Subscription is a prepaid billing method that requires upfront payment for resource usage within a period, such as one month or one year. A longer purchase duration indicates a higher discount. This topic describes the scenarios for which subscription Elastic Compute Service (ECS) resources are suitable, impacts of subscription ECS instance expiration, and how to change the billing method of an ECS instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Supported scenarios
If your business has the following characteristics, we recommend that you purchase subscription ECS resources:
Predictable usage period of resources
Consistent use of resources
Long-term use of resources
Common scenario examples: an official website service available 24/7 and a database service.
Billing rules
Subscription is a prepaid billing method that covers the basic resource fees of instance types, system disks, data disks, images, and pay-by-bandwidth Internet traffic transfers. If all resources configured for an ECS instance use the subscription billing method, no extra fees are deducted during the resource usage period, and the instance automatically stops on expiration. If you upgrade or downgrade the configurations of an ECS instance in use, you are charged the price difference due to the configuration upgrade and refunded based on the refund rules due to the configuration downgrade.
If you create pay-as-you-go resources or features for a subscription instance, fees are incurred for the pay-as-you-go resource usage, in addition to subscription fees. If you use mixed billing methods, monitor your account balance to prevent overdue payments that affect resource usage. You can view the billing details of the pay-as-you-go resources of a subscription instance in Billing FAQ. For information about how to change the resource billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription, see Change the billing method.
For subscription resources of Alibaba Cloud, the usage duration and renewal duration refer to the calendar year and month. For example, you purchased an ECS instance with a subscription duration of one month on a specific day in February 2025. The expiration date is the same day in March, 2025, instead of 30 days later.
Basic billable items
For example, you want to create a subscription ECS instance that uses a paid image, attach a data disk to the instance, assign a public IPv4 address, and then select the pay-by-bandwidth billing method for network usage. In the lower-right corner of the ECS instance buy page in the ECS console, click View Details to view the details of the required fees, as shown in the following figure.
| The instance bills include the following billable items:
You can query the billing rules of each billable item that is displayed in the billing details. The billable items and their billing rules in this example are for reference only. The billable items displayed when you purchase an instance prevail. |
The prices of subscription instances vary based on the region, instance type, and usage duration. The following table describes the billing rules.
Billable item | Subscription price | Subscription duration |
Billable item | Subscription price | Subscription duration |
The price of an instance type varies based on the region. For information about the price schedule of instance types, go to the Pricing tab of the ECS product page. | One month to one year. For information about available usage durations, go to the ECS instance buy page. | |
The prices of cloud disks in the same category vary based on the region. For information about the price schedule of cloud disks, go to the Pricing tab of the ECS product page. | You can create the resources only when you create a subscription instance. The usage duration of the resources is the same as the usage duration of the instance. | |
The pricing of public bandwidth varies based on the region. For information about the price schedule of public bandwidth, go to the Pricing tab of the ECS product page. | ||
For information about the unit prices of Alibaba Cloud public images, see Billing of images. The actual prices of Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are subject to the real-time prices displayed when you create an instance. |
Instance configuration upgrade or downgrade
If the configurations of an ECS instance do not meet your business requirements, you can change the configurations, including the instance type, public bandwidth, and data disk configurations. For more information, see Overview of instance configuration changes. The fees may change based on the configuration upgrade or downgrade:
Upgrade: You must pay the difference between the new configuration fee and the remaining fee when you upgrade the instance configurations. The actual fee is displayed on the corresponding page in the ECS console when you upgrade the instance type or configurations of an instance.
Downgrade: A refund is issued after you downgrade instance configurations. For information about how to calculate the refund amount, see Refund for resource downgrade.
Change of billing methods
Change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go
After you create a subscription instance, you can change the billing method of the instance to pay-as-you-go to recover some costs and use the instance in a more flexible manner. After the billing method of the instance is changed from subscription to pay-as-you-go, make sure that your account balance is sufficient. Otherwise, overdue payments occur and services provided by the instance are affected. For more information, see Change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription
After you create a pay-as-you-go instance, you can change the billing method of the instance to subscription to reserve resources and obtain discounts. For more information, see Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.
Expiration and renewal
Before subscription ECS resources expire, we recommend that you renew the instance at the earliest opportunity or create snapshots to back up instance data to prevent data and business loss. For information about other issues, see Resource renewal-FAQ.
After a subscription instance expires, it may be stopped. You are notified to renew the instance. Renew the instance at your earliest convenience to ensure service continuity. If you have other questions, submit a ticket.
If the auto-renewal feature is enabled for a subscription instance but the instance fails to renew, the instance stops providing services at some point from 00:00:00 on the 15th day after instance expiration to 00:00:00 on the 16th day after instance expiration.
The following table describes the resource status after the instance expires.
Resource type | Within 15 days after the instance expires | 16 to 30 days after the instance expires | More than 30 days after the instance expires |
Resource type | Within 15 days after the instance expires | 16 to 30 days after the instance expires | More than 30 days after the instance expires |
Computing resources (vCPUs and memory) | The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are retained, and the instance works properly. You can start or stop an instance that works properly, and connect to the instance by using management terminals or other connection methods. | The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are retained, but the instance stops providing services. After an instance is stopped, you cannot connect to the instance or access websites that are deployed on the instance, and service errors may occur. | The computing resources (vCPUs and memory) are released. |
Image | An image operating system license is available. | An image operating system license is unavailable. | An image operating system license is unavailable. |
Block storage |
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Public IP address |
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After an instance expires, Data Storage is displayed in the Actions column corresponding to the instance on the Instance page. Before the instance is released, you can create a custom image from the instance or create snapshots for disks on the instance to back up disk data.
Renewal guidelines
Before an instance expires and is released, follow the procedure described in Renew a subscription instance to extend the usage duration of the instance.
View bills
To view details about resource usage and query the corresponding resource bills, go to the Bill Details page in the Expenses and Costs console. You can check the usage prices and discounts based on the fields in the billing table. This helps you understand how the fees are generated. For information about how to use the billing feature, see Usage notes on bills.
