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    Cloud Phone:Billing overview

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    Cloud Phone:Billing overview

    Last Updated:Dec 01, 2025

    This topic describes the billable items and billing rules of Alibaba Cloud Workspace Cloud Phone.

    Billable items

    Instance Edition

    Resource type

    Billable item

    Description

    References

    Basic resources (required)

    • Compute resources

    • Storage resources

    Resources required to run cloud phones, including vCPUs, memory, and storage space.

    Specifications and prices

    Value-added services (optional)

    Internet NAT Gateway

    If the instance group of cloud phones uses a virtual private cloud (VPC), the system allocates pay-as-you-go Internet NAT gateways when you enable Internet access for the VPC.

    NAT Gateway billing

    Elastic IP Address (EIP)

    If the instance group of cloud phones uses a VPC, the system allocates pay-as-you-go EIPs when you enable Internet access for the VPC.

    Billing overview

    Object Storage Service (OSS)

    If you enable data backup for cloud phones, the backed up data is stored in OSS buckets.

    Billing overview

    Basic resources

    Supported billing methods

    Cloud Phone supports the following billing methods:

    • Subscription: This billing method requires you to pay before you use cloud phones. If you use this billing method, you must specify a subscription duration.

    • Pay-as-you-go: This billing method allows you to pay for cloud phones based on your actual usage.

      Note

      Billing for a pay-as-you-go instance group starts when it is created. A billing cycle lasts for 4 hours. Billing stops at the end of the billing cycle in which the instance group is deleted. If your account has an insufficient balance at any point, billing stops instantly, and you will not be charged for the full 4-hour block. For more billing details, see [Announcement] Pay-as-you-go update for Cloud Phone.

      Important

      Billing for a cloud phone continues regardless of its state, including when it is stopped.

    Specifications and prices

    The following table describes the specifications supported by Cloud Phone. When you create a cloud phone, select one of the specifications based on your application workloads and then select a region based on the location of your customers and your business requirements.

    Instance Edition

    Specification

    Regions in the Chinese mainland

    China (Hong Kong) and regions outside China

    Type

    Name

    vCPUs/Memory/Storage

    Subscription (USD per month)

    Pay-as-you-go (USD per hour)

    Subscription (USD per month)

    Pay-as-you-go (USD per hour)

    Lightweight

    acp.basic.small

    2vCPU/4GiB/32GiB

    9.9057

    0.0457

    15.3538

    0.0709

    General

    acp.std.small

    4vCPU/4GiB/32GiB

    13.8679

    0.0579

    21.4953

    0.0898

    Balanced

    acp.std.medium

    3vCPU/6GiB/32GiB

    14.9347

    0.0610

    23.1488

    0.0945

    Standard

    acp.std.large

    4vCPU/8GiB/32GiB

    21.3353

    0.0808

    33.0697

    0.1252

    Performance

    acp.perf.large

    8vCPU/16GiB/32GiB

    36.4224

    0.1524

    56.4546

    0.2362

    Convert the billing method

    Instance Edition

    You can convert only pay-as-you-go instance groups to subscription instance groups. This conversion does not impact cloud phone data or usage.

    Prerequisites

    • Before you proceed, make sure that the instance group whose billing method you want to change is in the Available state.

    • Your Alibaba Cloud account has no unpaid orders. If any exists, complete or cancel them before proceeding.

    Procedure

    1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

    2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

    3. On the Instance Group page, find the desired pay-as-you-go instance group in the Available state and click the ⋮ icon in the Actions column. Then, click Change Billing Method.

      Note

      You can use the Status column or the icon in the upper-right corner of the Billing Method column to quickly filter the desired instance group.

    4. On the Cloud Phone - Switch Billing Method page, specify a time period in the Duration section. In the lower-right corner of this page, confirm the configuration fees and click Switch Now.

      Note

      To avoid service interruptions due to instance group expiration, enable Auto-renewal.

    5. Complete the payment as prompted.

    Payment methods

    Cloud Phone supports the following payment methods:

    • Balance in your Alibaba Cloud account

    • Online payment

    Refund policy

    If you no longer need any active subscription resources, you can request a refund. Before you apply for a refund, make sure that you understand the refund rules and limitations. For more information, see Rules for unsubscribing from resources. For detailed refund steps, see Unsubscribe from a resource.

    Important

    For a subscription instance group, you can only request a refund for all cloud phones in it at the same time.

    View your bills

    Procedure

    1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.

    2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Bills > Bill Details.

      Note

      If your console appears differently from the description in this topic, you might be using the previous version of the Expenses and Costs console. In this case, click Try New Version at the bottom of the left-side navigation pane.

    3. On the page that appears, click the Billing Details tab, specify the filter conditions, and then click Search.

      You can configure the Statistic Item and Statistic Period parameters to specify an aggregation dimension and a statistical period. The results that meet the filter conditions are displayed in the list.

    Related operations

    On the Billing Details tab, you can perform the following operations:

    • In the upper-right corner of the list, click the icon. In the Customize Column Options dialog box, select the columns that you want to display in the list.

    • In the upper-right corner above the list, click the icon. In the Export Billing Overview (CSV) dialog box, select Current List or All Items to export the bills to your on-premises device as a CSV file. You can use spreadsheet software to open the CSV file to view and analyze the bills.

    Effects of overdue payment

    If the total balance of your account, including coupons, is less than the amount due, the system will mark your account as having an overdue payment.

    Note

    You can check overdue bills on the Expenses and Costs page.

    If your account has an overdue payment, your pay-as-you-go cloud phone will enter the Overdue state. While your data is retained, you cannot power on or off the cloud phone. You cannot restart or connect to it, either. To continue using your cloud phone, top up your account within 15 days of expiration. After 15 days, the cloud phone will be automatically released.

    Warning

    If a cloud phone is released, all its data will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

    FAQ

    Why am I still charged for my cloud phone after I release the cloud phone?

    You can go to the Bill Details page of the Expenses console to check whether dependent resources still exist.

    • Log on to the NAT Gateway console to check whether the NAT network resources are released.

    • Log on to the EIP console to check whether the configured elastic IP address (EIP) exists.

    • Go to the Internet Shared Bandwidth page to check whether the corresponding Internet shared bandwidth instance is being charged.

    How do I calculate the costs of connecting cloud phones?

    You do not need to calculate the costs of connecting cloud phones because you are not charged for protocol-based traffic.