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Elastic Compute Service

Billing

Instructions on arrears

This topic describes the impact of arrears on instances and associated resources, as well as the procedures for handling arrears, to help you manage your resources. How to view available balance?

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When your account is in arrears, the platform sends a notification by SMS, email, or internal message based on the notification method you specify to remind you of the unpaid fees.

Impact of arrears

Pay-as-you-go instance

When your account is in arrears, your resources will enter a retention period, with usage being limited. Once the retention period expires, your resources will be forcibly reclaimed and cannot be recovered. To ensure uninterrupted use of ECS resources, settle overdue bills within the specified period (before the resources are forcibly reclaimed).

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When your account is in arrears, you need to settle the overdue bills and make sure that the available balance in your account (including balance and coupons) is greater than or equal to 100 CNY. Otherwise, you will not be able to create instances, change instance type, or change operating system.

Once your account is in arrears, the running and billing status of the ECS instance changes as shown in the following chart.

Instructions on resource release due to arrears

Stopping time: 2 hours after your account is in arrears.

After the stop, the status of the Pay-as-you-go instance changes to "Stopped". In the "Billing method" column, "Stopped" is displayed.

Release time: 15 days and 2 hours after your account is in arrears.

Regardless of whether your instance resources are suspended or released, you are required to pay the generated outstanding bills.

Instructions on resource status during arrears

Resource type	Post-arrears duration ＜ 2 hours	2 hours ≤ Post-arrears duration ＜ 2 hours + 15 days	Post-arrears duration ≥ 2 hours + 15 days
Compute resources (vCPU and memory)	Compute resources are retained and billing continues. The following features are unavailable: Create an instance Changing an instance type Changing billing method from Pay-as-you-go to Subscription Change the operating system	For instance type families that support Economical Mode, the resources will be released and billing stops, regardless of whether Economical Mode is enabled. The following features are unavailable: Create an instance Changing an instance type Changing billing method from Pay-as-you-go to Subscription Changing operating system Starting or restarting instance	The resources will be forcibly released, and all associated configurations and data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Image	The image is retained, with limited use.	The image is retained, with limited use.	The image is retained, with limited use.
Local volume	The local volume and the data in it are retained.	Local volumes are retained, but the data in them may be released at any time.	The resources will be forcibly released, and all associated configurations and data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Elastic Block Storage	The system volume, data volume, and the data in them are retained.	The system volume, data volume, and the data in them are retained.	The resources will be forcibly released, and all associated configurations and data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Snapshot	The snapshot data is retained.	The snapshot data is retained.	The resources will be forcibly released, and all associated configurations and data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
EIP	The EIP applied is retained. Disassociation is supported, and you can associate an active EIP.	The EIP applied is retained. You can dissociate the EIP, but the bandwidth will be limited to 1 Kbps.	EIP is forcibly disassociated.

Subscription instances

If your account is in arrears, you can still use the Subscription ECS resources and volumes you have purchased. However, you cannot perform cost-related operations, such as purchasing new instances, upgrading instance configuration, or renewal. Before you perform these operations, you need to settle all arrears under your account.

Warning

After a Subscription instance is stopped due to arrears, if the overdue bill is settled and the instance is renewed and recovered, the new billing cycle starts from the expiration date of the previous cycle, rather than the recovery date. For example: If the instance expiration date is June 30, and you complete renewal and recovery for 1 month on July 5, the new cycle is June 30 to July 30, not July 5 to August 5.

Pay-as-you-go data volumes attached to subscription instances will be forcibly released if the account remains in arrears for more than 2 hours + 15 days. All data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. Please be aware of the potential impact on business continuity.

Viewing outstanding amount

In the top menu bar, click "Billing > Overview" to go to the billing center. On the page that appears, you can view the outstanding amount. On this page, you can also enable the "Available balance alert". After you do this, the system will send a notification when the available balance is less than the alert threshold. For more information, refer to Instructions on account.

Bill settlement

If your account is in arrears, your instance may be stopped. To avoid interruption to your services, please recharge and settle overdue bills in a timely manner. For specific steps, refer to Recharge guide.

After you settle overdue bills, the running status of instances will be as follows:

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Regardless of whether you make a renewal before or after the suspension caused by arrears (2 hours after your account is in arrears), the instance status after settlement will be the same as that before the arrears.

Instance type families that support Economical Mode may fail to start due to insufficient stock when restarted. For details, refer to Instructions on resource status after Economical Mode is enabled.

Billing method	No arrears	Upon arrears	Stopped due to arrears	After recharge
Pay-as-you-go instance	In service	In service	Stopped	In service
		Normal Mode	Normal Mode	Stopped	Normal Mode
		Economical Mode	Economical Mode	Stopped	Economical Mode
Subscription instances	In service	In service	Normal Mode	In service
Subscription instances		Normal Mode	Normal Mode	Normal Mode	Normal Mode

Last updated: 2026.10.08 17:48:28