This topic provides answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the billing of API Gateway.
Account
What preparations do I need to complete before I can apply for an account?
Make sure that you have passed real-name verification and your account balance is CNY 100 or more.
What is subscription duration? Are there any limits on subscription duration?
You only need to activate the service. There is no limit on subscription duration.
Billing
How am I charged?
You are charged based on the number of API calls, the amount of traffic, and the specified cache size.
Is refund supported and how do I get a refund?
Serverless instances are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and refund is inapplicable to them.
Traditional dedicated instances and VPC integration instances are also billed in the pay-as-you-go method. If you no longer require an instance, you can simply release it. Subscription instances can be converted to pay-as-you-go instances. In this case, refunds are available based on the remaining subscription.
When are expired instances stopped and deleted?
Pay-as-you-go instances are not subject to validity period limitations. If your account has an overdue payment, the corresponding API will be locked and un-callable. However, you can still manage and maintain the API. If the payment is still overdue for 6 months, Alibaba Cloud will delete all configurations of the API.