Elastic Compute Service:Purchase and apply savings plans

Scenarios

Purchase savings plans

1. Determine the type of the savings plan that you want to purchase.

   Select a savings plan type, duration, and payment option based on your business requirements. For more information, see the Types and application rules section of the "Overview" topic. Examples:

   • If your business requires ECS instances across regions where different users are located or instances of multiple ECS instance families, we recommend that you purchase general-purpose savings plans.

   • If your business has stable resource usage for an extended period of time and you want to obtain the highest possible discount, we recommend that you properly apply deduction rules to meet your business requirements. For example, you can purchase a three-year, All Upfront, ECS compute savings plan.

   Note

   If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, the RAM user must have the permissions to purchase savings plans. For more information, see Grant a RAM user the permissions to purchase savings plans.

2. Calculate an hourly commitment amount based on your business requirements.

   Alibaba Cloud provides the Recommended page and the Savings Plan Calculator page to help you calculate the amount of spend commitment and purchase appropriate savings plans for pay-as-you-go ECS instances.

   • Use the automatic recommendation feature

     If you have a specific number of pay-as-you-go instances and want to reduce costs, we recommend that you go to the Recommended page to view the recommended configurations of a savings plan for pay-as-you-go instances.

     On the Recommended page, specify the Savings Plan Type, Duration, and Payment Method parameters, and then click View. The system recommends the hourly commitment amount and calculates expected savings for your reference. If the recommended hourly commitment amount meets your business requirements, click Buy Now.

     Note

     If the resource usage of your business fluctuates, the recommended commitment amount may not meet your business requirements. We recommend that you evaluate the recommended hourly commitment amount before you purchase the saving plan.

   • Use the savings plan calculator

     If you do not have pay-as-you-go instances, you can calculate the hourly commitment amount and go to the Saving Plan page to purchase a savings plan. For more information, see the Select an hourly commitment for ECS instances and Select an hourly commitment for elastic container instances sections of this topic.

3. On the Saving Plan page, configure the parameters of the savings plan as described in the following table.

   Parameter	General-purpose	ECS Compute
   Region	This parameter is unavailable.	Select a region.
   Purchase Method	This parameter is unavailable.	By Instance Family Set: A savings plan applies only to ECS instances that belong to the instance families included in the selected instance family set or elastic container instances that are created by specifying the corresponding ECS instance type. By ECS Instance Family: A savings plan applies only to ECS instances that belong to the specified instance family or elastic container instances that are created by using instance types from the specified instance family.
   Committed Amount (USD)	Enter an hourly commitment amount. The minimum amount is USD 0.01 per hour. A general-purpose savings plan can provide a discount rate of up to 72% off the pay-as-you-go prices. Note You are charged based on the Savings Plan rates for the committed usage and based on pay-as-you-go rates for usage beyond the commitment.	Enter an hourly commitment amount. The minimum amount is USD 0.01 per hour. An ECS compute savings plan can provide a discount rate of up to 76% off the pay-as-you-go rates. Note You are charged based on the Savings Plan rates for the committed usage and based on pay-as-you-go rates for usage beyond the commitment.
   Payment option	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. 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. 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 Savings plans of higher upfront payment options provide higher discounts. For more information, see the Payment options section of the "Savings plans" topic.	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. 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. 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 Savings plans of higher upfront payment options provide higher discounts. For more information, see the Payment options section of the "Savings plans" topic.
   Duration	1 Year: The validity period of a savings plan is one year. 3 Years: The validity period of a savings plan is three years. Note A longer duration indicates a higher discount rate. For more information, see the Discounts provided by savings plans section of the "Savings plans" topic.	1 Year: The validity period of a savings plan is one year. 3 Years: The validity period of a savings plan is three years. Note A longer duration indicates a higher discount rate. For more information, see the Discounts provided by savings plans section of the "Savings plans" topic.

4. Click Buy Now and complete the payment.

Calculate the hourly commitment amount for pay-as-you-go ECS instances

Perform the following steps to calculate the appropriate hourly commitment amount.

1. Go to the Pricing tab of the Elastic Compute Service product page and the Discount Details page in the Expenses and Costs console to view the regular pay-as-you-go and Savings Plan prices of Instances A.

   The following table describes the rates of Instances A.

   Billable item	Pay-as-you-go rate (USD per hour)	Discount of a savings plan	Savings Plan rate (USD per hour)
   ECS instance type (computing resources)	0.155	54.5% off	0.0705
   System disk	0.0064	58.8% off	0.0026
   Network bandwidth	0.054	57.5% off	0.0229

   After the savings plan is applied, the total amount of Instances A is calculated based on the following formula: (0.0705 + 0.0026 + 0.0229) × 15 = USD 1.44 per hour.

2. Query and calculate the amount of Instances B in the same way.

   The following table describes the rates of Instances B.

   Billable item	Pay-as-you-go rate (USD per hour)	Discount of a savings plan	Savings Plan rate (USD per hour)
   ECS instance type (computing resources)	0.1	72.7% off	0.0273
   System disk	0.0064	58.8% off	0.0026
   Network bandwidth	0.054	57.5% off	0.0229

   After the savings plan is applied, the total cost of Instances B is calculated based on the following formula: (0.0273 + 0.0026 + 0.0229) × 5 = USD 0.264 per hour.

3. Calculate an appropriate hourly commitment amount, which is the sum of total discounted amount of Instances A and Instances B.

   Sample recommend amount of hourly commitment: 1.44 + 0.264 = USD 1.704 per hour.

Calculate an hourly commitment amount for elastic container instances

1. Go to the Discount Details page to view the discounts for elastic container instances.

   In this example, the savings plan discount is 54.5%.

2. Calculate an appropriate hourly commitment amount

   In this example, after the savings plan is applied, the hourly fee of the elastic container instances is USD 8 per hour × 0.455 = USD 3.64 per hour. The hourly commitment amount of the recommended savings plan is USD 3.64 per hour, which can cover the hourly bills of existing elastic container instances.

View the usage results of savings plans

You can go to the Overview tab on the Saving Plans page to view the savings plans that you have purchased and their effects, including the savings amount, usage details of the savings plans, a usage report about the savings plans, and a coverage report about the savings plans.

References

• Savings plans

• Billing FAQ