If you use a paid commercial image or an image based on a paid commercial image to create an ENS instance, you are charged an operating system license fee.
Usage notes
Pay-as-you-go instances activated by your business manager do not support paid commercial images. To use a paid commercial image, contact your business manager to change the billing method to instance-based pay-as-you-go.
Starting 09:00 on June 10, 2025 (UTC+8), existing ENS instances using Windows images on nodes in China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland will be charged.
Billing scenarios
The following table describes when operating system license fees apply for each image type.
| Image type | When you are charged |
|---|---|
| Public images | When you create an ENS instance using a Windows public image deployed in China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), or other regions outside the Chinese mainland. |
| Custom images | When you create an ENS instance using: (1) a custom image derived from a public image for a paid operating system, or (2) an imported Windows custom image in China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), or other regions outside the Chinese mainland with a license type of Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun). If the license type is BYOL (Bring Your Own License), you are not charged. |
| Shared images | When you create an ENS instance using a shared or community image derived from a public image for a paid operating system. |
Billing method
The software license fee for an ENS image follows the same billing duration as the instance.
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | |
|---|---|---|
| Billable duration | Subscription duration. If you unsubscribe, billing starts at instance creation and ends at release. | Starts when the instance using the paid image is created; ends when the instance is released or the OS is replaced. |
| Unit price | CNY 200/vCPU/month . | CNY 0.28/vCPU/hour . |
| Example | For a 4-vCPU ENS instance that uses a paid Windows image, the fee for a 1-month subscription is CNY 200/vCPU/month × 4 vCPUs × 1 month = CNY 800. | For a 4-vCPU ENS instance that uses a paid Windows image, the fee for 5 hours of use is CNY 0.28/vCPU/hour × 4 vCPUs × 5 hours = CNY 5.6. |