PolarDB provides three billing methods for storage, which are pay-as-you-go + storage plans, pay-as-you-go, and subscription. They each correspond to a set of billing rules.

Comparison

PolarDB charges fees for the storage capacity consumed by your clusters. For more information, see PSL4 and PSL5 and Storage Capacity. The following table compares the three billing methods.
Billing method Description Benefits Scenarios
Pay-as-you-go + storage plans The storage plans are first deducted for the consumed storage capacity. After your storage plans are exhausted, you are charged for the excess storage on a pay-as-you-go basis. Flexible and cost-effective
  • Your Alibaba Cloud account has a large amount of data stored in the clusters of specific regions.
  • The amount of data generated by your business is prone to frequent fluctuations.
  • You have multiple pay-as-you-go clusters.
Pay-as-you-go You are charged based on the actual amount of data in your clusters, and fees are deducted on an hourly basis. Flexible Your Alibaba Cloud account has a small amount of data stored in the clusters of specific regions, and the amount of data generated by your business is prone to frequent fluctuations.
Subscription A specific amount of storage capacity is purchased for your cluster when you create the cluster. Cost-effective The total amount of data of the clusters in specific regions under your Alibaba Cloud account is smaller than 10 TB, and the amount of data generated by your business seldom fluctuates.