Cloud Service Overview

Elastic Cloud Server (CT-ECS) is a ready-to-use, elastically scalable computing service. Cloud servers, composed of CPUs, memory, images, and Elastic Volume Services, integrate with VPC, security groups, and data replication to create an efficient, reliable, and secure computing environment that ensures enduring and stable service operation.

Elastic cloud servers are very convenient and efficient to activate and use; all you need to do is specify configuration information such as CPU, memory, and images. Once activated, you can use the elastic cloud server on the cloud just like using a local PC or physical server, and you can also adjust the specifications of the elastic cloud server anytime according to your needs.

· For the usage limitations and tips for elastic cloud servers (ECSs), see Tips for Use and Limitations.

· For resource specification limits of ECSs, see Manage Quotas.

Select Instance Specification Types

· About the application scenarios of ECSs: Application Scenarios of ECSs.

· About the ECS instance specification types: Specifications.

About the Billing Modes of ECS

Pay-as-you-go Billing

Pay-as-you-go billing is a postpaid mode in which an ECS is billed by the second based on its usage.

Note

Starting from 4:00 on April 1, 2021, the billing unit for pay-as-you-go ECSs, pay-as-you-go Elastic Volume Service (EVS) disks, and pay-as-you-go exclusive bandwidth will be changed from hours to seconds.

For example, if you create a pay-as-you-go ECS instance at 13:30:30 with related resource packages including computing resources (vCPUs and memory), images, and cloud disks (system disks) and release the instance at 13:55:30, then the billing cycle is 13:00:00-14:00:00, and charges are incurred between 13:30:30 and 13:55:30, and the billing duration in this billing cycle is 1500 seconds. The cost = instance hourly price/3600 × 1500.

For more information, see Pay-as-you-go Billing.

Yearly/Monthly Subscription

Yearly/monthly subscription is a prepaid mode. Billed based on your subscription cycle. You can reserve resources in advance through yearly/monthly subscriptions while enjoying greater price discounts than the pay-as-you-go billing.

For more information, see Yearly/Monthly Subscription.

Change the Billing Mode

If you need to use your pay-as-you-go ECS instances for a long time, you can change the billing mode to yearly/monthly to save costs. You can do this in the ECS console, as shown in the figure below.

If you want to use your yearly-monthly ECS instances more flexibly, you can change the billing mode to pay-as-you-go. You can do this in the cloud server console, as shown in the figure below.

Price Calculator

You can use the ECS Price Calculator to quickly learn about the cost of an ECS instance.

Purchase and Log In to an ECS

· Purchase an ECS in the Management Console

· Get Started: Purchase and Log In to a Windows ECS

· Get Started: Purchase and Log In to a Linux ECS