Cloud computers can be purchased either on a monthly basis or on demand. With on-demand purchases, you are charged based on the pay-as-you-go billing method, allowing you to purchase and release cloud computers as needed. The pay-as-you-go billing method is ideal for short-term users, such as interns or training institutions. This topic describes the pay-as-you-go billing method, including the billing rules of resources and the impacts of overdue payments.
Billing formula
Billing cycles
The computing and storage resources of cloud computers have separate billing cycles.
Computing resources: The billing cycle for computing resources is the duration for which cloud computers are running. The billing for computing resources stops when cloud computers are in the Stopped and Hibernated states.
Storage resources: The billing cycle for storage resources starts when cloud computers are created and ends when the cloud computers are released. Billing continues without interruption throughout this cycle.
Settlement cycles
Bills for pay-as-you-go cloud computers are generated and settled hourly, on the hour (UTC+8).
For example, you purchased and started a cloud computer at 08:45:30 and released the cloud computer at 10:20:30. During this period, the cloud computer was not shut down. The cloud computer has the following settlement cycles:
The first settlement cycle starts at 08:00:00 (UTC+8) and ends at 09:00:00 (UTC+8). Fees are generated for a usage duration of 870 seconds from 08:45:30 (UTC+8) to 09:00:00 (UTC+8).
The second settlement cycle starts at 09:00:00 (UTC+8) and ends at 10:00:00 (UTC+8). Fees are generated for a usage duration of 3,600 seconds from 09:00:00 (UTC+8) to 10:00:00 (UTC+8).
The third settlement cycle starts at 10:00:00 (UTC+8) and ends at 11:00:00 (UTC+8). Fees are generated for a usage duration of 1,230 seconds from 10:00:00 (UTC+8) to 10:20:30 (UTC+8).
Settlement rules
The system generates a bill for each settlement cycle and deducts fees from your account based on your resource usage. Then, the system starts the next billing cycle.
If your account balance, including coupons, is insufficient to cover the fees, you will receive an email notification about the payment failure. To avoid disruptions from stopped or released cloud computers, we recommend that you complete your payment as soon as possible.
Billing examples
Billing formulas:
Computing resources (pay-as-you-go)
Fee = Hourly price × Number of hoursStorage resources (pay-as-you-go)
Fee = Hourly price per GiB × Capacity in GiB × Number of hours
Purchase details:
Computing specification: 4 vCPUs, 8 GiB memory
System disk: 80 GiB
Data disk: 100 GiB
Usage:
The cloud computer runs for 10 hours.
The cloud computer is retained for 12 hours (from the time when the cloud computer is created to the time when it is released).
Fee calculation:
Computing resource fee
= Hourly price × Number of hours
= 0.148 × 10
= USD 1.48
Storage resource fee
= Hourly price per GiB × Capacity in GiB × Number of hours
= 0.00007 × (80 + 100) × 12
= USD 0.1512
Total fees
= Computing resource fee + Storage resource fee
= USD 1.6312Impacts of overdue payments
If the total balance of your account, including coupons, is less than the amount due, the system will mark your account as having an overdue payment.
You can go to the User Center to view overdue payments.
After a payment becomes overdue, the cloud computer enters the Expired state. Data on the cloud computer is retained, but you cannot perform any operations, such as starting, stopping, restarting, or connecting to it. To continue using the cloud computer, you must top up your account within 30 days of the expiration date. Starting from the 31st day, the cloud computer will be automatically released.
Once a cloud computer is released, its data and snapshots are deleted and cannot be recovered.
Switch from pay-as-you-go to monthly subscription
You can switch the billing method of a cloud computer from pay-as-you-go to monthly subscription without affecting its data or usage.
You cannot switch the billing methods of cloud computer pools.
Prerequisites
Cloud computers are in the Running or Stopped state.
You do not have any unpaid orders for cloud computers. Otherwise, you must complete or cancel the orders before you proceed.
Procedure
Log on to the EDS Enterprise console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
In the upper-left corner of the top navigation bar, select a region.
On the Cloud Computers page, find the cloud computer whose computing plan you want to change, click the ⋮ icon in the Actions column, and then select Switch Billing Method.
NoteYou can select up to 20 cloud computers and choose in the lower part of the page to batch switch the billing methods of the cloud computers.
In the Switch Billing Method panel, select Monthly Subscription for the New Billing Method parameter, select a computing plan if necessary, and then click Switch Billing Method.
NoteAll cloud computers support the unlimited computing plan. The limited computing plans are only available for cloud computers with 4 vCPU/8 GiB or 8 vCPU/16 GiB specifications.
If a cloud computer that uses a limited computing plan exhausts its resources before the subscription cycle ends, it will continue running. To prevent the cloud computer from continuing to run, you can select When the monthly running hours of a cloud computer are exhausted in advance, the system automatically stops or hibernates the cloud computer.
Complete the payment as prompted.