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Elastic Compute Service:Change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription

Last Updated:Jan 16, 2026

After you create a pay-as-you-go Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, you can change its billing method to subscription. This lets you reserve resources in advance and benefit from lower pricing.

Prerequisites

  • The instance is not a retired instance type or a spot instance.

  • Pay for or cancel any unpaid orders.

  • If the instance has an automatic release time, you must first disable the automatic release setting.

  • The instance must be in the Running or Stopped state. If the instance is in economical mode, start the instance.

    If the instance status changes after you place the order but before you complete the payment, the conversion fails. To proceed, restore the instance to its status at the time of ordering, and then go to the Order Hub to retry the payment.

Procedure

Console

  1. Log on to ECS console - Instances. In the upper-left corner of the page, select the target resource group and region.

  2. Find the instance that you want to convert and click the instance ID. On the instance details page, choose All Actions > Switch to Subscription.

  3. On the page that opens, configure the following parameters:

    • Set the subscription duration.

    • Select whether to change the billing method of attached pay-as-you-go data disks to subscription.

    • Select whether to enable auto-renewal.

    • Read and select ECS Terms of Service.

  4. Click Confirm Order and complete the payment.

You can also Perform batch operations on the Instance page to convert up to 20 instances at once. When performing a batch conversion, you can set the same subscription duration for all instances.

API

Call the ModifyInstanceChargeType operation to change the billing method of a pay-as-you-go ECS instance to subscription.

Impacts of the conversion

After the conversion is complete, the billing method for the ECS instance type, system disk, and image licenses changes to subscription. The conversion also has the following impacts:

  • If the instance used public bandwidth or had an associated Elastic IP Address (EIP) before the conversion, the billing method for the public bandwidth or the EIP does not change. You may still incur pay-as-you-go charges for these resources. Monitor your account balance to prevent suspension due to overdue payments. To convert network resources to the subscription billing method, see the following guides:

  • If you do not convert the attached data disks of a pay-as-you-go instance during this process, they remain pay-as-you-go. You can later change the billing method of the disks individually as needed.