Billing method | Benefit | Description |
Pay-as-you-go | Flexibility | You can create and release instances as needed. After an instance is released, you are no longer charged for it. The billing cycle is 1 hour. If you use an instance for less than 1 hour, you are billed for 1 hour. Bills are generated within the hour after a billing cycle ends. Occasionally, the period may extend but never exceeds 3 hours. For example, the bill for the billing cycle between 09:00 and 10:00 is typically generated before 11:00. The actual point in time when your bill is generated may vary. After a bill is generated, fees are automatically deducted from your account. If you change the instance type of an instance within a billing cycle, the instance is billed based on the higher instance type price within the billing cycle. For example, assume that your instance capacity is 1 GB at 01:10, and changed to 8 GB at 01:20, and then to 2 GB at 01:50, the instance is billed for the 8 GB capacity during the billing cycle between 01:00 and 02:00. This billing method is suitable for use cases that involve fluctuating workloads.
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Subscription | Cost-effectiveness | You must pay for an instance when it is created. The billing cycle of a subscription instance is the time commitment you make when you purchase the instance (based on UTC+8:00). The billing cycle begins at the time when the subscription resource is purchased or renewed (accurate to the second) and ends at 00:00:00 on the next day of the expiration date.
Note The billing cycle of a subscription instance can be 365 days (yearly subscription) or 30 days (monthly subscription). For long-term use cases, this billing method provides higher cost performance than pay-as-you-go.
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