Savings Plans FAQ

What is Savings Plans?

Savings Plans is a flexible pricing model offering lower prices compared to On-Demand pricing, in exchange for a specific usage commitment (measured in CNY/hour) for a one- or three-year period. Amazon Web Services in China offers two types of Savings Plans – Compute Savings Plans and EC2 Instance Savings Plans. Compute Savings Plans apply to usage across Amazon EC2, Amazon Lambda, and Amazon Fargate. The EC2 Instance Savings Plans apply to EC2 usage. 

What types of Savings Plans does Amazon Web Services offer to reduce my bill?

Amazon Web Services offers two types of Savings Plans in China: 

1. EC2 Instance Savings Plans provide the lowest prices, offering savings up to 84% in exchange for commitment to usage of individual instance families in a given region (e.g. M5 usage in Beijing region). This automatically reduces your cost on the selected instance family in that region regardless of AZ, size, OS or tenancy. EC2 Instance Savings Plans give you the flexibility to change your usage between instances within a family in that region. For example, you can move from c5.xlarge running Windows to c5.2xlarge running Linux and automatically benefit from the Savings Plans prices.
   
2. Compute Savings Plans provide the most flexibility and help to reduce your costs by up to 81%. These plans automatically apply to EC2 instance usage across all instance types in a given region regardless of instance family, size, AZ, OS, or tenancy, and also apply to Fargate and Lambda usage. For example, with Compute Savings Plans, you can change from C4 instances to M5 instances or move a workload from EC2 to Fargate or Lambda at any time and automatically continue to pay the Savings Plans price.

How do I get started with Savings Plans?

You can get started with Savings Plans from Amazon Cost Explorer in the management console or by using the SDK/CLI. You can easily make a commitment to Savings Plans by using the recommendations provided in Amazon Cost Explorer, to realize the biggest savings. The recommended hourly commitment is based on your historical On Demand usage and your choice of plan type, term length, and payment option. Simply indicate the type of Savings Plans you want to purchase (Compute or EC2 Instance), region ( Beijing or Ningxia), term (one- or three-year), instance family (in case of EC2 Instance Savings Plans) and the custom commitment (CNY/hr) of your choice. Once you sign up for a Savings Plan, your compute usage will automatically be charged at the discounted Savings Plans prices and any usage beyond your commitment will be charged at regular On-Demand rates.

How can I purchase Savings Plans using SDK/CLI?

To purchase Savings Plans for China regions through SDK or CLI use the regional Savings Plans end-point according to the region of your choice: Beijing - savingsplans.cn-north-1.amazonaws.com.cn; Ningxia - savingsplans.cn-northwest-1.amazonaws.com.cn. Calling the describe-savings-plans-offering method will list all of the available Savings Plans you can purchase in the region according to optional filters you can specify. Once you have identified the Savings Plan you would like to purchase, simply call the create-savings-plan method and specify the Savings Plans offering id and the commitment value of your choice.

What payment options are available to pay for Savings Plans?

Savings Plans is available in 3 different payment options. The No Upfront option does not require any upfront payment, and your commitment will be charged on a monthly basis. The Partial Upfront option offers lower prices on Savings Plans. With this option you be charged at least half of your commitment upfront and the remainder will be charged on a monthly basis. With the All Upfront option, you will receive the lowest prices and your entire commitment will be charged in one payment at the time of purchase. 

What currency can I use to purchase Savings Plans?

You can make Savings Plans commitments using the local currency, Chinese Yuan (CNY). Billing, Recommendations, Cost and Usage reports, and Cost Explorer will all appear in CNY as well.

Is there a minimum commitment that I need to make to sign up for Compute Savings Plans?

The minimum effective hourly commitment amount is CNY 0.001, and you can make any commitment of your choice in increments of CNY 0.00001.

Where can I see the discounted prices offered by Savings Plans?

Before making a purchase, you can use the DescribeSavingsPlansOfferingRates method within the Amazon SDK/CLI. If you would like to view the rates of a purchased Savings plans, use the DescribeSavingsPlanRates method within the Amazon SDK/CLI or you can also download them as a CSV in the Savings Plans Console within their details page. Additionally, you can also view Savings Plans via Amazon Web Services PriceList API and Savings Plans Pricing pages.

How do Savings Plans work with Amazon Organizations/Consolidated Billing?

Savings Plans can be purchased in any account within an Amazon Organization/Consolidated Billing family. By default, the benefit provided by Savings Plans is applicable to usage across all accounts within an Amazon Organization/consolidated billing family. However, you can also choose to restrict the benefit of Savings Plans to only the account that purchased them.

How do I find out how much my Savings Plans have helped me save?

Amazon Cost Explorer will show you details on the savings realized with your Savings Plans. You can also use the Savings Plans reports (Utilization Report, Coverage Report, Cost and Usage Report) in Amazon Cost Explorer to understand how well you are utilizing your Savings Plans.

Can I have multiple Savings Plans active at the same time?

Yes. Your Amazon Web Services bill will be generated by taking into account all active Savings Plans.

Why don’t Compute Savings Plans purchased in China regions apply to usage in other Amazon Web Services regions? 

Compute Savings Plans apply only to usage in the Beijing or Ningxia Regions and not to any other Amazon Web Services regions. To provide the best experience for customers in mainland China and to comply with China’s legal and regulatory requirements, Amazon Web Services services in mainland China are operated by two local qualified companies. The Amazon Web Services China (Beijing) Region, is operated by Beijing Sinnet Technology Co. Ltd. (Sinnet), while the Amazon Web Services China (Ningxia) Region, is operated by Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology Co., Ltd. (NWCD). Amazon Web Services provides its industry-advanced standard cloud technology, guidance, and expertise to Sinnet and NWCD. Both Sinnet and NWCD have the required telecom licenses to operate these regions in compliance with Chinese regulations, and they provide Amazon Web Services services to customers in mainland China. These regions use local management console and account systems for users, endpoints, billing, and support charges, with similar GUI and APIs, as well as a high level of performance and security consistent with other Amazon Web Services regions.

In which region will my Savings Plans be billed into?

Savings Plans will be billed into the region where they were purchased. For example, a Compute Savings Plans for the Beijing region will be billed into Amazon Web Services China Beijing Region. If you have Savings Plans in both of the China regions, each plan will be billed independently into the respective region.

How do Savings Plans compare to EC2 Reserved Instances?

Savings Plans offers significant savings over On-Demand, just like EC2 Reserved Instances, but automatically reduce your bills on compute usage across any Amazon Web Services region, even as usage changes. This provides you the flexibility to use the compute option that best suits your needs and continue to save money, all without having to perform exchanges or modifications.

Compute Savings Plans, which provides savings up to 81% (just like Convertible RIs), automatically reduce your cost on any EC2 instance usage in a given region, regardless of instance family, size, OS, tenancy and even on Amazon Fargate or Amazon Lambda. EC2 Instance Savings Plans, which provide savings up to 84% (just like Standard RIs), automatically save you money on any instance usage within a given EC2 instance family in a chosen region (e.g. M5 in Beijing Region) regardless of size, OS or tenancy.

Do Savings Plans provide capacity reservations for EC2 instances?

No, Savings Plans does not provide a capacity reservation. You can however reserve capacity with On Demand Capacity Reservations and pay lower prices on them with Savings Plans.

Can I continue to purchase EC2 RIs?

Yes. You can continue purchasing RIs to maintain compatibility with your existing cost management processes, and your RIs will work along-side Savings Plans to reduce your overall bill. However as your RIs expire we encourage you to sign up for Savings Plans as they offer the same savings as RIs, but with additional flexibility.