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Container Service for Kubernetes:Billing of the cloud-native AI suite

Last Updated:Feb 23, 2024

After you activate the cloud-native AI suite for an Alibaba Cloud account and deploy the relevant components, the cloud-native AI suite is ready for use. The system regularly calculates and reports the number of nodes in the cluster based on the components that are deployed. Then, the system calculates the fees and generates bills for each account on a daily basis. This topic describes the billing rules of the cloud-native AI suite provided by Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) and the rules for overdue payments. This topic also provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the cloud-native AI suite.

Table of contents

Billing procedure

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Cost composition

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Cloud-native AI suite service fees = Cloud-native AI suite fee + ACK fee + Other cloud service fee

  • Cloud-native AI suite fee: The fee is charged by the cloud-native AI suite.

  • ACK fee: The fee is charged by ACK for the ACK cluster in which the cloud-native AI suite is deployed. For more information, see Billing overview.

  • Other cloud service fee: The fee is charged by the cloud services that are used by cloud-native AI suite based on the bill rules of the cloud services. For more information, see Cloud service billing.

Payment methods and billing cycle

The cloud-native AI suite uses the pay-as-you-go billing method. The cloud-native AI suite is billed on a daily basis. In most cases, the bill of the current billing cycle is generated after the billing cycle ends and then fees are deducted from your account balance. The dates of your daily bills may vary and the dates in User Center shall prevail.

Billable items and pricing

The billable items of the cloud-native AI suite are number of GPUs and number of vCores. Both of the billable items use tiered pricing. The following tables describe the price tiers.

Table 1. Number of vCores

Billable item

Usage (peak value of the day per Alibaba Cloud account)

Unit price (USD/day/vCPU)

Number of vCores

[0,128]

Free

(128,512]

0.060

(512,2048]

0.045

(2048,∞)

0.030

Table 2. Number of GPUs

Billable item

Usage (peak value of the day per Alibaba Cloud account)

Unit price (USD/day/GPU)

Number of GPUs

[0,8]

Free

(8,32]

3.00

(32,128]

2.25

(128,∞)

1.50

Formulas and examples

Formulas

The cloud-native AI suite uses the following billing logic:

  1. The system monitors the status of the cloud-native AI suite components deployed in the ACK cluster, counts the number of GPUs and number of vCores, and periodically reports the statistics.

    • If only the GPU acceleration component ack-ai-installer is installed in the cluster, the system counts the number of GPUs provided by GPU-accelerated nodes in the cluster.

    • If acceleration components other than ack-ai-installer are installed in the cluster, the system counts the number of vCores provided by all cluster nodes, including GPU-accelerated nodes and other nodes.

    • If ack-ai-installer and other acceleration components are installed in the cluster, the system counts the number of GPUs provided by GPU-accelerated nodes and the number of vCores provided by other nodes in the cluster.

  2. The system reports the number of GPUs or number of vCores of the current day whichever is greater to calculate the fees incurred within your account on the current day, and generates bills in the Billing Management console.

The following formula is used to calculate the fees:

Cloud-native AI suite service fees of the current day within your account = Peak number of GPUs of the current day × Unit price + Peak number of vCores of the current day × Unit price

Examples

Assume that two ACK Pro clusters are created within your account. The cloud-native AI suite is activated for both clusters. No node scaling activity is performed on the current day.

The ack-ai-installer component and other acceleration components are deployed in Cluster A. Cluster A consists of 30 GPU-accelerated nodes (each of which provides 2 GPUs) and 50 other nodes (each of which provides 4 vCores).

Only the ack-ai-installer component is deployed in Cluster B. Cluster B consists of 10 GPU-accelerated nodes (each of which provides 8 GPUs).

The service fees are calculated based on the following formulas:

  • Peak number of GPUs of the current day = 30 × 2 + 10 × 8 = 140 (GPUs)

  • Peak number of vCores of the current day = 50 × 4 = 200 (vCores)

  • Cloud-native AI suite service fees of the current day within your account = Peak number of GPUs of the current day × Unit price + Peak number of vCores of the current day × Unit price = [(32 - 8) × 3 + (128 - 32) × 2.25 + (140 - 128) × 1.5] + [(200 - 128) × 0.06] = 310.32 (USD/day)

View billing details

For more information, see View your bills.

Overdue payments

The cloud-native AI suite runs in ACK Pro clusters. The rules for overpayments are the same as those for ACK Pro clusters. For more information, see Overdue payments.

FAQ about billing

Does the system count the number of physical GPUs or vGPUs?

The system counts the number of physical GPUs on GPU-accelerated nodes.

Are NotReady nodes counted when the ACK measures the size of a cluster?

No, NotReady nodes are not counted.

Why do I still receive a bill the day after I delete the cloud-native AI suite?

The billing cycle is from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 each day. In most cases, the bill of the current billing cycle is generated after the billing cycle ends and then fees are deducted from your account balance. The dates of your daily bills may vary and the dates in User Center shall prevail. If you uninstall the cloud-native AI suite on Day 1, the billing system still generates a billing record for Day 1. The bill will be sent to you on Day 2 and fees will be deducted from your account balance. The billing stops on Day 2. You will stop receiving bills starting from Day 3.

Why does the amount on my daily bills vary?

ACK bills the cloud-native AI suite based on the actual numbers of vCores and GPUs that are used. If you add nodes to your cluster or remove nodes from your cluster, the resource fees may vary. The actual amount on the next-day bill shall prevail.

Do the fees vary based on the components of the cloud-native AI suite that I have installed?

No, the fees increase with the amount of cluster resources that are used. The components included in the cloud-native AI suite are not priced and provided separately. After you activate the cloud-native AI suite, you can install the components included in the suite based on your business requirements.

Does the GPU isolation module cGPU installed on GPU-accelerated nodes affect the billing of GPUs?

No, cGPU does not affect the billing of GPUs. Only the ack-ai-installer component is used to count and bill the GPUs of GPU-accelerated nodes in a cluster.