“This pay-as-you-go model means usage is metered and you pay only for what you consume. The fundamental economics of cloud computing are based around the premise that customers will pay for how long a server is used, or how much bandwidth data is being consumed. This offers many cost savings opportunities for businesses as they can optimize their infrastructure to reduce idle time. All three major cloud providers offer a consumption-based pricing model for nearly all of the services that they offer.” A consumption based pricing model is also known as a pay as you go model, and usage based model.”

What do we mean by this?
Paying for what you get.