscription ECS instances support unsubscription. If you purchased other subscription products under ECS, you can check the corresponding documentation to see if unsubscription is supported.

Scenarios where unsubscription is not supported

Pay-as-you-go products do not require unsubscription. If you no longer need the product, back up your data, and then stop and release the resource to immediately stop billing.
Promotional restrictions: The resource cannot be unsubscribed because it is part of a promotion that does not allow unsubscription. For example, the instance you are trying to unsubscribe from is part of a specific promotional event or discount plan whose terms prohibit early unsubscription.
Resource transfer: Resources that have been transferred to another account cannot be unsubscribed.
Associated with a paid Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image: The cloud product is associated with a paid image from the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace and cannot be unsubscribed.
Unpaid orders exist: The instance cannot be unsubscribed because there are unpaid orders associated with it.

If you find that none of the preceding scenarios apply to your situation, or if you confirm from the product's terms of service that it supports unsubscription but not self-service unsubscription, you can submit a ticket to request a manual review for the unsubscription.

Impact of unsubscription

Cost settlement: If you unsubscribe from a service mid-term and meet the refund conditions, the fee for the unused portion is refunded according to Alibaba Cloud's unsubscription rules.
Data processing: For some storage services, your data is deleted after unsubscription. Before you unsubscribe, make sure you have backed up all important information.
Service termination: After you complete the unsubscription process, the service that you unsubscribed from and its directly dependent services stop immediately. This means you can no longer use the features provided by the service until you resubscribe. For example, if you unsubscribe from an ECS instance, ACK can no longer use the computing resources and features provided by that ECS instance.

Unsubscription rules

Before you unsubscribe, make sure to understand the unsubscription policy and how the refund amount is calculated. When you request to unsubscribe from a subscription ECS instance, the unsubscription applies to the ECS instance and any ECS resources that are attached to it and set to be released with the instance. These resources include the subscription ECS instance, subscription system disk, subscription data disks, fixed public bandwidth, and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images. Some resources, such as Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images and bandwidth, can be unsubscribed from separately. For the conditions or scenarios for unsubscription, see the following table. For information about how the refund amount is calculated, see Unsubscription rules.

Resource	Unsubscription rule
Subscription ECS instance	Five-day unconditional full refund: ECS supports a five-day unconditional full refund. You can request a full refund within five days of a new subscription purchase. Each user account can receive a five-day unconditional full refund for one instance of each product per calendar year (January 1 to December 31). Alibaba Cloud reserves the right to deny a refund request if the account holder has associated security risks or policy violations. For special cases where refunds are not supported, see Five-day unconditional full refund rules. Note In the five-day unconditional full refund scenario, subscription ECS instances, resource plans, and reserved instances share the one-instance-per-year quota.
	Non-full refund (before instance expiration): For subscription cloud products that do not qualify for the five-day unconditional or five-day unused full refund rules, you can apply for a non-full refund through the self-service portal. For special cases where refunds are not supported, see Non-full refund rules.
	Unsubscribe from a renewal cycle (not yet effective): This is also known as unsubscribing from an unactivated renewal. After a resource is created, if you have renewed it, you can choose to unsubscribe only from the renewal order that has not yet taken effect. For more information, see Rules for unsubscribing from unactivated renewals.
Disk	When you unsubscribe from an instance, the system disk or data disks attached to the instance are unsubscribed according to the rules. Subscription system disk Cannot be unsubscribed from separately. After the instance is released or unsubscribed, all data on the system disk is released and cannot be recovered. Subscription data disk Cannot be unsubscribed from separately. If you want to keep the instance but no longer use the data disk, you can change the billing method of the data disk, detach it from the ECS instance, and then manually release it. For more information, see Change the billing method of a disk. Important For a pay-as-you-go data disk, you can directly detach the disk from the ECS instance and then manually release it. After release, all data on the disk is released and cannot be recovered, and billing for the disk stops. If you only detach the disk but do not release it, you will continue to be charged for it. After a disk is released, its data cannot be recovered. Before you release a disk, we recommend that you create a snapshot to back up its data.
Image	When you unsubscribe from an instance, the image product is unsubscribed with the instance according to the rules. The rules for unsubscribing from an image product separately are as follows: Alibaba Cloud public images: Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace and do not support refunds. When you unsubscribe from a subscription ECS instance that uses one of these images, the image fee is not refunded. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images: Within 5 days of payment (guarantee period), you can apply for a separate, unconditional full refund for the image order. For special cases where a refund within the 5-day guarantee period is not supported, seeAlibaba Cloud Marketplace Product Refund Policy. After 5 days from payment (after the guarantee period), unconditional full refunds are not supported. For image products that support a five-day unconditional refund, if the renewal order for the image and the ECS instance purchased together has not yet taken effect, you can unsubscribe from the image order when you unsubscribe from the ECS renewal order. You do not need to change the system disk.
Bandwidth	Internal bandwidth unsubscription: Internal bandwidth refers to the network traffic transmitted between ECS instances within the same region and VPC. The amount of internal bandwidth depends on the instance type and cannot be directly modified by users. Internal bandwidth within the same region: Free of charge. No unsubscription is needed. Internal bandwidth across regions: Follow the unsubscription policy of the corresponding cloud product. If you have enabled service interconnection for ECS instances across regions using products such as Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) or VPC Peering Connection, follow the unsubscription policy for those products. Public bandwidth unsubscription: Public bandwidth refers to the network traffic between an ECS instance and the internet. ECS instances can access the internet using a static public IP address, an elastic IP address (EIP), or an Internet NAT gateway. The billing methods and unsubscription methods vary for different public bandwidth options.
Savings Plan	Cancellation is not supported by default. If you can no longer use a purchased savings plan due to special circumstances, please submit a ticket to negotiate a refund.
Reserved Instance	A five-day unconditional refund is supported. If the conditions for this refund are not met, please submit a ticket to request a refund.
Elastic assurance	Standard elastic assurance supports five-day unconditional unsubscription. If the conditions are not met, you can apply for a non-full refund through the self-service portal. A non-full refund is calculated based on the ratio of the effective time to the total assurance period, with no penalty coefficient. Time-shared elastic assurance (elastic assurance with intermittent repeating rules) does not support unsubscription.
Storage Capacity Unit (SCU)	A 5-day unconditional refund is available. If you do not qualify for the 5-day unconditional refund, please submit a ticket to make a request.

2. Initiate unsubscription

For active orders, follow the process below to initiate a self-service unsubscription.

For orders that are not yet active and for the old version (orange) of the Expenses and Costs center, see Initiate unsubscription.

Unsubscribe from a subscription ECS instance

Unsubscription operation

Prerequisites
- Before you unsubscribe, make sure that you have backed up or migrated all required data from the ECS instance.
  - You can create a custom image from an instance to back up data.
  - You can migrate data from an ECS instance to a newly purchased ECS instance. For more information, see Migrate data between ECS instances under the same or different accounts.
Apply for self-service unsubscription.
1. On the Unsubscribe page, on the Unsubscribe Resources tab, click the Standard Cloud Resources tab.
2. Filter by product name, instance ID, and order time to find the resource you want to unsubscribe from. Select the resource and click Unsubscribe Resource or Batch Unsubscribe Resources to initiate the unsubscription.

Only resources of the Non-full Refund type support batch unsubscription. You can unsubscribe from up to 50 instances at a time.

Resource retention after unsubscription

To prevent data loss from accidental operations, a subscription instance enters the Expired After Refund state after a refund is processed. Its resources are retained for a period of time. If you unsubscribe by mistake, go to the ECS console as soon as possible to manually renew the instance before its resources are released.

Important

The following periods are the maximum retention times. The actual release time may be earlier. We recommend that you back up or migrate your data before unsubscribing. After an unsubscribed ECS instance is renewed and recovered, issues such as data loss or changes to the static public IP address may still occur.

vCPUs, memory, and static public IP addresses are released within 24 hours after the refund.
Disks are released within 15 days after the refund.

Unsubscribe from public bandwidth

Unsubscribe from fixed public bandwidth

You can change the bandwidth value to 0 Mbit/s to release the static public IP address. This unsubscribes you from the bandwidth of the subscription instance.

Note

For information about billing for fixed public bandwidth, see Public bandwidth billing.
If the current billing method for fixed public bandwidth does not meet your needs, you can change the billing method for a static public IP address.

Unsubscribe from elastic public bandwidth

Note

If the current billing method for the EIP does not meet your needs, you can change the EIP billing method.
For more information about EIP billing, see FAQ about billing.
To query EIP bill details, see Query bills.

On the Unsubscribe page, on the Unsubscribe Resources tab, click the Standard Cloud Resources tab.
Filter by product name, instance ID, and order time to find the resource you want to unsubscribe from. Select the resource and click Unsubscribe Resource or Batch Unsubscribe Resources to initiate the unsubscription.

Unsubscribe from Internet NAT Gateway bandwidth

An Internet NAT gateway uses EIPs to provide public network access. If you no longer need the Internet NAT gateway, you must delete the gateway instance and unsubscribe from the EIPs separately.

Delete the Internet NAT gateway instance: Billing stops after the instance is deleted. For instructions, see the Delete an Internet NAT gateway section in Manage Internet NAT Gateway instances.
Note
- For information about Internet NAT Gateway billing, see NAT Gateway billing.
- To query NAT Gateway bills and usage details, see Query NAT Gateway bills and usage details.
Unsubscribe from EIPs: See Unsubscribe from elastic public bandwidth.

3. View unsubscription details

Check the refund arrival date

After you successfully unsubscribe from a product, the refund usually arrives within 2 to 3 business days.

Check the destination of the refunded amount

To query the destination of your refund, see Check the destination of the refunded amount. For information about the destination of refunded funds and arrival times, see Refund destinations.