The customer is charged for each running virtual machine. As with the allocation pool model, the vCloud provider manages resource overcommitments by defining a guaranteed percentage of allocated resources, such as CPU, memory resources, and a maximum number of virtual machines. The cloud provider can specify a maximum virtual CPU speed, or limit. Unlike the allocation and reservation pool models, the pay-as-you-go model facilitates an unlimited approach to resource consumption within the constraints of the vCloud provider’s physical infrastructure.

Typically, the pay-as-you-go model is a good fit for transient and training environments.