Overview

The IONOS Cloud Savings Plans are a pricing model that offers significantly optimized resource rates for a specific quantity of cloud resource usage, measured per hour, over a one or three-year term, compared to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) prices. It provides a substantially reduced price for consistent resource usage and is a key feature for cloud cost optimization.

Prerequisites:

• You must be a contract owner to create Savings Plans.

• Your contracts must be in the “Billable” status to purchase Savings Plans. If a contract holds any other status, the Data Center Designer (DCD) does not display the option to purchase Savings Plans.

Note: The current resource allocation limits in your contract determine the amount of resources you can configure in your Savings Plans.

Cloud Savings Plans lifecycle

The following shows the Savings Plans lifecycle. Log in to the DCD to create Savings Plans for your contract.

1

Validate your details

Ensure you fulfill the following:

• You are a contract owner.

• Your contract is in the “Billable” status.

• You have entered a valid address and payment details.

2

Create Cloud Savings Plans

1. In the Data Center Designer (DCD), choose the start date, applicable products, the number of resources, and a duration of either one year or three years for your Savings Plans. For more information, see Create Cloud Savings Plans.

When you choose Savings Plans:

• You become eligible for the corresponding Savings Plans rates on applicable products.

• Billing for the plan continues for the full term at the agreed-upon amount, regardless of your actual resource usage. For more information, see Use Cases.

Note: You cannot modify the Savings Plans after they are activated. If your needs grow, you can purchase additional plans at any time. Any resource usage exceeding your plan's coverage will be billed at the standard PAYG rate.

2. Confirm the details before you agree to the terms and conditions.

3. Upon purchase, you will receive a confirmation email at your registered address detailing your successful enrollment in the Savings Plan.

3

Activate Cloud Savings Plans

Your Savings Plans activate on the specified start date, upon purchase. The Savings Plans rates will be automatically applied to your eligible product usage, beginning at 00:00 UTC on the effective date. No manual configuration is necessary.

4

Monitor usage and billing

The rate of your Savings Plans is applied automatically to your eligible product usage, up to the amount you have chosen. It prioritizes the application of Savings Plans rates based on the Virtual Machine (VM) creation time, from oldest to newest.

Any usage that exceeds your chosen resources is billed at the standard PAYG rate, ensuring flexibility while maintaining savings on predictable workloads.

Your monthly invoice details all usage from the billing period. It clearly distinguishes between usage covered by your Savings Plans and any extra usage charged at the standard PAYG rate.

Track your resource usage costs using Cost & Usage reports and set up Cost Alert to track budget thresholds. Together, these tools enable you to monitor spending in real-time and manage your cloud costs effectively. By reviewing alerts and usage reports, you can better use your Savings Plans and identify opportunities to optimize resource usage.

5

Cloud Savings Plans expiry

You receive a notification 30 days before your Savings Plans expire. You can create new plans before the expiry of your old Savings Plans. If there are eligible Savings Plans, your usage automatically reverts to PAYG pricing the day after expiration. While no service interruption occurs, you may not be able to access the previous plan rates during transition to the PAYG pricing.

To continue your Savings Plans benefits, log in to the DCD and purchase new plans to start immediately after your current term ends. It ensures continuous cost optimization without disruption.

Understanding the scope of the Savings Plans: Savings Plans operate on the billing layer to automatically apply your plan rates. They do not operate on the resource layer, which means they do not reserve physical capacity. Therefore, your lower rate is guaranteed for any eligible usage; however, the availability of specific resources is determined by data center capacity when you create them.