<p>Pay-As-You-Go is a billing method that you use resource first and then pay for it. It is flexible and you can purchase and release resources at any time as needed.</p> <p><strong>Billing Cycle</strong></p> <p>The billing unit of Pay-As-You-Go is RMB per hour. It is billed by hour and settled by day. The billing cycle is based on time zone of UTC+8.</p> <p>Billing cycle starts from the time when resource is opened and ends at the time when resource is completely released. It is billed by hour. Resource usage for less than one hour is billed by one hour. It is settled on the hour every day. One hour is the settlement cycle (based on time zone of UTC+8). After being settled on the hour, it will enter new settlement cycle.</p> <p>Instance billed with the method of Pay-As-You-Go will not be charged after being stopped and will not affect billing of other resources. System disk and data disk that are created together with instance will be billed with the same method of the instance.</p> <p><strong>For example</strong>: If you opened an ECS instance (Pay-As-You-Go) at 08:00:30 on February 5, 2018 and released it at 10:30:36, then the actual billing period is three hours.</p> <p>Then suppose you opened the ECS instance (Pay-As-You-Go) at 14:00:00 on February 5, 2018 and released at 17:25:00, the actual billing period is four hours.</p> <p>The system is batch processing in the early morning and the total billing period of February 5 is 3+4=7 hours</p> <p><strong>Billing After Changing Configuration</strong></p> <p>After the configuration of an ECS instance billed by Pay-As-You-Go is changed, it will generate a new order. The new order will be charged with price of new configuration and the old order will be automatically void.</p> <p>If you change the ECS instance specifications within one hour after you purchase it, it will generate multiple billing messages. It will be billed for one hour even if the actual time period is less than one hour.</p> <p><strong>For example</strong>: You purchase the instance at 8:00:30 with specifications of 1C (2G) and unit price is 0.208 RMB per hour; you upgrade the configuration at 8:30:24 with specifications of 2C (4G) and unit price is 0.383 RMB per hour; then you release the instance at 8:59:59. The total fee is 0.208 RMB/hour * 1 hour + 0.383 RMB/hour * 1 hour = 0.591 RMB.</p> <p>Upgrade/Degrade Configuration</p> <ul> <li>Instances of Pay-As-You-Go are not limited on frequency of upgrading/ degrading configuration.</li> <li>Upgrading/degrading configuration at any time is supported. New configuration would take effect immediately. The effective period continues until the next new configuration takes effect.</li> <li>Billing rule: Instance of Pay-As-You-Go will be automatically settled based on the current configuration when it is stopped. After upgrading/degrading configuration order is completed, it will take effect immediately and be billed after being started based on new configuration. The instance will be billed for one hour even if the actual time period is less than one hour.</li> </ul> <p>Change Billing Method</p> <p>The billing method of ECS instances of Pay-As-You-Go can be changed. It can be changed into monthly subscription in the following path &quot;<strong>More &gt; Cost &gt; Change Paying Way</strong>&quot; in the operation column of the target instance. ECS instances of monthly subscription cannot be changed into Pay-As-You-Go.</p>