Images - Elastic Compute Service - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

This topic describes the billing for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) images and provides examples on how to calculate image fees.

Billing overview

You may be charged for ECS images. The following table describes the billing rules for different types of images.

Image type	Billing rule
Public images	Public images are provided by Alibaba Cloud and include open source and commercial images. You are not charged license fees for open source images. You are charged license fees for commercial images. The following types of commercial images are available: Windows Server: You are not charged license fees for Windows Server images in Chinese mainland regions, which do not include the China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), and China (Taiwan) regions. You are charged license fees for Windows Server images in the regions outside the Chinese mainland, including the China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), and China (Taiwan) regions. The license fees are included in instance fees and vary based on the instance specifications. The prices are displayed when you create ECS instances in the ECS console. Red Hat: You are charged license fees for Red Hat images at a linear rate that increases based on the number of vCPUs of the instance type. The following section describes the prices of Red Hat images used on instance types that have different numbers of vCPUs: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Instance types that have 1 to 8 vCPUs: USD 0.015 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 10.15 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 105.54 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have 9 to 127 vCPUs: USD 0.011 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 7.61 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 79.16 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have at least 128 vCPUs: USD 0.01 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 6.60 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 68.60 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) RHEL for SAP with HA and US (RHEL for SAP) Instance types that have 1 to 8 vCPUs: USD 0.023 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 15.26 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 158.72 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have 9 to 127 vCPUs: USD 0.017 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 11.45 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 119.04 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have at least 128 vCPUs: USD 0.016 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 9.92 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 103.17 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Important As the RHEL cloud pricing model changed, the prices of Red Hat product subscriptions in Alibaba Cloud, including RHEL subscriptions and RHEL for SAP subscriptions, changed accordingly on July 31, 2024. As a result, the prices of your ECS instances that use RHEL or RHEL for SAP change. For more information, see Announcement of Red Hat Product Subscription Price Change on Alibaba Cloud. RHEL Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) Add-on subscriptions Instance types that have 1 to 8 vCPUs: USD 0.0084 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 5.24 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 54.52 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have 9 to 127 vCPUs: USD 0.006 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 3.93 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 40.89 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have at least 128 vCPUs: USD 0.0048 per vCPU per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 3.41 per vCPU per month (monthly subscription), and USD 35.44 per vCPU per year (yearly subscription) The following examples describe how fees are calculated when you purchase RHEL ELS Add-on subscriptions. Billing examples In the following examples, an ECS instance that has 4 vCPUs is used: Fees for one month = USD 5.24 per vCPU per month × 4 vCPUs = USD 20.96 Fees for one year = USD 54.52 per vCPU per year × 4 vCPUs = USD 218.08 Fees for 24 hours = USD 0.0084 per vCPU per hour × 4 vCPUs × 24 hours = USD 0.8064 In the following examples, an ECS instance that has 32 vCPUs is used: Fees for one month = USD 3.93 per vCPU per month × 32 vCPUs = USD 125.76 Fees for one year = USD 40.89 per vCPU per year × 32 vCPUs = USD 1,308.48 Fees for 24 hours = USD 0.006 per vCPU per hour × 32 vCPUs × 24 hours = USD 4.608 Important RHEL 7 entered the ELS phase on July 1, 2024. We recommend that you upgrade RHEL 7 to RHEL 8. If you want to continue using RHEL 7, submit a ticket to purchase the RHEL 7 ELS Add-on subscription. For more information, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ELS guidance. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: You are charged license fees for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server images. The license fees vary based on the instance specifications. The following section describes the prices of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server images used on instance types that have different numbers of vCPUs: Instance types that have 1 or 2 vCPUs: USD 0.064 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 24.46 per month (monthly subscription), and USD 235.23 per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have 3 or 4 vCPUs: USD 0.127 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 50.15 per month (monthly subscription), and USD 471.54 per year (yearly subscription) Instance types that have at least 5 vCPUs: USD 0.152 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 58.62 per month (monthly subscription), and USD 564.60 per year (yearly subscription)
Custom images	Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or imported from your computer. The fees for custom images may include the following fees: Snapshot fees (charged when you retain custom images) The Snapshot service is required for custom images. If you retain custom images, you are charged snapshot fees. For more information, see Snapshots. License fees (charged when you use custom images to create ECS instances) If a custom image is derived from a paid image and you use the custom image to create ECS instances, you are charged a license fee for the custom image. For example, if Instance A uses Image A (paid image) and you create a custom image from Instance A, you are charged a license fee when you use the custom image to create ECS instances. Note If you use an imported Windows custom image to create ECS instances, you are charged based on the license type of the operating system. If the license type is Alibaba Cloud License (Aliyun) or Auto (Auto), you are charged a license fee for the custom image. If the license type is Bring Your Own License (BYOL), you are not charged a license fee for the custom image. For information about the fees for creating, copying, importing, or exporting custom images, see FAQ about image fees.
Shared images	Shared images are images that are shared with you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts. If you use a shared image that is derived from a paid image, you are charged a license fee for the shared image. For example, if you share Image A (paid image) with User B and User B uses Image A to create ECS instances, User B is charged a license fee for Image A.
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images	Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are provided by independent software vendors (ISVs). The prices of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are displayed on the image product pages in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.
Community images	Community images are custom images that Alibaba Cloud community members made available for others to use. If a community image is derived from a paid image, you are charged a license fee when you use the community image to create ECS instances.

Billing methods

You must select an image when you create an ECS instance. The image uses the same billing method and has the same billing duration as the ECS instance. The following table describes the billing methods.

Billing method

Billing rule

Subscription: You must pay for an image before you can use the image.

镜像费用

Unit price of the image: The unit price of an image is displayed when you use the image to create an ECS instance.
Subscription duration: You must specify a subscription duration when you use the image to create a subscription ECS instance.

Pay-as-you-go: You can pay for resources after you use the resources. Fees are automatically deducted from the balance of your Alibaba Cloud account.

镜像计费

Unit price of the image: The unit price of an image is displayed when you use the image to create an ECS instance.
Billing duration: The billing duration of an image is the period of time when the image is used. The billing duration is accurate to the second.

Note

You can use images only with ECS instances. Windows reserved instances include public images and can be applied to offset the license fees for the public images.

Billing examples

The following table provides examples on how to calculate image license fees. In the examples, an ECS instance in the China (Hangzhou) region is used. The ECS instance has 2 vCPUs and uses a RHEL 8.1 64-bit image.

Note

The prices in the following table are only for reference. The actual prices on the Pricing tab of the Elastic Compute Service product page shall prevail.

Billing method	Billing item	Fee (USD)
Subscription	Unit price for the image when used on an ECS instance that has 1 to 4 vCPUs: USD 43.00 per month Subscription duration: one month	License fee for the image = Unit price for the image × Subscription duration = 43.00 × 1 = 43
Pay-as-you-go	Unit price for the image when used on an ECS instance that has 1 to 4 vCPUs: USD 0.063 per hour Billing duration: one month	License fee for the image = Unit price for the image × Billing duration = 0.063 × (24 × 30) = 45.36

References

For more information about image billing, see FAQ about image fees.
For information about image types and how to use images, see Overview of images.