A savings plan is a discount plan that provides savings over pay-as-you-go rates in exchange for a commitment to use a consistent amount of usage for a specific period of time. After a savings plan takes effect, you can apply the savings plan to eligible pay-as-you-go instances to offset fees. This topic describes the payment options and discounts of savings plans and provides examples on how savings plans apply.
Payment options
When you purchase a savings plan, you must select a payment option. The following table describes the payment options supported by savings plans.
You can receive the savings provided by savings plans only if the savings plans are matched to pay-as-you-go instances. Before you purchase savings plans, you must be familiar with the characteristics of savings plans. For more information, see Overview.
Payment option | Description | Supported savings plan type |
All Upfront | Full payment is required at the time of purchase. No other costs or additional hourly fees are charged within the duration of the savings plan. |
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Partial Upfront | Partial payment (approximately 50% of the full amount) is required at the time of purchase, and the remainder is paid at a discounted hourly rate within the duration of the savings plan. |
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No Upfront | No upfront payment is required at the time of purchase. You are charged at a discounted hourly rate for every hour within the duration of the savings plan. Note Your Elastic Compute Service (ECS) usage determines whether you can use the No Upfront payment option. You can submit a ticket to check whether you can use the No Upfront payment option. |
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For a Partial Upfront or No Upfront savings plan, hourly fees are generated starting from the next hour after you purchase the savings plan. For an All Upfront savings plan that is not purchased at 00:00:00 and immediately takes effect, you are not charged for the rest of the day on which the savings plan is purchased. The fees for the rest of the day on which the savings plan is purchased are included in the total amount of a Partial Upfront or No Upfront savings plan and excluded from the total amount of an All Upfront savings plan. Savings plans of higher upfront payment options provide greater discounts.
You commit to a specific amount of hourly spend when you purchase ECS compute savings plans or general-purpose savings plans. You can use the following formula to calculate the total amount of an ECS compute savings plan or a general-purpose savings plan based on the hourly spend commitment: Total amount = Hourly spend commitment × 24 hours × 365 days × Duration. The duration of ECS compute savings plans and general-purpose savings plans is one or three years.
Calculate hourly spend commitments based on Savings Plan prices. For more information, see Purchase and apply savings plans.
For example, you purchased a one-year savings plan with an hourly commitment of USD 0.1. The total amount of the savings plan is calculated by using the following formula: USD 0.1 per hour × (1 × 365 × 24) hours = USD 876. You can select one of the following payment options to purchase the savings plan:
All Upfront: The full amount of USD 876 is paid upfront at the time of purchase.
Partial Upfront: 50% of the full amount, USD 438, is paid upfront at the time of purchase. In this case, the remaining USD 438 is charged at a rate of USD 0.05 per hour on an hourly basis for the duration of the savings plan, which is one year.
No Upfront: No upfront payment is made at the time of purchase. The total amount is charged at a rate of USD 0.1 per hour on an hourly basis for the duration of the savings plan.
Discounts provided by savings plans
After a savings plan takes effect, the savings plan provides a discount based on the following factors:
The duration of the savings plan. The longer the duration of a savings plan, the higher the discount. Three-year savings plans provide greater discounts than one-year savings plans.
The payment option of the savings plan. Savings plans of higher upfront payment options provide higher discounts. All Upfront savings plans provide the highest discounts, followed by Partial Upfront savings plans. The No Upfront savings plans provide the lowest discounts.
The instance family of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
The region of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
The operating system of pay-as-you-go instances to which the savings plan applies.
You can go to the Discount Details page in the Expenses and Costs console to view information about the discounts provided by savings plans.
The following figure shows the discounts provided by savings plans.
Examples
The following table provides examples on how savings plans apply in common scenarios.
The prices in the examples are provided only for reference. The prices and discounts displayed on the Savings Plan product page shall prevail. For more examples, see Overview.
Pay-as-you-go instance | Savings plan | Hourly bill |
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When multiple savings plans match pay-as-you-go instances, the system determines the optimal scheme on how the savings plans apply.