Billing rules and purchase method for RDS storage plans-ApsaraDB RDS(RDS)-阿里云帮助中心

Storage plans are subscription resource plans from ApsaraDB RDS. You can use a storage plan to offset fees for instance storage, backup storage (including instance backups, long-term backups, and geo-redundant backups), and SQL audit usage for your ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances. Fees for usage covered by the plan are waived. You are charged hourly for usage that exceeds the plan's quota. This topic describes the billing rules for RDS storage plans and how to purchase one.

Notes

Only Alibaba Cloud accounts can purchase storage plans.
Storage plans cannot be upgraded, renewed, or unsubscribed from.
The price of a storage plan is subject to the price on the purchase page.
Storage plans are available only in the following regions in the Chinese mainland.
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region - Phasing Out), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), and China (Chengdu).
A storage plan can offset fees for the following items:
- The storage of pay-as-you-go instances, excluding standard SSDs and Premium ESSDs.
- The backup storage (excluding standard SSDs and Premium ESSDs) and SQL audit usage of subscription and pay-as-you-go instances.

Applicable items

Note

Subscription, Pay-as-you-go, and Serverless are three distinct and independent billing methods. When you use a storage plan, deductions are made in strict accordance with the rules described in this topic. For example, a storage plan can offset the storage fees for pay-as-you-go instances (excluding standard SSDs and premium performance disks), but it cannot offset the storage fees for Serverless instances.

Deduction Items	Description
Storage space	Offsets the storage space fees for pay-as-you-go RDS instances. This does not include standard SSDs and Premium ESSDs.
Backup storage	Offsets fees for long-term backups (backups older than two years), geo-redundant backup storage, and instance backup storage that exceeds the free quota for pay-as-you-go and subscription RDS instances. This does not include standard SSDs and Premium ESSDs. Note You can view the free backup quota provided by RDS under Basic Information > Instance Resources > Backup Usage on the instance details page in the console. Cost offsets for geo-redundancy backup storage (Billing item code: DdrOssStorageSize) are applicable only to RDS for MySQL High-performance Local Disk instances, RDS for SQL Server instances, and RDS for PostgreSQL instances.
SQL audit usage	Offsets fees for SQL audit (SQL Explorer) usage for pay-as-you-go and subscription RDS instances. RDS PostgreSQL: SQL audit (DBAudit). Note After the SQL Audit feature for RDS PostgreSQL is upgraded to the SQL Explorer And Audit feature of DAS Enterprise Edition, you can no longer use storage plans to offset costs.

Offset rules

Rules Project

Description

Offset method

Each hour, the total usage of the following items is calculated. The storage plan's capacity is then used to offset the usage based on an offset factor. If the usage exceeds the plan's capacity, the excess amount is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Note
The operational costs of different offsettable items vary. Therefore, offset factors are defined to balance these costs.
- Storage space of pay-as-you-go instances.
- Instance backup, long-term backup, and geo-redundant backup storage.
- SQL audit usage.
The total capacity of the storage plan is available for offset every hour.
For example, if you purchase a 100 GB storage plan with a one-month subscription duration, 100 GB of capacity is available every hour for one month to offset usage.

For more information, see Offset examples.

Offset order

Priority of items offset by an RDS storage plan:
Storage space of a pay-as-you-go primary instance > Storage space of a pay-as-you-go read-only instance > Backup of a pay-as-you-go instance > SQL audit of a pay-as-you-go primary instance > SQL audit of a pay-as-you-go read-only instance > Long-term backup of a pay-as-you-go instance > Geo-redundant backup storage of a pay-as-you-go instance > Backup of a subscription instance > SQL audit of a subscription primary instance > SQL audit of a subscription read-only instance > Long-term backup of a subscription instance > Geo-redundant backup of a subscription instance
Priority when using an RDS savings plan and an RDS storage plan together:
RDS storage plan has a higher priority than RDS savings plan.

Storage plan deduction example

Assume you have a primary RDS instance (Basic Edition, ESSD PL1) with 60 GB of instance storage and 500 GB of long-term backup storage (backups older than two years). You purchase a 100 GB storage plan. The offset process is as follows:

Calculate the total instance storage that the storage plan can offset: 100 GB / 1.24 = 80.645 GB.
After offsetting the instance storage, calculate the remaining plan capacity: (80.645 GB - 60 GB) × 1.24 = 25.5998 GB.
Calculate the amount of long-term backup storage that the remaining plan capacity can offset: 25.5998 GB / 0.1 = 255.998 GB. This is not enough to offset the full 500 GB of long-term backup storage. The plan first offsets 255.998 GB of long-term backup storage.
The remaining long-term backup storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis: 500 GB - 255.998 GB = 244.002 GB.

Note

The storage offset factor for a primary RDS instance that runs RDS Basic Edition with a PL1 ESSD is 1.24, and the offset factor for long-term backup is 0.1. For more information, see Offset factors.
Primary instance storage has a higher offset priority than long-term backup storage. For more information, see Offset rules.
You can view the actual storage space, backup usage, and more for an instance on the Basic Information page in the Usage Statistics section.

Purchase an RDS storage plan

Go to the RDS purchase page.
For Billing Method, select Storage Plan.

Configure the following parameters.

Parameter	Description
Region	Currently, you can only select Chinese Mainland General. Regions in the Chinese mainland include the following: China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region - Phasing Out), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), and China (Chengdu).
Storage Plan Specification	You can purchase a storage plan of the following specifications: 100 GB, 200 GB, 300 GB, 500 GB, 1000 GB, 2000 GB, 5000 GB, and 10000 GB.
Activation Time	Supports Effective Immediately or Effective At A Specified Time (Hourly). If you select Effective At A Specified Time (Hourly), you must Specify Time.

Set the Subscription Duration and click Buy Now.
You can select a subscription duration from 1 to 11 months, or from 1 to 5 years.
Note
The longer the subscription duration, the higher the discount:
- You receive a 15% discount for a 1-year subscription duration.
- A 2-year subscription receives a 30% discount.
- A subscription of 3 to 5 years receives a 50% discount.

View storage plan usage details

Log on to Expenses and Costs.
Choose Account > Resource Packages.
On the Resource Plan page, set Resource Dimension to Resource Plan.
On the Instance Summary tab, you can view your storage plan's total and remaining capacity (the Product Name is RDS Storage Plan).
Click the Usage Details tab to view a detailed checklist of resource plan deductions, where the Product Name is RDS Storage Plan.

Note
You can view the cost details for the instance on the Bills > Bill Details page to verify the deductions from your resource plan.

Offset factor details

Storage space

Billable item	Instance type	Storage type	Series	Offset factor
Storage space	Primary instance	High-performance local disk	High-availability series	1
		High-performance local disk	RDS Enterprise Edition	1.47
		ESSD PL1	Basic Edition	1.24
			High-availability series	2
			MySQL Cluster Edition (single-node)	1
			SQL Server Cluster Edition	2
		ESSD PL2	Basic Edition	2.47
			High-availability series	4
			MySQL Cluster Edition (single-node)	2
			SQL Server Cluster Edition	4
		ESSD PL3	Basic Edition	4.94
			High-availability series	7.94
			MySQL Cluster Edition (single-node)	4
			SQL Server Cluster Edition	7.94
	Read-only instance	High-performance local disk	High-availability Edition/RDS Enterprise Edition	0.59
		ESSD PL1 disk	Basic Edition/High-availability series/RDS Enterprise Edition	1.24
		ESSD PL2 disk	Basic Edition/High-availability series/RDS Enterprise Edition	2.47
		ESSD PL3 disk	Basic Edition/High-availability series/RDS Enterprise Edition	4.94

Backup storage

Billable item	Instance type	Backup type	Offset factor
Long-term backup (backups older than two years)	Primary instance	-	0.1
Geo-redundant backup storage	Primary instance	-	0.59
Instance backup	Primary instance	Physical backup	0.59
Instance backup	Primary instance	Snapshot backup	0.15

SQL audit

Billable item	Instance type	Audit type	Offset factor
SQL audit	Primary instance/Read-only instance	Long period (30 days)	4.71
SQL audit	Primary instance/Read-only instance	Short period (7 days)	7.06

FAQ

Q: I purchased a pay-as-you-go RDS instance with 100 GB of storage. If I purchase a 100 GB storage plan, can it offset the fee for the instance storage?
A: Yes, it can. A storage plan can offset the storage fee for a pay-as-you-go instance. The storage plan is used first. If the remaining quota of the storage plan is insufficient, the excess storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Q: For backup storage, if I purchase both an RDS savings plan and an RDS storage plan, what is the offset order?
A: If you use an RDS savings plan and an RDS storage plan together, the RDS storage plan has a higher priority than the RDS savings plan.