This topic describes the billing method and billable items of dedicated connections over Express Connect circuits. Both dedicated connections over Express Connect circuits and shared connections over Express Connect circuits are charged by Alibaba Cloud and third-party service providers. Dedicated connections over Express Connect circuits use dedicated Express Connect circuits, and shared connections over Express Connect circuits use shared Express Connect circuits.
Billing of dedicated connections over Express Connect circuits
The following figure and table show the billable items of dedicated connections over Express Connect circuits.
- By default, in regions within mainland China, you cannot use your account to create VBRs for other accounts. The owner of a connection over an Express Connect circuit and the user of the connection must belong to the same enterprise. You can submit a ticket to apply for temporary permissions. If the owner of the account that is used to create a connection over Express Connect circuit owns the required license, the owner can contact the product manager and apply for the permissions. The required license must be issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to allow the owner to provide A26 domestic communications facilities services.
- By default, in regions outside mainland China, you cannot use your account to create VBRs for other accounts. To acquire the required permissions, submit a ticket.
| Charged by | Billable item | Description | Payment method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party service provider |
Optical fiber installation Cable resources in the data center Optical module |
Express Connect circuit fees are charged by service providers. You must contact your
service provider for circuit prices. In addition, when you install an Express Connect
circuit in a data center, the service provider of the data center may charge you for
installing the circuit in the building and for using the cable resources in the building.
Alibaba Cloud provides free 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s optical modules that support transmission distance of 10 km. Alibaba Cloud does not provide the following optical modules : 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s optical modules that support transmission distance of over 10 km, and 40 Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s optical modules. To use the preceding optical modules, you must make a purchase from a third party. |
One-time charge. |
| Alibaba Cloud | Initial installation | Alibaba Cloud charges you an initial installation fee for the Express Connect circuit. | A one-time charge of USD 1,500. |
| Express Connect circuit | Alibaba Cloud charges you for Express Connect circuits based on specifications. | Billed on a monthly basis. | |
| Outbound traffic | You are charged for the network traffic that is transmitted from Alibaba Cloud to
your data center.
Fees are calculated and bills are generated on an hourly basis. If you use the service for less than one hour, the usage duration is rounded up to one hour. |
Pay-by-data-transfer(USD 0.015/GB).
Note Alibaba Cloud does not charge you data transfer fees until June 1, 2021.
|
The fees of Express Connect circuits vary by specification, as described in the following table.
| Billable item | Express Connect circuit specification | Subscription (USD/month) |
|---|---|---|
| Express Connect circuits in mainland China | 1 Gbit/s and below | 85 |
| 10 Gbps | 720 | |
| 40 Gbps | 2,450 | |
| 100 Gbps | 5,200 | |
| Express Connect circuits outside mainland China | 1 Gbit/s and below | 210 |
| 10 Gbps | 1,600 | |
| 40 Gbps | 5,500 | |
| 100 Gbps | 11,700 |
| Billable item | VBR specification | Unit price |
|---|---|---|
| VBR fees (inside mainland China) | 50 Mbps | CNY 500/month |
| 100 Mbps | CNY 750/month | |
| 200 Mbps | CNY 1,000/month | |
| 300 Mbps | CNY 1,100/month | |
| 400 Mbps | CNY 1,200/month | |
| 500 Mbps | CNY 1,250/month | |
| VBR fees (outside mainland China) | 50 Mbps | USD 20/month |
| 100 Mbps | USD 40/month | |
| 200 Mbps | USD 55/month | |
| 300 Mbps | USD 80/month | |
| 400 Mbps | USD 105/month | |
| 500 Mbps | USD 125/month |
Billing of shared connections over Express Connect circuits
The following figure and table show the billable items of shared connections over Express Connect circuits.
| Charged by | Billable item | Description | Payment method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party service provider |
Optical fiber installation Cable resources in the installation building |
If you want to use a shared connection over an Express Connect circuit established by a network service provider (NSP) partner of Alibaba Cloud, you can contact the NSP partner for Express Connect circuit prices. |
One-time charge. |
| Alibaba Cloud | Outbound traffic | You are charged for the network traffic that is transmitted from Alibaba Cloud to
your data center.
Fees are calculated and bills are generated on an hourly basis. If you use the service for less than one hour, the usage duration is rounded up to one hour. |
Pay-by-data-transfer(USD 0.015/GB).
Note Alibaba Cloud does not charge you data transfer fees until June 1, 2021.
|
Billing example
Assume that your data center is located in the China (Beijing) region and the service provider of your data center is China Unicom. You want to access an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance that is deployed in a virtual private cloud (VPC) in the China (Beijing) region through a connection over an Express Connect circuit.
Fees are calculated based on the following rules:
- If you want to establish a dedicated connection over an Express Connect circuit, you must contact your service provider to lease an Express Connect circuit. Then, use the Express Connect circuit to connect to an Alibaba Cloud access point. After the service provider conducts a servery on the installation, the service provider will inform you of the resource fee. After you confirm the Express Connect circuit, Alibaba Cloud charges you a one-time fee for an initial installation and helps your service provider complete the installation. After the connection over the Express Connect circuit is established, Alibaba Cloud charges you for the Express Connect circuit.
- To use a shared connection over an Express Connect circuit to access Alibaba Cloud, you must contact your service provider. In this case, you must contact China Unicom and request them to connect your data center to Alibaba Cloud through an Express Connect circuit. The access points of China Unicom are already connected to the access points of Alibaba Cloud. Therefore, you can connect your data center to the nearest access point of China Unicom. China Unicom performs an end-to-end site survey on the lines between your data center and the data center of China Unicom. After the survey, China Unicom provides you with a price quote of all related service charges. During this process, Alibaba Cloud does not charge you an initial installation fee or an Express Connect circuit fee.
- After you connect your data center to Alibaba Cloud, you must create a Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) instance, and add a VPC and a virtual border router (VBR) to the CEN instance. This allows the servers in your data center to access the ECS instances on Alibaba Cloud.
Overdue payments
To avoid service interruptions, we recommend that you renew your connections over Express Connect circuits or top up your account at the earliest opportunity.
Subscription connections over Express Connect circuits are automatically suspended and then released by the system if they are not renewed upon expiration. The order amount does not affect whether your connection over Express Connect circuit is suspended or released.
To avoid unexpected suspensions and releases, we recommend that you enable auto-renewal for your connections over Express Connect circuits that you need for long-term services. In addition, make sure that you have a sufficient balance in your account to avoid auto-renewal failures. For more information, see Renew an exclusive physical connection.
| Billing method | Suspension due to expiration or overdue payments | Renewal |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | You will receive SMS or email notifications 168 hours, 72 hours, and 24 hours before
a connection over Express Connect circuit expires.
|
You can renew a connection over an Express Connect circuit during the subscription duration or before the connection over the Express Connect circuit is released. |