Billing

Billing methods

Subscription

Definition: This billing method lets you use resources of your choosing for a specified period of time on an upfront payment. Longer subscription periods offer more savings.
Scenarios: You have long-running, predictable workloads.
Billing method change: You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. For more information, see Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go, and Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Note
To change the billing method of an RDS for MySQL instance from subscription to serverless, first change it to pay-as-you-go and then to serverless. For more information, see Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless. Only RDS for MySQL instances support the billing method change from pay-as-you-go to serverless.
Specification changes: The price for a subscription RDS instance before and after a specification change may be different. You may need to pay the price difference or receive a refund. For more information, see Change instance specifications.
Renewal: You need to renew an expired subscription RDS instance within a specific period of time if you want to continue using it. After this period of time, instance resources such as CPU cores, memory, and disks are released, and the data stored in the RDS instance is deleted. For more information, see Renewal policy.

Pay-as-you-go

Definition: This billing method allows you to use resources before you pay for them. After you create a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, fees for the instance are calculated based on the resources that you use and are automatically deducted from the balance of your Alibaba Cloud account every hour.
Note
To purchase a pay-as-you-go instance, the balance in your Alibaba Cloud account must be equal to or larger than CNY 100.
Scenarios: You have short-term workloads. If you no longer require a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you can release the instance to reduce costs.
Billing method change:
- You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription. For more information, see Switch from pay-as-you-go to subscription, Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription, Convert a pay-as-you-go instance to a subscription instance, and Change the billing method of an ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.
- You can change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless.
- You can change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go.
Specification changes: Pay-as-you-go RDS instances are billed on an hourly basis. If you change the specifications of a pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you are billed based on the price of the new specifications. For more information, see Change instance specifications.
If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.

Serverless

Definition: A serverless RDS instance is not billed based on instance types, but based on the actual amount of resources used each hour. Resources are measured in RDS Capacity Units (RCUs). For more information, see ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL Serverless, Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances, and Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances.
Scenarios: You have intermittent or unpredictable workloads.
Billing method change:
- You can change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from serverless to pay-as-you-go.
- You can change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless only for an RDS instance that runs MySQL. For more information, see Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to serverless.
Specification changes: The specifications of a serverless RDS instance cannot be manually changed. During the use of the instance, the system automatically scales the RCUs to suit your workloads.
If your Alibaba Cloud account has overdue payments, RDS instances that do not use the subscription billing method and belong to your Alibaba Cloud account become overdue. For more information, see Overdue payments.

Note

Purchase Savings Plans and resource plans to reduce pay-as-you-go costs:

ApsaraDB RDS Savings Plans reduce pay-as-you-go costs for instance types, data storage, backup storage, cross-region disaster recovery (high-performance local disks only), SQL audit, second-level monitoring, and dedicated database proxies. Supported engines: MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. Introduction to ApsaraDB RDS Savings Plans.

ApsaraDB RDS prepaid resource plans include storage plans and compute plans. Overview of resource plans.

You can use resource plans to offset the specific resource fees of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL, ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL, ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server, or ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB instance.

Item	Compute plan	Storage plan
Deductible items	Pay-as-you-go primary instance compute. Pay-as-you-go read-only instance compute. Database proxy compute for pay-as-you-go or subscription instances.	Pay-as-you-go instance storage(except for Premium ESSDs). Backup storage for subscription and pay-as-you-go instances(except for Premium ESSDs). SQL audit storage for subscription and pay-as-you-go instances. Note Storage plans cover SQL audit storage only for RDS for MySQL, RDS for PostgreSQL, and RDS for SQL Server.
Supported engines	MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and MariaDB	MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and MariaDB
Supported regions	China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region) Closing Down, China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu)	China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region) Closing Down, China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu)
Quantity	Stackable. Multiple plans can be purchased and used together.	Stackable. Multiple plans can be purchased and used together.
Deduction order	Plans are consumed by expiration date, earliest first.	Plans are consumed by expiration date, earliest first.
Renewal and unsubscription	Not supported	Not supported
Upgrade & downgrade	Not supported	Not supported

Billable items

The basic fee of an RDS instance is:

Total fee = computing resources fee + storage resources fee

Computing resources

Billable item	Description	Billing method
Instance type	Determines the number of CPU cores and the amount of memory provisioned	Subscription, Pay-as-you-go
RCU	The computing resource unit for serverless instances. One RCU delivers performance equivalent to RDS Basic Edition with 2 GB of memory.	Serverless

Storage resources

Billable item	Description	Billing method
Storage capacity	Charged for the storage provisioned across primary, secondary, read-only, and disaster recovery instances. Price varies by storage type. See the ApsaraDB RDS buy page for pricing.	Subscription, Pay-as-you-go

In addition to the items above, ApsaraDB RDS provides value-added options. See Billable items for the full list.

Estimate your cost: On the ApsaraDB RDS buy page, configure the parameters — Billing Method, Region, Database Engine, Edition, Architecture, Storage Type, Zone, Deployment Method, Instance Type, and Storage Capacity — and the estimated price and applicable discounts appear in the lower-right corner.

If you set the Billing Method parameter to Subscription, you must configure the Subscription Duration parameter. Longer subscription durations provide more savings.

View billing details

To view costs broken down by billable item — such as instance type, performance monitoring, and SQL Audit — see View bills.

Payment and refund

You can pay for the RDS instance that you purchase using the following methods:

Alibaba Cloud account balance
Online payment
Credit cards are not supported when you create a subscription instance by calling CreateDBInstance.
Vouchers
Make sure that your voucher is available. You can go to Expenses and Costs and view your vouchers by choosing Billing Accounts > Coupons > Vouchers.

Note

Vouchers are used to deduct fees before bills are generated. Using them does not involve actual paying operations.

You can view your bills and resource usages after purchase. For more information, see View bills.

To unsubscribe from resources, understand the Refund policy.