Tair allows you to change instance configurations on demand, including changing the instance architecture and the specifications and number of shards. This helps you improve resource utilization and optimize the cost structure. This topic describes the fees for instance upgrades and refunds for instance downgrades.
Pay-as-you-go instances
If you change the configurations of a pay-as-you-go instance, you are charged based on the instance configurations at the time of order creation.
You can pay for pay-as-you-go instances after you use the instances. This billing method does not involve refunds upon configuration downgrade.
Subscription instances
You can change the configurations of a subscription instance before or after the instance expires. You can upgrade or downgrade an instance. Higher specifications cost more than lower specifications. For example, the price of an 8 GB read/write splitting instance with five read replicas is higher than that of a 16 GB cluster instance. If you want to change a 16 GB cluster instance to an 8 GB read/write splitting instance with five read replicas, you must upgrade the instance.
Action | Billing rule |
Upgrade | Instance upgrade fee = (Original price for the remaining validity period of the instance after upgrade - Original price for the remaining validity period of the instance before upgrade) × Discount for the remaining validity period of the instance
|
Downgrade | Refundable amount for the downgrade of resource specifications = Online refund amount × Price difference ratio between new and original orders. If you request refunds for multiple orders, the sum of the refund for each order is calculated. For information about the online refund amount and the price difference ratio between new and original orders, see Rules for unsubscribing from resources. |
FAQ
Refund flow
Only the actual amount that you paid for an order is refundable. The amount that is offset by discounts provided by coupons is not refundable.
The refund is returned to the account that paid the order. The following table shows the destinations of refunds that correspond to different payment methods:
Payment method | Refund flow |
Credit card | The refund is returned to your credit card account if you request a refund in five months (150 days) after you complete payment. The refund is returned to your Alibaba Cloud account if you request a refund five months after you complete the payment. |
PayPal | The refund is returned to your PayPal account if you request a refund in six months (180 days) after you complete payment. The refund is returned to your Alibaba Cloud account if you request a refund six months after you complete payment. |
Paytm | The refund is returned to your Paytm account if you request a refund in one year (365 days) after you complete payment. The refund is returned to your Alibaba Cloud account if you request a refund one year after you complete payment. |
Balance in your Alibaba Cloud account | Balance in your Alibaba Cloud account |
If the refund fails to be returned to the account that paid the order, the refund is returned to your Alibaba Cloud account.
You can receive the refund in 30 business days.
References
Change shard specifications
For information about how to change the memory specifications of shards and how to change the architecture, number of shards, and number of read replicas of a classic instance, see Change the configurations of an instance .
Change the number of shards
For information about how to adjust the number of shards for a cloud-native cluster instance, see Adjust the number of data shards for an instance.
Switch to the read/write splitting architecture
For information about how to switch an instance from the standard architecture to the read/write splitting architecture, see Enable read/write splitting.
Change the number of read replicas
For information about how to adjust the number of read replicas for a cloud-native read/write splitting instance, see Enable read/write splitting.