# Snapshot Billing

## Prerequisites

* Snapshot resources are all [**pay-as-you-go**](/welcome/pricing/general-pricing-rules/pay-as-you-go.md) resources charged by hour, with a minimum of one hour price. Please first see [**General Pricing Rules**](/welcome/pricing/general-pricing-rules.md) and [**General Lifecycle Rules**](/welcome/pricing/general-lifecycle-rules.md) to know about basic pricing ways of pay-as-you-go resources.
* Snapshot currently includes the following pricing items: storage space.

## Billing Item

The basic billing item for snapshot service is **snapshot capacity**, which refers to the actual storage space occupied by snapshots.

## Billing Method

* The snapshot service uses pay-as-you-go by default, and charges are calculated hourly based on actual usage.
* Charges are based on the actual storage usage of snapshots.

## Region-level Billing

Snapshots are billed **by capacity** and **per region**. Each region has only one snapshot billing order, and all snapshots in that region are accumulated into it.

* Snapshot billing is aggregated at the region level.
* When you create a snapshot in a region for the first time, the system generates a snapshot billing order for that region.
* Any subsequent snapshots created in the same region will not generate a new order. Their storage usage will be accumulated into the existing regional snapshot order.
* Different regions are billed independently, with separate snapshot orders.

## Billing Example

Suppose you create snapshots four times in `asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong)` and `europe-central-1 (Frankfurt)` respectively:

* `asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong)` unit price: `$0.1`/GB/month (billed hourly)
* `europe-central-1 (Frankfurt)` unit price: `$0.2`/GB/month (billed hourly)

Your snapshot billing orders will be as follows:

<table><thead><tr><th width="78.50775146484375">Step</th><th width="124.2286376953125">Region</th><th width="109.1541748046875">Disk Size</th><th width="163.8477783203125">Snapshot Action</th><th width="169.8358154296875">Order Status</th><th width="250.26904296875">Billing Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong)</td><td>50 GB</td><td>Create a snapshot of Disk A</td><td>A “asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong) Order” is generated</td><td>Billed for 50 GB snapshot capacity, used for 1 month:<br><code>$0.1</code> × 50 × 1 = <code>$5</code></td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong)</td><td>100 GB</td><td>After 1 month, create a snapshot of Disk B</td><td>No new order</td><td>Added to “asia-southeast-1 (Hong Kong) Order”, total 150 GB. After another month of usage:<br><code>$0.1</code> × 50 × 2 + <code>$0.1</code> × 100 × 1 = <code>$20</code></td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>europe-central-1 (Frankfurt)</td><td>200 GB</td><td>After 1 month, create a snapshot of Disk C</td><td>A “europe-central-1 (Frankfurt) Order” is generated</td><td>Billed for 200 GB snapshot capacity. After another month of usage:<br><strong>Hong Kong</strong>: <code>$0.1</code> × 50 × 3 + <code>$0.1</code> × 100 × 2 = <code>$35</code><br><strong>Frankfurt</strong>: <code>$0.2</code> × 200 × 1 = <code>$40</code><br><strong>Total</strong>: <code>$35</code> + <code>$40</code> = <code>$75</code></td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>europe-central-1 (Frankfurt)</td><td>50 GB</td><td>After 1 month, create a snapshot of Disk D</td><td>No new order</td><td>Added to “europe-central-1 (Frankfurt) Order”, total 250 GB. After another month of usage:<br><strong>Hong Kong</strong>: <code>$0.1</code> × 50 × 4 + <code>$0.1</code> × 100 × 3 = <code>$50</code><br><strong>Frankfurt</strong>: <code>$0.2</code> × 200 × 2 + <code>$0.2</code> × 50 × 1 = <code>$90</code><br><strong>Total</strong>: <code>$50</code> + <code>$90</code> = <code>$140</code></td></tr></tbody></table>


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