This topic provides answers to frequently asked questions about the billing of storage plans.
Purchase and usage
Is a storage plan required for every cluster?
No, purchasing a storage plan is not required for every cluster. You can decide whether to purchase a storage plan based on your business needs. If you purchase a storage plan, it is automatically used to cover the storage usage of clusters in the corresponding regions, up to the limit of the storage plan's capacity. For more information, see Combination with storage plans.
What storage plan do I purchase if no predefined options exactly match my current needs? For example, my services require 4 TB of storage, but the available options are 1 TB, 3 TB, and 5 TB.
You can purchase multiple storage plans if no predefined options exactly meet your needs. For example, to cover a storage need of 4 TB, you can purchase a 1 TB storage plan and a 3 TB storage plan. When the storage usage increases to approximately 4 TB, you can purchase a new storage plan or upgrade your current storage plan. For more information, see Upgrade a storage plan.
Do storage plans take effect immediately after I purchase them? Does this affect the normal running of clusters?
Storage plans are effective immediately after you purchase them and do not affect the normal running of clusters.
Can I use storage plans to offset the fees for PSL5 and PSL4 storage? What is the offset ratio?
Storage plans can be used to offset the fees for PSL5 and PSL4 storage. For more information, see the "Deduction rules for storage plans" section of the Pay-as-you-go + storage plan topic.
Can a storage plan be used to offset the storage fees of multiple clusters that belong to different accounts?
No.
Storage plan sharing
Can multiple clusters share a storage plan?
Yes. A storage plan can be shared by all clusters in the regions specified by the Resource Plan Type parameter. Two valid values for this parameter are Chinese Mainland or Outside Chinese Mainland. For more information, see Purchase a storage plan.
Can a storage plan be shared among clusters that use different engines?
Yes, a storage plan can be shared among clusters that run on different engines, such as PolarDB for MySQL, PolarDB for PostgreSQL, and PolarDB for PostgreSQL (Compatible with Oracle) clusters.
Storage usage offset
What storage usage can be covered by storage plans?
A storage plan can be used to cover the following storage usage, up to the limit of the storage plan's capacity:
Cluster's storage usage:
Storage that is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis consumed by PolarDB Enterprise Edition clusters
Storage usage of backups of PolarDB Enterprise Edition clusters, such as:
Level-1 backups beyond the free quota
Level-2 backups
Log backups beyond the free quota
Cold data archived to OSS
In what order of priority is a storage plan used? Can I apply a storage plan to clusters first?
A storage plan is used in the following order:
PolarDB Enterprise Edition clusters > PolarDB Standard Edition clusters
PolarDB Enterprise Edition clusters: Cluster storage usage (PSL5 and PSL4) > Level-1 backup storage usage beyond the free quota > OSS usage for cold data > Level-2 backup storage usage > Log backup storage usage beyond the free quota (If multiple clusters have the same priority level, the cluster creation time determines the order in which a storage plan is used for. That is, it is first used to offset the storage usage of the oldest cluster.)
For more information about how to use storage plans to offset storage fees, see What are storage plans and compute plans?
Renewal and upgrade
What do I do if the capacity of my storage plan is insufficient or exhausted? Can I purchase another storage plan of the same type?
Yes, you can purchase another storage plan with the same capacity if the capacity of your current storage plan is insufficient or exhausted. You can also choose to upgrade your current storage plan. For more information, see Upgrade a storage plan.
How is the storage usage beyond the storage plan's capacity billed? Does this impact the business?
The storage usage beyond your storage plan's capacity is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information, see Overview of storage pricing. This does not impact your business.
How do I renew my storage plan if the storage plan is about to expire?
See Renew a storage plan.
What happens when the capacity of a storage plan is insufficient to cover the storage of level-1 backups beyond the free quota?
If the remaining capacity of the existing storage plan falls short for the storage need of level-1 backups, the additional storage consumption will be billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. If you want the additional consumption to be covered by storage plans, you can purchase another storage plan or upgrade the current one. For more information, see Upgrade a storage plan.