Introduction to resource plans - Expenses and Costs - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Learn what resource plans are, their ideal use cases, and how to purchase, renew, and unsubscribe from them.

What is a resource plan?

A resource plan is a billing option that lets you pre-purchase a fixed amount of cloud resources, or their equivalent usage, at a discount. Use a resource plan with the pay-as-you-go model to reduce your overall costs.

After you purchase a resource plan, the system automatically uses it to offset charges for eligible pay-as-you-go resources. Once the plan is fully used or expires, billing automatically reverts to the pay-as-you-go model.

Resource plan types

Resource plans are categorized by their commitment period. The main types are hourly/daily, monthly, and non-periodic.

Commitment period	Description	Example products
Hourly/Daily	Provides a fixed amount of resources for each billing cycle (hour or day). Unused resources expire at the end of the cycle and do not roll over.	Reserved Instance, Storage Capacity Unit (SCU)
Non-periodic	You receive a total amount of resources upon purchase. This amount is consumed over time and is valid until it is depleted or expires.	PolarDB compute plan
Monthly (including calendar month, dynamic month, and free trial)	Provides a fixed quota each month (either a calendar or dynamic month). The quota resets at the start of the next cycle, and any unused amount expires.	OSS Outbound Traffic Plan

Important considerations

Resource plans have a specific validity period and expire. Once expired, they cannot be used, refunded, or transferred across different regions or products.
Before purchasing a resource plan, verify that its region and instance type match your resources to ensure the plan applies correctly.
We bill any usage exceeding the resource plan's quota on a pay-as-you-go basis. We recommend evaluating your business needs carefully to avoid unexpected charges. Set alerts for low resource plan balances to prevent unexpected pay-as-you-go costs when your plan is depleted.
Use resource plans only to offset charges incurred after the plan is purchased. They cannot be used to settle existing overdue payments.

Purchase recommendations

If you can accurately forecast your resource usage, such as duration or capacity, purchasing a resource plan is an effective way to save money.

To ensure the resource plan you purchase effectively covers your cloud service costs and to avoid paying for the wrong plan, we recommend reviewing your usage history. Check your Bill Details page to view your bill and usage details. This helps you identify which pay-as-you-go billable items contribute most to your costs and analyze their usage patterns. With this data, you can better predict business growth and select a plan with the right capacity and duration.

Example: If you forecast that your account will use approximately 100 GB of Standard LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) capacity across all buckets for the next three months, you can purchase a 100 GB, three-month Standard LRS storage plan. This plan will offset your storage capacity fees. For the same amount of storage, a resource plan is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go model.

Purchase and manage resource plans

You can purchase multiple resource plans. When multiple plans are active, the system deducts from the one nearest its expiration time first.

First-time purchase

To purchase a plan, go to the product's Management Console and select the desired specifications. Some resource plans let you set a specific effective time, such as plans for Storage Capacity Unit (SCU), Global Accelerator (GA), and Application Load Balancer (ALB).

Renewal and repurchase

Renewal: Before a resource plan expires, you can renew it on the Resource Renewal page. Once the renewal is successful, the new period begins automatically after the current one ends. For more information, see Renew an expiring resource.

Repurchase: If a resource plan has already expired, you must purchase a new one from the product's Management Console.

Set alerts for low resource plan balances

After a resource plan is depleted, the system automatically switches to the pay-as-you-go model, which can lead to unplanned expenses. By setting alerts for low resource plan balances, you can receive timely notifications when your balance is low. This provides sufficient time to renew your plan or adjust your usage.

View resource plan validity

Important

You can only view resource plans that are active or have expired within the past year.

Sign in to the Resource Plan page. On the Instances tab, click the icon and select the End Time checkbox to display the column.
In the last column of the instance list, you can see the End Time for each Resource Plan.
(Optional) To view more details about plan consumption, click the Details tab to view specific deduction records.

Unsubscribe from a resource plan

Some resource plans support unsubscription. To check if your plan is eligible, go to the Resource Unsubscription page and switch to the Resource Plans tab. This page lists all instances eligible for unsubscription. If your plan is not listed, it is ineligible for unsubscription.

To unsubscribe, follow the steps in Unsubscribe from a resource.

We calculate the refund amount as follows:

Full refund for unused resources within five days of purchase: Some resource plans are eligible for a full refund if you request the unsubscription within five days of purchase and have not used the plan.
Partial refund: For plans that have been partially used, we calculate the refund as: Refund Amount = Total Amount Paid - Amount Consumed. We calculate the consumed amount based on either the proportion of resources used (for total amount plans) or the actual duration of use (for periodic plans). For detailed calculation rules, see Unsubscription rules.

Expenses and Costs:Introduction to resource plans