This topic explains what a resource plan is, its applicable business scenarios, and the process for purchasing, renewing, or unsubscribing from a resource plan.
What is a resource plan?
A resource plan is a predetermined amount of cloud resources, or virtual usage derived from cloud resources, that you purchase in advance. It complements the pay-as-you-go model by offering more cost-effective pricing.
After purchasing a resource plan, when you use pay-as-you-go cloud resources, the system automatically applies the resource plan to offset the applicable cloud resources. Once the resource plan's quota is depleted or expires, it automatically reverts to pay-as-you-go.
Types of resource plans
Resource plans are categorized by commitment period into hourly, daily, no cycle, monthly (calendar month), and monthly (dynamic month) types.
Commitment Period | Specific Explanation | Typical Products |
Hourly/Daily | A fixed quota is generated for each billing cycle (hourly/daily). If the resource plan is not fully used within the billing cycle, the remaining quota will directly expire and regenerate in the next billing cycle. | Reserved Instance, Storage Capacity Unit |
No Cycle | You obtain a fixed total amount after purchase, which gradually decreases with use within the validity period until it is exhausted or expires. | PolarDB Compute Plan |
Monthly (including calendar month, dynamic month, and free trial by month) | A fixed quota is generated for each month (calendar month/dynamic month). The unused quota of a month cannot roll over to the next month. The quota is restored to full on the first day of the next month or at the start of the next billing month. | OSS Outbound Traffic Plan |
Precautions
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Resource plans typically have a specified validity period. Unused resources are forfeited upon expiration. Resource plans cannot be transferred across regions or products.
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Before purchasing a resource plan, ensure you understand the region and instance type of the resource to guarantee that the resource plan aligns with the resources you intend to offset.
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Any usage exceeding the resource plan quota will be billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. Assess your business needs carefully to avoid extra costs. You can set resource plan quota alerts to prevent unexpected pay-as-you-go charges due to resource plan depletion.
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Resource plans can only offset fees incurred after purchase. Overdue payments cannot be offset by a resource plan.
Scenarios
If you can accurately predict your resource usage, such as duration and capacity, purchasing a resource plan is recommended to reduce costs.
Example: For example, if you can accurately estimate that the standard storage (locally redundant) capacity of all Buckets under your Alibaba Cloud account will be around 100 GB for the next 3 months, you might consider buying a 100 GB, 3-month standard locally redundant storage plan to offset storage capacity fees. This could result in lower storage fees compared to the pay-as-you-go billing method for the same storage capacity.
Purchase and manage resource plans
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You can purchase multiple resource plans and manage them by priority. When several plans are available, the system will prioritize the one closest to expiration.
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When buying a resource plan, select the validity period carefully. If the period is exceeded, the resource plan will expire and no refund will be issued, nor will continued use be supported. It is advisable to monitor the expiration time of your resource plan closely.
First purchase
Log in to the console of each service and navigate to the purchase page. Choose the specifications that meet your business needs. Some products' resource plans allow you to set a specific start time, such as purchasing Storage Capacity Unit (SCU), purchasing GA resource plan, ALB resource plan, and others.
Renewal and re-purchase
Renewal: You can initiate a renewal before your resource plan expires by visiting Resource Renewal. After a successful renewal, the new cycle will automatically start once the current one ends. For more information, see renewal management/resource renewal usage introduction.
Re-purchase: If your resource plan has expired, you will need to log in to the product's management console to make a new purchase.
Set resource plan quota alerts
To avoid unplanned expenses, as the system will switch to pay-as-you-go once the resource plan quota is used up, you can set resource plan quota alerts to receive notifications when the quota is low, allowing you time to renew the plan or adjust your business usage.
Unsubscribe from resource plans
Some resource plans offer the option to unsubscribe. To check if your current plan allows for unsubscription, please visit the Resource Unsubscription page and select the Resource Plan tab to view unsubscribable instances (if the instance does not contain purchased resource plans, it indicates that the current resource plan does not meet the unsubscription conditions).
To unsubscribe, follow the unsubscription operation guide.
The calculation method for the unsubscription amount is as follows:
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Full refund within five days of no usage: A full refund is available within five days of purchase if the resource plan has not been used.
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Partial refund: For partially used resource plans with remaining amounts, the refund is calculated as the order payable amount minus the consumed amount. The consumed amount includes total-type resource plans linearly converted by usage and cycle usage-type resource plans calculated by actual usage duration. For detailed rules, see unsubscription rules explanation.