Model Studio offers savings plans and resource plans to help you reduce model costs.
Plan selection
Use this guide to select the right plan.
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AI General-purpose Savings Plan (Recommended): Commit to a monthly spending amount in exchange for tiered discounts of up to 47%. This plan applies to all models provided by Alibaba Cloud and offers maximum flexibility, making it the best choice for most use cases.
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Savings plans for other models: Purchase a fixed amount upfront to offset call fees for specific model families. This option applies only to select model families (such as the speech model family) and typically offers smaller discounts than the AI General-purpose Savings Plan.
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Resource plan: Purchase a specific quantity of resources upfront, such as tokens or image generations. This option applies only to a single, specific model, such as qwen-plus, and typically offers a smaller discount than the AI General-purpose Savings Plan.
To maximize cost-effectiveness, start with the AI General-purpose Savings Plan.
AI general-purpose savings plan
Key benefits
The AI General-purpose Savings Plan offers discounts on pay-as-you-go model calls. Commit to a monthly spend for a set term (3, 6, 12, or 24 months) to receive tiered discounts while keeping pay-as-you-go flexibility.
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Comprehensive coverage: A single purchase covers all models provided by Alibaba Cloud.
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Significant cost optimization: Higher spending commitments and longer terms unlock discounts of up to 47%.
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Simple management: The plan takes effect immediately or at a scheduled time after purchase. Discounts apply automatically without manual activation or binding. Auto-renewal is available.
Usage
Effective time: You can choose when the plan takes effect: "Immediately after ordering" or "Specified time (by hour)".
Calling methods: Model Studio console playground, API calls, and integration with third-party tools (such as Cursor and Cline, using pay-as-you-go API credentials).
Commitment cycle: The plan operates on a rolling monthly cycle starting from the effective date. Each cycle runs from the effective date to the same date one month later — this is not a calendar-month reset on the 1st of each month. The quota refreshes to its full amount at 00:00 (UTC+8) on the day after the purchase date each month. Note the following rules:
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Monthly allocation: The total quota is distributed evenly across months and is not granted as a lump sum. For example, a 3-month Savings Plan with a CNY 1,000 monthly commitment provides a new CNY 1,000 quota each month, not a total of CNY 3,000 upfront.
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Quarterly package distribution: For quarterly package tiers (for example, pay CNY 27 for CNY 60 of credit), the total credit is split into equal monthly allocations — CNY 60 distributed as CNY 20 per month over 3 months — and is not delivered all at once.
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No rollover: Any unused quota at the end of a monthly cycle expires automatically and cannot carry over to the next cycle.
Coverage:
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Covered usage: Fees for model calls (input and output tokens), model-native tool calling (such as function call and web extractor), context cache, and batch inference.
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Not covered: Fees for model fine-tuning and model deployment. The following are also not covered:
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Web search plugin fees: Web search calls made through the plugin are billed independently and are not deducted from the savings plan. Refer to your bill for the actual amounts.
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Third-party tool web search fees: Third-party tools can integrate with Model Studio, but any web search fees they generate are not covered by the savings plan.
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MCP Marketplace fees: Fees generated by calling services through MCP Marketplace are not covered.
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Tongyi Deep Search fees: Fees generated by Tongyi Deep Search are not covered.
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Case retrieval fees: Fees generated by the case retrieval feature are not covered.
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Embedding and reranking model call fees incurred through Knowledge Base (RAG) usage are classified as Category A model calls and are covered by the AI General-purpose Savings Plan. However, Knowledge Base specification fees (instance running duration) are resource fees, not model call fees, and are not covered by any savings plan. You can pay specification fees through Knowledge Base resource plans or on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Deduction logic:
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Deduction order: free quota > resource plan > other model-specific Savings Plans > AI General-purpose Savings Plan > pay-as-you-go.
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Multiple Savings Plans of the same type: The plan expiring first is applied first. If the expiration dates are the same, the plan purchased first is applied first.
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Excess usage: If all matching Savings Plans expire or are exhausted, any remaining usage is billed at pay-as-you-go rates.
If you have enabled the Stop when free quota is exhausted feature (also referred to as worry-free mode or Use free quota only) for a model, the service stops automatically when your free quota is used up. No pay-as-you-go charges are incurred, which prevents the savings plan from applying. To resume savings plan deductions, manually disable this feature after your free quota is exhausted.
View bills: See How to query Savings Plan bills.
Purchase guide
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Purchase |
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Regions |
China (Beijing), US (Virginia), Singapore, Germany (Frankfurt), Japan (Tokyo) |
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Eligible services |
Discounts vary by tier.
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Monthly spend commitment |
The amount you commit to spend each month on pay-as-you-go model services. Start at CNY 1,000 in increments of CNY 10. No upper limit. |
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Commitment cycle |
You can choose a commitment cycle of 3, 6, 12, or 24 months. |
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Offering type |
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Discounts |
See Discount information. |
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Activation time |
You can activate the plan immediately after purchase or schedule it to start at a specific hour. |
Discount
Discounts vary by model, commitment tier, term, and payment method.
For example, if you choose a 12-month Savings Plan with a monthly commitment of CNY 10,000 and pay all upfront, you get a 20% discount on Category A Qwen text generation model calls. This means a model call that would normally cost CNY 1 only uses CNY 0.80 of your commitment.
The commitment ranges in the following tables are inclusive of the lower bound and exclusive of the upper bound. For example, 1,000 - 5,000 means an amount greater than or equal to 1,000 and less than 5,000.
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Payment option |
Monthly spend range (CNY) |
Category A |
Category B |
Category C |
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3 months |
6 months |
12 months |
24 months |
3 months |
6 months |
12 months |
24 months |
Entire term |
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All upfront |
1,000 - 5,000 |
12% off |
14% off |
16% off |
18% off |
17% off |
20% off |
23% off |
26% off |
No discount |
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5,000 - 10,000 |
14% off |
16% off |
18% off |
20% off |
20% off |
23% off |
26% off |
29% off |
No discount |
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10,000 - 30,000 |
16% off |
18% off |
20% off |
22% off |
23% off |
26% off |
29% off |
32% off |
No discount |
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30,000 - 50,000 |
18% off |
20% off |
22% off |
24% off |
26% off |
29% off |
32% off |
35% off |
No discount |
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50,000 - 100,000 |
20% off |
22% off |
24% off |
26% off |
29% off |
32% off |
35% off |
38% off |
No discount |
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100,000 - 300,000 |
22% off |
24% off |
26% off |
28% off |
32% off |
35% off |
38% off |
41% off |
No discount |
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300,000 - 1,000,000 |
24% off |
26% off |
28% off |
30% off |
35% off |
38% off |
41% off |
44% off |
No discount |
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1,000,000 and above |
26% off |
28% off |
30% off |
32% off |
38% off |
41% off |
44% off |
47% off |
No discount |
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No upfront Contact your account manager to enable this. |
1,000 - 5,000 |
10% off |
12% off |
14% off |
16% off |
15% off |
18% off |
21% off |
24% off |
No discount |
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5,000 - 10,000 |
12% off |
14% off |
16% off |
18% off |
18% off |
21% off |
24% off |
27% off |
No discount |
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10,000 - 30,000 |
14% off |
16% off |
18% off |
20% off |
21% off |
24% off |
27% off |
30% off |
No discount |
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30,000 - 50,000 |
16% off |
18% off |
20% off |
22% off |
24% off |
27% off |
30% off |
33% off |
No discount |
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50,000 - 100,000 |
18% off |
20% off |
22% off |
24% off |
27% off |
30% off |
33% off |
36% off |
No discount |
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100,000 - 300,000 |
20% off |
22% off |
24% off |
26% off |
30% off |
33% off |
36% off |
39% off |
No discount |
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300,000 - 1,000,000 |
22% off |
24% off |
26% off |
28% off |
33% off |
36% off |
39% off |
42% off |
No discount |
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1,000,000 and above |
24% off |
26% off |
28% off |
30% off |
36% off |
39% off |
42% off |
45% off |
No discount |
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Lifecycle management
You can manage your savings plans on the Savings Plan Overview page.
Savings plan renewal
Sign in to the Expenses and Costs console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose to view and manage the subscription status, effective date, and auto-renewal settings of your savings plan.
Query discounts
For the AI General-purpose Savings Plan, discounts vary by model, tier, commitment period, and payment method. Go to the Savings Plan Price Discount Details page and filter by the following criteria:
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Applicable Commodity: Select the corresponding product name from the table below.
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Billing Item: Select the corresponding billed item from the table below.
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Savings plan type: Select AI General-purpose Savings Plan/Model Studio AI General-purpose Savings Plan
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Subscription duration and payment method: Select the corresponding options to view the pay-as-you-go discount.
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Applicable product |
Deductible billed item |
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Model Studio foundation model inference |
Text: Text generation token usage Image: Image generation count, multi-specification image generation count, and image detection count Video: Video generation duration Voice: Speech synthesis character count, speech recognition duration, CosyVoice speech synthesis character count, and voice clone and voice design model count Vector: Multimodal vector model usage and text vector model usage Batch call: Batch model usage, BatchChat model usage, BatchChat token usage, and BatchChat video generation duration Tool call: Usage by call count and the corresponding global usage for each billed item. When querying discounts on call fees in China (Beijing) region, select a non-global billed item. When querying discounts in other regions, select the corresponding global billed item. |
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Model Studio foundation model - Industry-specific model |
Text generation token usage |
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Alibaba Cloud Model Studio - Vector ranking model |
Multimodal vector model usage |
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Model Studio foundation model - Qwen-Audio model |
Speech synthesis character count and speech recognition duration |
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Model Studio foundation model - Model Studio audio model |
Speech synthesis character count and speech recognition duration |
Query bills
Go to the Expenses and Costs console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Bills > Bill Details. Set Product to Alibaba Cloud Model Studio and Product Name to AI General-purpose Savings Plan. By default, bill details for the current month are displayed. See Query bills of savings plans.
Other model savings plans
Resource plan
FAQ
Canceling savings and resource plans
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Savings plan: Effective 10:00:00 (UTC+8) on April 3, 2026, you can cancel savings plans that meet the following conditions in the Resource Unsubscription console:
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All-upfront savings plans that have not yet taken effect.
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All-upfront savings plans that have taken effect but have not been used for any deductions.
If a savings plan has been used for deductions, you cannot cancel it. For details, see the announcement.
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Resource plan: You can apply for a refund for the unused portion of your resource plan. The used portion is non-refundable.
New customer promotions, gifts, and account transfers
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New customer promotions: Promotional pricing for new customers (for example, discounted first-order savings plans) is limited to the first qualifying purchase. If you cancel a plan that qualified for a new customer promotion, you cannot participate in the same promotion again upon repurchase.
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Gifts upon cancellation: If your savings plan purchase included promotional gifts (such as vouchers, coupons, or extended service periods), these gifts are forfeited and cleared when the plan is canceled.
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Account transfers: Savings plan balances and orders cannot be transferred to another Alibaba Cloud account. Savings plan credit also cannot be converted into general account balance.
Deduction priority for plans
The system deducts charges in the following order of priority: free quota > resource plan > other model-specific savings plans > AI General-purpose Savings Plan > pay-as-you-go. Your free quota is always used first. Once it is exhausted, your resource plan is applied. If the resource plan is insufficient or not applicable, your savings plan is used next. Finally, any remaining charges are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Savings plan not applying
Common reasons include the following:
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Model mismatch: The model you are calling is not covered by the savings plan you purchased. For example, you purchased an LLM Savings Plan but are calling a Wan series model, or an embedding or reranking model. Consider purchasing an AI General-purpose Savings Plan to cover calls across different models.
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Unsupported feature usage: The AI General-purpose Savings Plan and other savings plans do not cover fees for model fine-tuning or model deployment. Only the AI General-purpose Savings Plan covers fees for context cache, batch inference, and tool calling; other savings plans do not.
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Free quota not exhausted: The system applies benefits in the order of free quota > savings plan. A savings plan applies only to charges incurred after your free quota is exhausted.
AI General-purpose Savings Plan and third-party models
For Category C models, only models provided directly by Alibaba Cloud are eligible for savings plan deductions. Third-party direct-supply models are not eligible. Among the Category C model families, DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM currently have Alibaba Cloud-provided versions that qualify for AI General-purpose Savings Plan deductions. MiniMax does not currently have an Alibaba Cloud-provided version and is not eligible for savings plan deductions. You can view the complete list of Alibaba Cloud-provided models in the Model Studio Model Marketplace, where you can also identify eligible models by the "Alibaba Cloud-provided" or "Third-party direct-supply" badge in the upper-right corner of each model card.
How do I use a savings plan after purchase?
A savings plan requires no manual activation or binding once it takes effect. When you call models through the Model Studio console playground, API calls, or third-party tool integration, the incurred fees are automatically deducted according to the deduction priority. You can view deduction details on the Savings Plan Overview page.
Resource plan not applying
A resource plan applies to your usage costs only when specific conditions are met. Common reasons it may not apply include:
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Model mismatch: The model you are calling is not covered by the resource plan you purchased. For example, you purchased a qwen-max resource plan but are calling the qwen-plus model.
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Unsupported feature usage: A resource plan does not cover fees for these features: batch inference (Batch), context cache, model fine-tuning, and model deployment.
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Token limit exceeded: For the qwen-plus resource plan, deductions do not apply to the portion of a single request's input that exceeds 128K tokens.
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Free quota not exhausted: The system applies benefits in the order of free quota > resource plan. A resource plan applies only to charges incurred after your free quota is exhausted.
Using a pre-purchased resource plan
First, activate the model service in Alibaba Cloud Model Studio. After activation, the service first consumes your free quota. Your resource plan will apply only after this quota is exhausted.
Does the LLM Savings Plan cover embedding and reranking models?
No. The LLM inference savings plan covers only text generation models. Embedding and reranking models are not covered. If your workload involves both LLMs and embedding or reranking models (for example, RAG), consider the AI General-purpose Savings Plan, or purchase a separate Embedding and reranking models savings plan.
What is the difference between the Entry-Level AI General Savings Plan and the AI General Savings Plan?
The key differences are as follows:
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Comparison |
AI General Savings Plan |
Entry-Level AI General Savings Plan |
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Purchase |
Purchase through the AI General Savings Plan purchase page |
Purchase through the "All Models" section on the AI Savings event page |
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Eligibility |
No first-purchase restriction |
Promotional pricing for first-time purchase only |
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Supported models |
For details, see the deduction scope in Purchase guide |
Same scope as the AI General Savings Plan. For details, see the deduction scope in Purchase guide |
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Discount |
Different tiers offer different pay-as-you-go discounts. Higher tiers get larger discounts |
Charged at standard pay-as-you-go rates with no discount. Only the initial purchase price is discounted (for example, pay 10 CNY for 20 CNY worth of credits; actual price varies on the purchase page) |
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Quota allocation |
Monthly commitment quota is allocated per rolling monthly cycle. Unused quota at the end of each cycle expires automatically and cannot roll over to the next month. |
Available tiers are subject to the purchase page (for example: pay CNY 10 for CNY 20, pay CNY 27 for CNY 60, pay CNY 135 for CNY 300 worth of credit). For quarterly packages, the total credit is distributed evenly as a monthly allocation (for example, CNY 60 = CNY 20/month × 3 months) — it is not delivered as a lump sum. Unused quota at the end of each monthly cycle expires automatically and cannot roll over. |
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Cancellation policy |
Subject to the cancellation conditions described in the Canceling savings and resource plans section below. |
Non-refundable once paid. Cancellation is not supported after purchase. |
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Deduction scope |
All Alibaba Cloud direct-supply models within the supported categories. Third-party direct-supply models are not eligible. |
Same deduction scope as the AI General Savings Plan — Alibaba Cloud direct-supply models only. Third-party direct-supply models are not eligible. |
For savings plan billing details, see Savings Plan usage details.