The basic services of Alibaba Cloud CDN support the pay-by-data-transfer and pay-by-peak-bandwidth metering methods. You can select a metering method based on your business requirements. This topic describes the metering methods of the basic services of Alibaba Cloud CDN.

Note By default, pay-by-data-transfer meters the amount of outbound data transfer on points of presence (POPs) and pay-by-peak-bandwidth meters the peak bandwidth on POPs.

Usage notes

  • The actual amount of data transfer for which you are charged is greater than the amount of data transfer that is recorded in the log. The amount of data transfer that is recorded in the log is equal to the amount of data transfer that is recorded at the application layer. However, an additional amount of data is consumed to transmit the additional bytes that are inserted into TCP or IP packet headers and to retransmit TCP packets. Therefore, the actual amount of data transfer is greater than the amount of data transfer that is recorded at the application layer. For more information, see Why is the traffic amount found by using the monitoring and usage analytics feature or the usage statistics feature different from the traffic amount that is logged? .
  • In most cases, a bill is generated approximately 3 to 4 hours after the end of a billing cycle. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system.

Pay-by-data-transfer (default)

ScenarioDescription
The network traffic fluctuates and the bandwidth usage spikes. The daily bandwidth usage is lower than 30%.
  • Billing rule: You are charged based on the amount of monthly outbound data transfer on the POPs based on tiered pricing.
  • Billable item: data transfer.
  • Billing method: pay-as-you-go or subscription (data transfer plans).
  • Billing cycle: You are charged on an hourly basis. A bill is issued approximately 3 to 4 hours after the end of a billing cycle. The time when bills are issued is determined by the system.

Pay-by-peak-bandwidth

Important To use the pay-by-peak-bandwidth metering method, make sure that the peak bandwidth value in the previous 30 days exceeds 5 Gbit/s and Contact your account manager or contact us by other means. For more information, see Contact us..
ScenarioDescription
The network traffic is relatively flat and the daily bandwidth usage exceeds 30%.
  • Billing rule: You are charged based on the daily peak bandwidth values. A bandwidth value is collected every 5 minutes. A total of 288 values are collected every day. The highest bandwidth value is used as the daily peak bandwidth value.
  • Billable item: peak bandwidth.
  • Billing method: pay-as-you-go.
  • Billing cycle: You are charged on a daily basis. The bill of the current day is issued and the amount due is deducted after 00:00 on the following day. The time when bills are issued is determined by the system.