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subscription

Updated at: 2025-02-17 06:21

Subscription is a prepaid billing method that allows you to reserve resources in advance and benefit from significant discounts, leading to substantial cost savings. This topic describes suitable scenarios for subscription ECS resources, the consequences of subscription ECS instance expiration, the refund policy, and additional details.

Scenarios

We recommend purchasing subscription resources if your business exhibits the following characteristics:

  • You can predict the resource usage period.

  • Resource usage is relatively stable.

  • There is a need for long-term resource utilization.

For instance, web and database services that operate continuously.

Applicable billable items

Subscription supports the following resources:

  • ECS instance type

  • Images associated with subscription ECS instances

  • Cloud disks associated with subscription ECS instances

  • Public bandwidth for subscription ECS instances

Impacts of resource expiration

Important

After an instance expires, it may be stopped. The system sends you notifications for renewing the instance. Renew your instance at your earliest convenience to ensure service availability. If you have other questions, submit a ticket

If auto-renewal is not enabled for a subscription instance, the instance stops providing services at some point between 00:00:00 on the expiration date and 00:00:00 the following day.

Note

You cannot enable auto-renewal for an expired subscription instance.

The table below describes the states of resources for an expired subscription instance.

Resource Type

Within 15 Days After Expiration

15 Days After Expiration

Resource Type

Within 15 Days After Expiration

15 Days After Expiration

Computing resources (vCPUs and memory)

The computing resources are retained, but the instance stops providing services.

Note

After an instance is stopped, you cannot connect to it or access websites hosted on it, which may result in service disruptions.

The computing resources are released.

Image

The image is unavailable.

The image is unavailable.

Block Storage

  • Cloud disk: If not set to release with the instance, it converts to pay-as-you-go and continues billing, but stops providing services.

  • Local disk: The local disk and its data are retained, but the disk stops providing services.

  • Cloud disk:

    • Subscription cloud disk and data are released.

    • Pay-as-you-go cloud disk set to release with the instance and data are released.

    Note

    If the Automatic Snapshot Release With Cloud Disk attribute is enabled, automatic snapshots are deleted when the cloud disk is released. For more information, see set automatic snapshot release with cloud disk.

  • Local disk: The local disk and its data are released.

Public IP

  • If the instance is in the classic network, the public IP address is retained.

  • If the instance is in a VPC:

    • The static public IP address is retained.

    • The EIP associated with the instance is unaffected.

  • If the instance is in the classic network, the public IP address is released.

  • If the instance is in a VPC:

    • The static public IP address is released.

    • The EIP is disassociated from the instance.

If auto-renewal is enabled for a subscription instance but renewal fails, the instance stops providing services at some point between 00:00:00 on the 15th day after expiration and 00:00:00 on the 16th day after expiration.

The table below describes the states of resources for such an expired subscription instance.

Resource Type

Within 15 Days After Expiration

15 Days After Expiration

30 Days After Expiration

Resource Type

Within 15 Days After Expiration

15 Days After Expiration

30 Days After Expiration

Computing resources (vCPUs and memory)

The computing resources are retained, and the instance functions normally.

Note

When an instance functions normally, you can start or stop it and connect to it using management terminals or other methods.

The computing resources are retained, but the instance stops providing services.

Note

After an instance is stopped, you cannot connect to it or access websites hosted on it, which may result in service disruptions.

The computing resources are released.

Image

The image is available.

The image is unavailable.

The image is unavailable.

Block Storage

  • Cloud disk: If not set to release with the instance, it converts to pay-as-you-go and continues billing, functioning normally.

  • Local disk: The local disk and its data are retained, functioning normally.

  • Cloud disk: If not set to release with the instance, it converts to pay-as-you-go and continues billing, but stops providing services.

  • Local disk: The local disk and its data are retained, but the disk stops providing services.

  • Cloud disk:

    • Subscription cloud disk and data are released.

    • Pay-as-you-go cloud disk set to release with the instance and data are released.

    Note

    If the Automatic Snapshot Release With Cloud Disk attribute is enabled, automatic snapshots are deleted when the cloud disk is released. For more information, see set automatic snapshot release with cloud disk.

  • Local disk: The local disk and its data are released.

Public IP

  • If the instance is in the classic network, the public IP address is retained.

  • If the instance is in a VPC:

    • The static public IP address is retained.

    • The EIP associated with the instance is unaffected.

  • If the instance is in the classic network, the public IP address is retained.

  • If the instance is in a VPC:

    • The static public IP address is retained.

    • The EIP associated with the instance is unaffected.

  • If the instance is in the classic network, the public IP address is released.

  • If the instance is in a VPC:

    • The static public IP address is released.

    • The EIP is disassociated from the instance.

After an instance expires, the Instance page displays a Data Retention button under the Operation column. Before the instance is released, you can create a custom image or snapshots for each cloud disk to preserve data. image

Change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go

If the subscription billing method does not align with your business requirements, you can switch the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go for more flexibility and potential cost recovery. For detailed instructions, see change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go.

Impacts of overdue payments

Overdue payments in your account allow you to use your subscription resources normally but restrict you from performing chargeable operations such as purchasing instances, upgrading configurations, or renewing resources. For further details, see overdue payments.

FAQ

Subscription Instance Billing Issues

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  • Scenarios
  • Applicable billable items
  • Impacts of resource expiration
  • Change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go
  • Impacts of overdue payments
  • FAQ
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