Billing overview

To enable network interconnectivity using Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), first create a transit router (TR) in CEN, then use the TR to connect your network instances. CEN charges for these network instance connections as follows:

Intra-region connections incur a connection fee and a traffic processing fee.
Inter-region connections incur an inter-region bandwidth fee.

Billing items

Billing item	billing rule	Formula	Minimum billing cycle	Billing method
Connection fee	Billed based on the number and duration of intra-region connections. Intra-region connections include VPC connections, ECR connections, VBR connections, and VPN connections. Duration is the time elapsed from when a network instance connection is created until it is deleted.	Unit price (USD/connection/hour) × number of intra-region connections × usage duration (hours)	1 hour. If usage is less than 1 hour, it is billed as 1 hour.	Pay-as-you-go
Traffic processing fee	Billed based on traffic ingressing into the transit router from intra-region connections. Multicast traffic is not subject to this rule. For details, see Multicast billing.	Unit price (USD/GB) × volume of traffic ingressing into the transit router from intra-region connections (GB)	1 hour
Inter-region bandwidth fee	Select pay-by-data-transfer: Billed based on inter-region traffic egressing from each transit router. Charges are settled by the Cloud Data Transfer (CDT) service.	Unit price (USD/GB) × volume of inter-region traffic egressing from the transit router (GB)	1 hour
Inter-region bandwidth fee	When billed by bandwidth: First purchase a bandwidth plan, then allocate bandwidth from the plan to your inter-region connections. Each bandwidth plan is billed based on its bandwidth value and subscription duration.	Unit price (USD/Mbps/month) × bandwidth value (Mbps) × subscription duration (months)	1 month	Subscription

How to choose a billing method for inter-region bandwidth fees?

Billed by data transfer: Best for workloads with frequent and unpredictable traffic peaks. Examples: temporary scaling, testing, video conferencing, and real-time gaming.
Billed by bandwidth: Best for stable, long-running workloads. Examples: file transfer, data migration, and data synchronization.

Connection fees and traffic processing fees are billed hourly on the hour. If you delete a network instance connection between hourly boundaries, you still incur charges for the full current hour. For example, if you delete a transit router connection at 10:35, you are billed for the full 10:00–11:00 hour.

Pricing

The prices listed here are catalog prices. Actual prices may vary on the product purchase page.

Connection fee

The Chinese mainland: USD 0.05/connection/hour.
Outside the Chinese mainland: USD 0.06/connection/hour.

Regions in the Chinese mainland include the following: China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Chengdu), and China (Wuhan - Local Region).

Regions outside the Chinese mainland include the following: Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), Mexico, SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region).

Traffic processing fee

Uniform across all global regions: USD 0.02/GB.

Inter-region bandwidth fee

Billed by data transfer

When inter-region bandwidth is billed by data transfer, charges are settled by the CDT service.

Service level: Gold

	Inbound region
Outbound region	Chinese mainland	Asia Pacific	Europe	North America	South America	Middle East
Chinese mainland	USD 0.072/GB	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.80/GB
Asia Pacific	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.08/GB	USD 0.08/GB	USD 0.08/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB
Europe	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.08/GB	USD 0.02/GB	USD 0.05/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB
North America	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.08/GB	USD 0.05/GB	USD 0.02/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB
South America	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB
Middle East	USD 0.80/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB	USD 0.38/GB

Prices from Region A to Region B equal prices from Region B to Region A.

Service level: Platinum

	Inbound region
Outbound region	Chinese mainland	Asia Pacific	Europe	North America	South America	Middle East
Chinese mainland	USD 0.108/GB	USD 1.20/GB	USD 1.20/GB	USD 1.20/GB	USD 1.20/GB	USD 1.20/GB
Asia Pacific	USD 1.20/GB	USD 0.12/GB	USD 0.12/GB	USD 0.12/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB
Europe	USD 1.20/GB	USD 0.12/GB	USD 0.03/GB	USD 0.075/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB
North America	USD 1.20/GB	USD 0.12/GB	USD 0.075/GB	USD 0.03/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB
South America	USD 1.20/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB
Middle East	USD 1.20/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB	USD 0.57/GB

Prices from Region A to Region B equal prices from Region B to Region A.

Note

For a list of supported regions, see Supported regions.
The prices on your bill are final.

Billed by bandwidth

When billed by bandwidth:

Inter-region links support only the “Gold” link type.
Tiered pricing applies. Total cost is the sum of fees for each tier. Visit the bandwidth plan purchase page to view pricing for your desired bandwidth.

Unit prices per tier are shown below:

Connected areas	Inter-region bandwidth tiered unit price (USD/Mbps/month)
Connected areas	(0–100 Mbps]	(101–1000 Mbps]	>1000 Mbps
Chinese mainland–Chinese mainland	34	13	8
Asia-Pacific–Asia-Pacific	28	19	16
Asia-Pacific–North America	72	43	37
Asia-Pacific–Europe	72	43	37
Asia-Pacific–Middle East	159	97	84
North America–North America	28	19	16
North America–Europe	72	43	37
North America–Middle East	159	97	84
Europe–Europe	28	19	16
Europe–Middle East	159	97	84
Chinese mainland–Asia-Pacific	132	83	74
Chinese mainland–North America	170	103	89
Chinese mainland–Europe	153	93	81
Chinese mainland–Middle East	159	97	84

Inter-region bandwidth tiered pricing example

Assume you purchase one bandwidth plan instance connecting two regions within the Chinese mainland, with a peak bandwidth of 110 Mbps and a subscription duration of 1 month. The cost is:

USD 34/Mbps/month × 100 Mbps × 1 month + USD 13/Mbps/month × 10 Mbps × 1 month = USD 3,530

Note

Starting March 31, 2021, Alibaba Cloud offers a free trial of CEN prepaid bandwidth plans for new Alibaba Cloud account holders. The trial lasts 1 month and includes up to 5 Mbps of free bandwidth. For more information, see Free trial for CEN prepaid bandwidth plans.

Link types

Inter-region links support two types—“Gold” and “Platinum”—each offering different service levels:

Link type	Service availability	Use cases
Gold	99.95%	Suitable for workloads insensitive to link quality. Examples: data synchronization, file transfer.
Platinum	99.995%	Suitable for workloads highly sensitive to jitter and latency, requiring high link quality. Examples: stock trading, online voice, video conferencing, real-time gaming.

Billing examples

Example 1: Intra-region VPC interconnectivity

As shown above, assume you create one transit router in the China (Hangzhou) region and connect two VPCs (VPC1 and VPC2) within the same region. Over one month, VPC1 sends 100 GB of traffic through the transit router to VPC2, while VPC2 sends no data to VPC1. Billing is calculated as follows:

Connection fee:

Two VPC connections (intra-region) at CNY USD 0.05/connection/hour (Chinese mainland)
Assume 30 days per month: 30 × 24 = 720 hours
USD 0.05/connection/hour × 2 connections × 720 hours = USD 72

Traffic processing fee:

Unit price: USD 0.02/GB
The traffic flowing from VPC1 into Transit Router is 100 GB, and the traffic flowing from VPC2 into Transit Router is 0 GB.
USD 0.02/GB × (100 GB + 0 GB) = USD 2

Total for 1 month:

Connection fee: USD 72
Traffic processing fee: USD 2
Total payable: USD 72 + USD 2 = USD 74

Example 2: Inter-region VPC interconnectivity

As shown above, assume you create two transit routers in one CEN—one in China (Hangzhou) and one in China (Shanghai). Each region has one VPC (VPC1 and VPC2), each connected to its local transit router. The two transit routers are linked via an inter-region connection. Over one month, VPC1 sends 100 GB of traffic to VPC2, while VPC2 sends no data to VPC1. Billing is calculated as follows:

Connection fee:

Two VPC connections (intra-region) at CNY USD 0.05/connection/hour (Chinese mainland)
Assume 30 days per month: 30 × 24 = 720 hours
USD 0.05/connection/hour × 2 connections × 720 hours = USD 72

Traffic processing fee:

Unit price: USD 0.02/GB
Traffic ingressing into transit routers: 100 GB from VPC1 to transit router 1, 0 GB from VPC2 to transit router 2
USD 0.02/GB × (100 GB + 0 GB) = USD 2

Inter-region bandwidth fee:

Assume billing by data transfer with “Gold” link type. The inter-region traffic unit price is USD 0.072/GB (within the Chinese mainland).
Inter-region traffic egressing from transit routers: 100 GB from transit router 1 to transit router 2, 0 GB from transit router 2 to transit router 1
USD 0.072/GB × (100 GB + 0 GB) = USD 7.2

Total for 1 month:

Connection fee: USD 72
Traffic processing fee: USD 2
Inter-region bandwidth fee: USD 7.2 (billed by data transfer)
Total payable: USD 72 + USD 2 + USD 7.2 = USD 81.2

Note

In the same scenario, if billed by bandwidth, the inter-region bandwidth fee for Chinese mainland connections is USD 34/Mbps/month. Assuming a bandwidth plan of 10 Mbps, the inter-region bandwidth fee would be USD 34/Mbps/month × 10 Mbps = USD 340. Adding connection and traffic processing fees, the 1-month total would be USD 72 + USD 2 + USD 340 = USD 414.

FAQ

CCN connections are intra-region connections but can only be created with Basic Edition transit routers. They do not incur connection or traffic processing fees.
For questions about cross-account scenarios or Basic Edition transit routers, see Billing FAQ.