Billable items, billing methods, and pricing - Billing| Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Billable items


Billable item	Billing method and pricing
Primary instance type	You are charged for the instance type that you select. The subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods are supported. For more information about the billing methods, see the "Billing methods" section of this topic. The pricing of an RDS instance varies based on the instance configuration, such as the region, instance type, and storage capacity that you select. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
Storage capacity	You are charged for the storage capacity that you purchase for the primary, secondary, read-only, and disaster recovery RDS instances in your database system. The subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods are supported. The pricing of storage varies based on the storage type that you select. For more information, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
(Optional) Read-only instance	You are charged for the instance type that you select. The subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods are supported. For more information about the pricing of a read-only RDS instance, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page.
(Optional) Cloned instance	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.
(Optional) Backup storage	You are charged for the backup storage that you consume to store your backup files. ApsaraDB RDS offers a free quota for backup storage. If the total size of your backup files exceeds the free quota, you are charged for the excess backup storage that you consume based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. The free quota varies based on the instance configuration: If your RDS instance uses standard SSDs or enhanced SSDs (ESSDs), the free quota is equal to 200% of the storage capacity that you purchase for your RDS instance. If your RDS instance uses local SSDs, the free quota is equal to 50% of the storage capacity that you purchase for your RDS instance. For more information about the pricing of excess backup storage, see the following topics: Backup storage fees for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance Backup storage fees for an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance Backup storage fees for an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance
(Optional) Performance monitoring	If your RDS instance runs SQL Server or MariaDB TX, you are not charged for the performance monitoring feature. If your RDS instance runs MySQL or PostgreSQL, you are charged for the performance monitoring feature based on the following rules: If you select the 60-second or 300-second monitoring frequency, you are not charged for the feature. If you select the 5-second monitoring frequency, you are charged an hourly fee for the feature based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. The pricing of the performance monitoring feature is USD 0.012 per hour. The enhanced monitoring feature is supported for ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instances. This feature provides more OS metrics and database metrics, and supports more monitoring frequencies than the standard monitoring feature. This feature is free of charge for all monitoring frequencies that are supported. For more information, see View the Enhanced Monitoring metrics of an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance.
(Optional) SQL Explorer (SQL Audit)	You are charged for the SQL Explorer feature. By default, the SQL Explorer feature is disabled. You are not charged when the feature is disabled. If you enable the SQL Explorer feature, you are charged an hourly fee for the feature based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. For more information about the pricing of the SQL Explorer feature, see the following topics: Use the SQL Explorer feature on an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance. Use the SQL Explorer feature on an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance Use the SQL Explorer feature on an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance Note If your RDS instance runs MySQL on RDS Enterprise Edition, you are not charged for the SQL Explorer feature.
(Optional) Database proxy	You are charged for the database proxy feature. Note The database proxy feature is supported only for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances. By default, the database proxy feature is disabled. You are not charged when the feature is disabled. If you enable the database proxy feature, you are charged an hourly fee for the feature based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. For more information about the pricing of the database proxy feature, see Billing rules for the dedicated proxy feature.
(Optional) Scale-up	Automatic scale-up By default, the automatic scale-up feature is disabled. You are not charged when the feature is disabled. If you enable the automatic scale-up feature, you are charged for the feature based on the resources that are added. For more information, see Enable the automatic scale-up feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance. Automatic storage expansion By default, the automatic storage expansion feature is disabled. You are not charged when the feature is disabled. If you enable the automatic storage expansion feature, you are charged for the feature in the same manner in which you are charged when you manually increase the storage capacity. For more information, see Specification change fees. Note Scale-up is supported only for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances.
(Optional) Internet traffic	If you apply for a public endpoint for your RDS instance and use the public endpoint to connect to your RDS instance, Internet traffic is consumed. You are not charged for the inbound or outbound Internet traffic that you consume.

Billing methods

The following table describes the billing methods that are supported by ApsaraDB RDS.


Billing method	Description
Subscription	A subscription instance is an instance for which you pay an upfront fee. For long-term use, the subscription billing method is more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method. You are offered lower prices for longer subscription periods. You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go. For more information, see Switch an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
Pay-as-you-go	A pay-as-you-go instance is an instance for which you are charged per hour based on your resource usage. The hourly fee is calculated based on the instance type that you specify in the purchase order and is deducted from the balance of your Alibaba Cloud account. For short-term use, we recommend that you select the pay-as-you-go billing method. If you no longer need a pay-as-you-go instance, you can release the instance to reduce costs. You can change the billing method of an RDS instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription. For more information, see Switch an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.

Spending details

For more information about how to view the spending details of an RDS instance, see View the spending details of an ApsaraDB for RDS instance. The details include the costs and resource usage that are categorized based on billable items, such as the instance type, performance monitoring, and SQL Explorer (SQL Audit).

FAQ

Why am I charged additional fees for a subscription RDS instance?
The fee that you pay when you purchase a subscription RDS instance covers the instance type and the storage capacity that you select. If you create read-only RDS instances, enable the SQL Explorer (SQL Audit) feature or the performance monitoring feature, or consume more storage than the free quota for backup storage, you are charged additional fees. For more information, see the "Billable items" section of this topic.
Am I charged for a pay-as-you-go RDS instance that I do not use?
Yes, you are charged an hourly fee for every pay-as-you-go RDS instance that you create even if you do not use these instances. These instances consume computing resources and storage resources even if you do not use these instances. If you do not intend to use a pay-as-you-go RDS instance for a long period of time, we recommend that you save the data that you require and release the RDS instance.
Am I charged for the inbound and outbound Internet traffic that I consume for my pay-as-you-go RDS instances and subscription RDS instances ? What is the quota of the bandwidth plan that is provided for an RDS instance?
You are not changed for the inbound or outbound Internet traffic that you consume for your pay-as-you-go RDS instances and subscription RDS instances. The bandwidth of an RDS instance is unlimited.