This topic describes the billable items of ApsaraDB RDS and the billing methods and pricing of each billable item.
Instance type
Definition: Fees for the instance types that you select for the primary and secondary RDS instances in your database system. For more information about the instance types that are supported by different database engines, see Primary ApsaraDB RDS instance types.
Billing: Subscription and pay-as-you-go. For more information about the billing methods, see Billing methods.
Pricing: The price of an RDS instance varies based on its configurations, such as the region, instance type, and storage capacity. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
If you upgrade the instance type of an RDS instance, you are charged the difference between the prices of the current and new instance types. Refer to the actual price on the Change Specifications page. For more information, see Change the specifications of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
When you purchase a subscription RDS instance, the subscription billing method is used only for its instance type and storage capacity. If you use features that use the pay-as-you-go billing method, bills for relevant billable items are generated on a pay-as-you-go basis. For example, you may create pay-as-you-go read-only RDS instances, use the SQL Explorer feature or the performance monitoring feature, or use more backup storage than the free quota. The billing methods of all billable items are listed in this topic.
Nodes in an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL cluster
Definition: An RDS cluster is billed based on the nodes in the RDS cluster. For more information about an RDS cluster, see Add a node to an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL cluster.
Billing: Subscription and pay-as-you-go.
Pricing: The price varies based on the nodes that you add to the RDS cluster. After you select specifications for a node during the cluster creation, the price of the node is displayed in the Pricing column of the table on the ApsaraDB RDS buy page. For more information about the pricing of a single node, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
Formula:
Total price of the RDS cluster = Price per node × Number of nodes. If you add a node to the RDS cluster, you need to pay for the new node.
RCU
Definition: A serverless RDS instance is billed based on RDS Capacity Units (RCUs). For more information about serverless RDS instances, see Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances, Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances, and Overview of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances.
Billing: The system issues bills for the RCUs that are used by a serverless RDS instance on an hourly basis.
Pricing:
Storage capacity
Definition: Fees for the storage capacity that you purchase for your RDS instance. The RDS instance can be a primary RDS instance, secondary RDS instance, read-only RDS instance, or disaster recovery RDS instance.
Billing: Subscription and pay-as-you-go.
Pricing: The pricing of storage capacity varies based on the storage type that you select. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
If you upgrade the storage capacity of your RDS instance, you are charged the difference between the prices of the current storage capacity and new storage capacity. Refer to the actual price on Change Specifications page. For more information, see Change the specifications of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Read-only RDS instance (optional)
Definition: Fees for the instance type that you select for the read-only RDS instance. For more information about read-only RDS instances, see Overview of read-only ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances.
Billing: Subscription and pay-as-you-go.
Pricing: The price of a read-only RDS instance varies based on its configurations, such as the region, instance type, and storage capacity. Refer to the actual price on the Read-only Instances page.
Data restoration to new RDS instances (optional)
Definition: If you restore the data of an RDS instance to a new RDS instance, you are charged for the new RDS instance. The new RDS instance is formerly known as a cloned RDS instance. For more information about cloned RDS instances, see Restore full data of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing: Subscription and pay-as-you-go.
The pricing of a cloned RDS instance is the same as the pricing of a new primary RDS instance. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
Backup (optional)
Backup storage
Definition: Fees for the storage of backup files that are generated by automatic backup or manual backup. For more information, see Enable the automatic backup feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. Alibaba Cloud provides a certain amount of free backup storage capacity. If the size of the backup files exceeds the free quota, you are charged for the excess storage on an hourly basis. The following list describes the free quotas for RDS instances of different storage types:
RDS instances that use cloud disks: The free quota equals 200% of the storage capacity of an RDS instance.
RDS instances that use local disks: The free quota equals 50% of the storage capacity of an RDS instance.
NoteYou can view the storage usage in the Usage Statistics section of the Basic Information page of your RDS instance.
The following tables describe the unit prices of excess storage for different database engines.
NoteFor more information about how to reduce the size and storage cost of your backup files, see Billable items and pricing for the backup storage of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Cross-region backup
Definition: Fees for the storage of backup files that are generated by the cross-region backup feature. For more information, see Use the cross-region backup feature of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. You are charged based on the size and storage duration of backup files.
Pricing:
Backup sets of deleted RDS instances
Definition: If the backup sets of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance are retained more than seven days after the RDS instance is deleted, you are charged for the storage of the backup sets. For more information, see Retain backup files after instance release.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. You are charged based on the size and storage duration of backup sets.
Pricing:
Type
Region
Unit price (USD per GB-day)
Public cloud
China (Hangzhou), China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Qingdao), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Chengdu), China (Heyuan), China (Ulanqab), and China (Guangzhou)
0.00058
China (Hong Kong), Singapore, US (Silicon Valley), Germany (Frankfurt), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), and Thailand (Bangkok)
0.00067
Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), and Australia (Sydney)
0.0007
US (Virginia)
0.00062
India (Mumbai)
0.00063
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
0.00064
UK (London)
0.00065
UAE (Dubai)
0.00072
Backup download
Definition: If you download the backup files of an RDS instance that uses cloud disks, you are charged for the traffic generated during the download.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. You are charged based on the download traffic. If you use the advanced download feature to download backup files, you are also charged for conversion of the backup files.
NoteThe advanced download feature is supported for RDS instances that run MySQL and PostgreSQL with cloud disks. For more information, see Download the backup files of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance and Download the data backup files and log backup files of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
The advanced download feature converts snapshot backup files into CSV, SQL, or Parquet files. No free quota is provided for the conversion.
Pricing:
Fast restoration for individual databases and tables (optional)
Definition: Fees for using the fast restoration feature for individual databases and tables of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance. For more information, see Restore individual databases and tables of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing:
RDS instances that use cloud disks: This feature is in public review and is provided free of charge.
RDS instances that use local disks: You are charged for this feature based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.
Pricing:USD 0.24 per GB-month
Performance monitoring (optional)
Definition: Fees for using the performance monitoring feature. For more information, see Set the monitoring frequency of an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing:
The performance monitoring feature is provided free of charge for RDS instances that run PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MariaDB.
For RDS instances that run MySQL, if you select the 5-second monitoring frequency, you are charged an hourly fee for the feature. However, if you select the 60-second or 300-second monitoring frequency, you are not charged fees for the feature.
Pricing:USD 0.012 per hour.
SQL Explorer and Audit (optional)
Definition: Fees for using the SQL Explorer and Audit feature. For more information, see Use the SQL Explorer feature on an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. This feature is disabled by default. If you enable it, you are charged an hourly fee for it. Fees are deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account on an hourly basis.
Pricing:
NoteFor ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances that run RDS Enterprise Edition, this feature is enabled by default and is provided free of charge. However, if you disable and then enable this feature again, you will be charged fees for this feature by DAS.
Database proxy (optional)
Definition: Fees for using database proxies. Database proxies are used to implement read/write splitting. For more information, see What are database proxies?
NoteDatabase proxies are supported for RDS instances that run MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Billing: Pay-as-you-go. This feature is disabled by default. If you enable it, you are charged an hourly fee for it. Fees are deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account on an hourly basis.
Pricing:
Automatic expansion (optional)
Definition: Fees for using the automatic scale-up or automatic storage expansion feature.
NoteAutomatic scale-up is supported only for RDS instances that run MySQL. For more information, see Enable the automatic scale-up feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance.
Automatic storage expansion is supported for RDS instances that run MySQL and PostgreSQL. For more information, see Configure automatic storage expansion for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance and Configure automatic storage expansion for an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
Billing:
Automatic scale-up: Pay-as-you-go. You are charged based on the added resources. This feature is disabled by default. If you enable the feature, you are charged for the feature based on the resources that are added.
Automatic storage expansion: The billing method is the same as that of manual storage expansion. This feature is disabled by default.
Pricing:
Internet-based connection
Definition: Fees for connecting to RDS instances by using public endpoints. For more information, see Apply for or release a public endpoint.
Billing: You are not charged for the inbound or outbound Internet traffic that you use to connect to your RDS instance. It may become a paid feature in the future.