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Paying for AMIs

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Amazon EC2 integrates with Amazon DevPay, allowing developers to charge other EC2 users for the use of their AMIs or to provide support for instances. To learn more about Amazon DevPay go to the Amazon DevPay Developer Guide. For more information about charging for the use of your AMIs, or providing support, see Creating Paid AMIs.

This section describes how to discover paid AMIs, launch paid AMIs, and launch instances with a support product code. Paid AMIs are AMIs you can purchase from other developers.

	Note
	All paid AMIs are backed by Amazon instance store.

Find Paid AMIs

There are several ways you can determine what paid AMIs are available for you to purchase. You can look for information about them on the Amazon EC2 resource center and forums. Alternatively, a developer might give you information about a paid AMI directly.

You can also tell if an AMI is a paid AMI by describing the image with the ec2-describe-images command. This command lists the product code associated with an AMI (see the following example). If the AMI is a paid AMI, it has a product code. Otherwise, it does not. You can then go to the Amazon EC2 resource center and forums, which might have more information about the paid AMI and where you can sign up to use it.

	Note
	You must sign up for a paid AMI before you can launch it.

To check if an AMI is paid

Enter the following command:
```
PROMPT> ec2-describe-images <ami_id>
```
The <ami_id> is the AMI ID.
The command returns numerous fields that describe the AMI. If a product code (e.g. D6F6052A) is present in the output, the AMI is a paid AMI.

Example

This example shows an ec2-describe-images call describing a paid AMI. The product code is ACD42B6F.

PROMPT> ec2-describe-images ami-a5bf59cc
IMAGE   ami-a5bf59cc    cloudmin-2.6-paid/image.manifest.xml    541491349868    available public   ACD42B6F        i386    machine                         instance-store

Purchase a Paid AMI

You must sign up for (purchase) the paid AMI before you can launch it.

Typically a seller of a paid AMI presents you with information about the AMI, its price, and a link where you can buy it. When you click the link, you're first asked to log in with an Amazon.com login, and then you are taken to a page where you see the paid AMI's price and you confirm you want to purchase the AMI.

	Important
	You don't get the discount from Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances with paid AMIs. That is, if you purchase Reserved Instances, you don't get the lower price associated with them when you launch a paid AMI. You always pay the price that the seller of the paid AMI specified. For more information about Reserved Instances, see Reserved Instances.

Launch a Paid AMIs

This section describes how to launch paid AMIs and launch instances with a support product code.

After you purchase a paid AMI, you can launch instances of it. Launching a paid AMI is the same as launching any other AMI. No additional parameters are required. The instance will be charged according to the rates set by the owner of the AMI (which will be more than the base Amazon EC2 rate).

To launch a paid AMI

Enter the following command:
```
PROMPT> ec2-run-instances <ami_id>
```
The <ami_id> is the AMI ID.

	Note
	The owner of a paid AMI will be able to confirm if a particular instance was launched using their paid AMI.

Example

This example shows the command used to launch the ami-2bb65342 AMI.

PROMPT> ec2-run-instances ami-2bb65342
RESERVATION r-a034c7c9 111122223333 default
INSTANCE	i-31a7425a	ami-2bb65342	pending	0	m1.small	2010-03-19T13:59:03+0000	us-east-1a	aki-94c527fd	ari-96c527ff	monitoring-disabled		ebs

Using Paid Support

The paid AMI feature also allows developers to offer support for software (or derived AMIs). Developers can create support products that you can sign up to use. With this model, the developer provides you with a product. During sign-up for the product, the developer gives you a product code for that product, which you must then associate with your own AMI. This allows the developer to confirm that your instance is eligible for support. It also ensures that when you run instances of the product, you are charged according to the developer's terms for the product.

	Important
	If you've purchased Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, you can't use them with supported AMIs. That is, if you associate a product code with one of your AMIs, you don't get the lower price associated with your Reserved Instances when you launch that AMI. You always pay the price that the seller of the support product specified. For more information about Reserved Instances, see Reserved Instances.

To associate the product code with your AMI

Enter the ec2-modify-image-attribute command:
```
PROMPT>  ec2-modify-image-attribute <ami_id> --product-code <product_code>
```
The <ami_id> is the AMI ID and <product_code> is the product code.

	Important
	Once set, the product code attribute cannot be changed or removed.

To launch a paid AMI, no additional parameters are required for ec2-run-instances. The instance is charged according to the rates set by the AMI owner.

Example

The following command associates the ami-2bb65342 AMI with the 774F4FF8 product code.

PROMPT>  ec2-modify-image-attribute ami-2bb65342 --product-code 774F4FF8
productCodes        ami-2bb65342            productCode   774F4FF8

The following command launches the ami-2bb65342 paid AMI.

PROMPT> ec2-run-instances ami-2bb65342
RESERVATION r-a034c7c9 111122223333 default
INSTANCE	i-31a7425a	ami-2bb65342	pending	0	m1.small	2010-03-19T13:59:03+0000	us-east-1a	aki-94c527fd	ari-96c527ff	monitoring-disabled		ebs

Bills for Paid and Supported AMIs

At the end of each month, you receive an email with the amount your credit card has been charged for using the paid or supported AMIs during the month. This bill is separate from your regular Amazon EC2 bill.

At any time, you can view the usage information for your paid and supported AMIs (go to http://www.amazon.com/dp-applications).

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