What Is It?
Cloud Savings Plans provide discounted pricing for committed compute usage. Commit to specific amounts of CPU cores and RAM for one-year or three-year terms to receive lower hourly rates (price per unit) compared to pay-as-you-go pricing. Savings Plans operate on the billing layer only: they are a financial discount and do NOT reserve physical capacity. The commitment is flexible and not tied to a specific VM type, region, or OS. Price protection applies for the entire term with monthly billing.
Quick Facts
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Commitment Type | Resource-based (CPU cores and/or RAM) |
| Term Options | 1 year or 3 years |
| Discount | Lower hourly rate (price per unit) vs. pay-as-you-go |
| Flexibility | Not tied to specific VM type, region, or OS |
| Billing | Monthly for committed amount (whether used or not) |
| Price Protection | Fixed discounted price for entire term |
| Capacity | Financial discount only (no capacity reservation) |
| Application | Chronologically applied starting with oldest VM |
What You Can Do
Commit to Resources
Purchase Savings Plan with specific commitment for CPU cores and RAM. Choose one-year or three-year term. Example: 50 cores and 200 GB RAM. Commitment applies across all eligible VMs regardless of type, region, or OS.
Receive Discounted Rates
Lock in lower hourly rate (price per unit) for committed resources. Discounted rate applied automatically to covered usage before pay-as-you-go rates. Price per unit (optimized hourly rate) shown during plan creation.
Note: Price per unit is fixed for entire term, even if IONOS changes general pricing.
Use Flexible Capacity
Apply committed capacity to any eligible VMs. Not tied to specific VM configurations. Change VM types, regions, and operating systems while maintaining discount.
Handle Excess Usage
Usage beyond committed amount billed at regular pay-as-you-go rates. Discount applied chronologically starting with oldest created VM until committed amount exhausted. No penalties for exceeding commitment.
Note: Unused capacity does not roll over to next billing period.
Modify Plan Name
Update Savings Plan name for better organization and identification. View all plans with current status, committed resources, and pricing.
Monitor Usage
View plan details including committed cores, RAM, term length, and price per unit. Track usage against commitment. Identify opportunities for additional plans or adjustments.
Best For
| Scenario | Why It Fits |
|---|---|
| Predictable workloads | Known baseline resource needs, consistent usage patterns, cost optimization |
| Long-term projects | Multi-year deployments, reduced pricing for committed usage |
| Cost optimization | Lower hourly rates, price protection, predictable monthly billing |
| Flexible architectures | Not tied to specific VM types or regions, adapt infrastructure as needed |
| Budget planning | Fixed monthly costs for committed resources, predictable expenses |
Key Considerations
Billing & Costs
- Main billing: Monthly for committed amount (whether used or not)
- Discounted rate: Lower price per unit for committed cores and RAM
- Excess usage: Pay-as-you-go rates for usage beyond commitment
- No refunds: Unused capacity does not reduce monthly bill or roll over
- Price protection: Discounted rate fixed for entire term
Limitations
- Products eligible for Cloud Savings Plans are Dedicated Core Servers (CPU/RAM), Managed Kubernetes on Dedicated Core Servers (CPU/RAM), and Nextcloud Workspace (per-user seat, one-year term only, 25-user minimum)
- Committed amount billed monthly regardless of actual usage
- Unused capacity does not roll over to next billing period
- No capacity reservation (financial discount only)
- Discount applied chronologically (cannot prioritize specific VMs)
- Cannot modify committed resources during term (only name editable)
- No early termination or refunds
- Requires accurate capacity planning to avoid unused commitment
- Excess usage billed at regular pay-as-you-go rates (no discount)
- Start-up contracts are not eligible for Cloud Savings Plans
- Customers benefiting from special discounts in compute resources are excluded
- Only contract owners can create and manage the Cloud Savings Plans on their contract
Management Options
- Cloud Savings Plans UI (Menu → Management → Cloud Savings Plans)
- Create Cloud Savings Plans (select cores, RAM, term)
- View Cloud Savings Plans (monitor active plans and usage)
- Modify Plan Name (rename for organization)
Cloud Savings Plans are managed exclusively through the DCD (Data Center Designer) UI; no Cloud API, Terraform resource, or SDK is available for programmatic plan management.