ApsaraMQ for Kafka Serverless instances use pay-as-you-go billing. You are charged only for the resources you consume. This billing model provides high elasticity, improves resource utilization, and reduces business costs.
What you pay for
Billable item | Description | Billing cycle |
Reserved sending capacity | Baseline producer throughput, billed at tiered rates per MB/s. Peak sending traffic can burst up to 2x the reserved capacity before throttling. | Hourly |
Elastic sending traffic (Standard and Professional only) | Accumulated traffic exceeding the reserved sending capacity. No charge if traffic stays within the reserved amount. | Hourly |
Reserved subscription capacity | Baseline consumer throughput, billed at tiered rates per MB/s. Peak subscription traffic can burst up to 2x the reserved capacity before throttling. | Hourly |
Elastic subscription traffic (Standard and Professional only) | Accumulated traffic exceeding the reserved subscription capacity. No charge if traffic stays within the reserved amount. | Hourly |
Storage space | Billed at tiered rates per GB. Minimum billable storage: 1 GB. Usage below 1 GB is rounded up. | Hourly |
Partitions | Billed at tiered rates based on the total number of partitions and partition replicas. | Hourly |
Internet bandwidth traffic (optional) | Charged per GB when Internet access is enabled. | Hourly |
Basic Edition instances do not incur elastic fees.
How billing works
Billing starts after you purchase an instance.
Metering: The peak traffic within each one-hour window determines the billable usage for that hour. Partial hours round up to one full hour.
Daily bills: Alibaba Cloud calculates hourly fees from the previous day, generates a bill, and automatically deducts the total from your account balance.
If pricing in this topic differs from the buy page, the buy page prevails.
To estimate costs, use the ApsaraMQ for Kafka Serverless Series Price Calculator.
Capacity limits
Limit | Details |
Number of instances | No limit |
Internet access | Enabled by default |
Reserved sending capacity | The reserved sending capacity specifies the computing and processing capabilities of a message cluster. It is measured by network interface card (NIC) traffic. NIC traffic = Service traffic + Intra-cluster replica replication traffic. Service traffic is the traffic generated by your business messages. Intra-cluster replica replication traffic is the traffic generated by the three replicas in an ApsaraMQ for Kafka cluster. Basic Edition: 300--51,300 MB/s, adjustable in multiples of 300 MB. Standard Edition: 60--51,300 MB/s. Professional Edition: 60--51,300 MB/s. |
Reserved subscription capacity | Basic Edition: 100--17,100 MB/s, adjustable in multiples of 100 MB. Standard Edition: 20--17,100 MB/s. Professional Edition: 20--17,100 MB/s. |
Subscription-to-sending ratio | Basic Edition: <= 1:1. Standard and Professional Edition: <= 3:1. |
Storage space | Limited by the retention period of consumer offsets |
Elastic billing
Standard Edition and Professional Edition instances support elastic billing. Sending and subscription traffic can burst up to 2x the reserved capacity. Traffic exceeding this limit triggers throttling. Traffic beyond the reserved capacity incurs elastic fees based on accumulated usage.
Region availability
Serverless instances are expanding to additional regions. To request a Serverless instance in a region not yet listed, .
Public cloud region groups
Region group | Regions |
Region group 1 | China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Fuzhou - Local Region - Sunsetting), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Chengdu), China (Guangzhou), China (Heyuan) |
Region group 2 | Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), UK (London), Germany (Frankfurt), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), South Korea (Seoul) |
Region group 3 | Indonesia (Jakarta), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok) |
Sending traffic pricing
Billing formula
Hourly sending traffic fee = Reserved sending capacity fee + Elastic fee
Elastic fee = Total elastic sending traffic (GB) x Unit price (USD)Reserved sending capacity -- public cloud regions
Region | Reserved sending capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved sending capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved sending capacity (USD) where n is the reserved sending capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
Region group 1 | [0,60] | 0.0006 | 0.00350 | 0.00525 | n x 0.0006 | n x 0.00350 | n x 0.00525 |
(60,300] | 0.00221 | 0.00330 | 0.21 + (n - 60) x 0.00221 | 0.315 + (n - 60) x 0.00330 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00139 | 0.00208 | 0.7404 + (n - 300) x 0.00139 | 1.107 + (n - 300) x 0.00208 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00088 | 0.00132 | 1.74676 + (n - 1024) x 0.00088 | 2.61292 + (n - 1024) x 0.00132 | |||
Region group 2 | [0,60] | 0.0008 | 0.00508 | 0.00761 | n x 0.0008 | n x 0.00508 | n x 0.00761 |
(60,300] | 0.00320 | 0.00479 | 0.3048 + (n - 60) x 0.00320 | 0.4566 + (n - 60) x 0.00479 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00201 | 0.00302 | 1.0728 + (n - 300) x 0.00201 | 1.6062 + (n - 300) x 0.00302 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00127 | 0.00191 | 2.52804 + (n - 1024) x 0.00127 | 3.79268 + (n - 1024) x 0.00191 | |||
Region group 3 | [0,60] | 0.0007 | 0.00466 | 0.00683 | n x 0.0007 | n x 0.00466 | n x 0.00683 |
(60,300] | 0.00293 | 0.00429 | 0.2796 + (n - 60) x 0.00293 | 0.4098 + (n - 60) x 0.00429 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00185 | 0.00271 | 0.9828 + (n - 300) x 0.00185 | 1.4394 + (n - 300) x 0.00271 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00116 | 0.00171 | 2.3222 + (n - 1024) x 0.00116 | 3.40144 + (n - 1024) x 0.00171 |
Reserved sending capacity -- Finance Cloud regions
Region | Reserved sending capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved sending capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved sending capacity (USD) where n is the reserved sending capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | [0,60] | 0.0011 | 0.00665 | 0.00998 | n x 0.0011 | n x 0.00665 | n x 0.00998 |
(60,300] | 0.00419 | 0.00627 | 0.399 + (n - 60) x 0.00419 | 0.5988 + (n - 60) x 0.00627 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00264 | 0.00396 | 1.4046 + (n - 300) x 0.00264 | 2.1036 + (n - 300) x 0.00396 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00166 | 0.00250 | 3.31596 + (n - 1024) x 0.00166 | 4.97064 + (n - 1024) x 0.00250 |
Reserved sending capacity -- Gov Cloud regions
Region | Reserved sending capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved sending capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved sending capacity (USD) where n is the reserved sending capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | [0,60] | 0.0011 | 0.00700 | 0.01050 | n x 0.0011 | n x 0.00700 | n x 0.01260 |
(60,300] | 0.00441 | 0.00660 | 0.42 + (n - 60) x 0.00441 | 0.63 + (n - 60) x 0.00794 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00278 | 0.00417 | 1.4784 + (n - 300) x 0.00278 | 2.214 + (n - 300) x 0.00500 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00175 | 0.00263 | 3.49112 + (n - 1024) x 0.00175 | 5.23308 + (n - 1024) x 0.00315 |
Elastic sending traffic fees
Region | Standard Edition (USD/GB) | Professional Edition (USD/GB) |
Region group 1 | 0.008333333333 | 0.01500 |
Region group 2 | 0.012083333333 | 0.02175 |
Region group 3 | 0.011083333333 | 0.01995 |
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | 0.015833333333 | 0.02850 |
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | 0.016666666667 | 0.03000 |
Sending traffic billing examples
Example 1: reserved capacity at 60 MB/s
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 60 MB/s reserved sending capacity:
Time | Peak traffic | Excess traffic | Total fee |
First hour | 50 MB/s | None | Reserved sending capacity fee: 60 x 0.00350 = USD 0.21. No elastic fee. |
Second hour | 70 MB/s | 20 GB | Reserved sending capacity fee: 60 x 0.00350 = USD 0.21. Elastic fee: 20 x 0.008333333333 = USD 0.16666666666. |
Example 2: reserved capacity at 90 MB/s
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 90 MB/s reserved sending capacity:
Time | Peak traffic | Excess traffic | Total fee |
First hour | 50 MB/s | None | Reserved sending capacity fee: 0.21 + (90 - 60) x 0.00221 = USD 0.2763. No elastic fee. |
Second hour | 100 MB/s | 20 GB | Reserved sending capacity fee: 0.21 + (90 - 60) x 0.00221 = USD 0.2763. Elastic fee: 20 x 0.011083333 = USD 0.22166666. |
Subscription traffic pricing
Billing formula
Hourly subscription traffic fee = Reserved subscription capacity fee + Elastic fee
Elastic fee = Total elastic subscription traffic (GB) x Unit price (USD)Reserved subscription capacity -- public cloud regions
Region | Reserved subscription capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved subscription capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved subscription capacity (USD) where n is the reserved subscription capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
Region group 1 | [0,60] | 0.0003 | 0.00175 | 0.00263 | n x 0.0003 | n x 0.00175 | n x 0.00263 |
(60,300] | 0.00110 | 0.00165 | 0.105 + (n - 60) x 0.00110 | 0.1578 + (n - 60) x 0.00165 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00070 | 0.00105 | 0.369 + (n - 300) x 0.00070 | 0.5538 + (n - 300) x 0.00105 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00044 | 0.00065 | 0.8758 + (n - 1024) x 0.00044 | 1.314 + (n - 1024) x 0.00065 | |||
Region group 2 | [0,60] | 0.0004 | 0.00254 | 0.00382 | n x 0.0004 | n x 0.00254 | n x 0.00382 |
(60,300] | 0.00160 | 0.00239 | 0.1524 + (n - 60) x 0.00160 | 0.2292 + (n - 60) x 0.00239 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00101 | 0.00152 | 0.5364 + (n - 300) x 0.00101 | 0.8028 + (n - 300) x 0.00152 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00064 | 0.00094 | 1.26764 + (n - 1024) x 0.00064 | 1.90328 + (n - 1024) x 0.00094 | |||
Region group 3 | [0,60] | 0.0004 | 0.00233 | 0.00342 | n x 0.0004 | n x 0.00233 | n x 0.00342 |
(60,300] | 0.00147 | 0.00215 | 0.1398 + (n - 60) x 0.00147 | 0.2052 + (n - 60) x 0.00215 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00092 | 0.00137 | 0.4926 + (n - 300) x 0.00092 | 0.7212 + (n - 300) x 0.00137 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00058 | 0.00085 | 1.15868 + (n - 1024) x 0.00058 | 1.71308 + (n - 1024) x 0.00137 |
Reserved subscription capacity -- Finance Cloud regions
Region | Reserved subscription capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved subscription capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved subscription capacity (USD) where n is the reserved subscription capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | [0,60] | 0.0005 | 0.00333 | 0.00500 | n x 0.0005 | n x 0.00333 | n x 0.00500 |
(60,300] | 0.00210 | 0.00314 | 0.1998 + (n - 60) x 0.00210 | 0.3 + (n - 60) x 0.00314 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00132 | 0.00200 | 0.7038 + (n - 300) x 0.00132 | 1.0536 + (n - 300) x 0.00200 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00083 | 0.00124 | 1.65948 + (n - 1024) x 0.00083 | 2.5016 + (n - 1024) x 0.00124 |
Reserved subscription capacity -- Gov Cloud regions
Region | Reserved subscription capacity tier (MB/s) | Unit price for reserved subscription capacity (USD/MB/s/hour) | Fee for reserved subscription capacity (USD) where n is the reserved subscription capacity (MB/s) | ||||
Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | Basic Edition | Standard Edition | Professional Edition | ||
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | [0,60] | 0.0006 | 0.00350 | 0.00527 | n x 0.0006 | n x 0.00350 | n x 0.00527 |
(60,300] | 0.00221 | 0.00330 | 0.21 + (n - 60) x 0.00221 | 0.3162 + (n - 60) x 0.00330 | |||
(300,1024] | 0.00139 | 0.00210 | 0.7404 + (n - 300) x 0.00139 | 1.1082 + (n - 300) x 0.00210 | |||
> 1024 | 0.00088 | 0.00130 | 1.74676 + (n - 1024) x 0.00088 | 2.6286 + (n - 1024) x 0.00130 |
Elastic subscription traffic fees
Region | Standard Edition (USD/GB) | Professional Edition (USD/GB) |
Region group 1 | 0.004166666667 | 0.0075 |
Region group 2 | 0.006041666667 | 0.010875 |
Region group 3 | 0.005541666667 | 0.009975 |
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | 0.007916666667 | 0.01425 |
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | 0.008333333333 | 0.015 |
Subscription traffic billing examples
Example 1: reserved capacity at 60 MB/s
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 60 MB/s reserved subscription capacity:
Time | Peak traffic | Excess traffic | Total fee |
First hour | 50 MB/s | None | Reserved subscription capacity fee: 60 x 0.00175 = USD 0.105. No elastic fee. |
Second hour | 70 MB/s | 20 GB | Reserved subscription capacity fee: 60 x 0.00175 = USD 0.105. Elastic fee: 20 x 0.004166666667 = USD 0.08333333334. |
Example 2: reserved capacity at 90 MB/s
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 90 MB/s reserved subscription capacity:
Time | Peak traffic | Excess traffic | Total fee |
First hour | 50 MB/s | None | Reserved subscription capacity fee: 0.105 + (90 - 60) x 0.00110 = USD 0.138. No elastic fee. |
Second hour | 100 MB/s | 20 GB | Reserved subscription capacity fee: 0.105 + (90 - 60) x 0.00110 = USD 0.138. Elastic fee: 20 x 0.004166667 = USD 0.08333334. |
Storage pricing
Billing rules
The maximum storage space used within each hour determines the applicable pricing tier and fee. Minimum billable storage: 1 GB. Usage below 1 GB is billed as 1 GB.
The default storage quota per Alibaba Cloud account is 30 TB. To request a higher limit, submit a ticket. Without a limit increase, the oldest messages may be purged when storage runs low.
Storage unit prices -- public cloud regions
Region | Storage space tier (GB) | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
Region group 1 | [1,1024] | 0.00002 | 0.00010 | 0.00015 |
(1024,5x1024] | 0.00008 | 0.00011 | ||
(5x1024,10x1024] | 0.00006 | 0.00009 | ||
> 10x1024 | 0.00004 | 0.00007 | ||
Region group 2 | [1,1024] | 0.00003 | 0.00015 | 0.00022 |
(1024,5x1024] | 0.00011 | 0.00016 | ||
(5x1024,10x1024] | 0.00008 | 0.00012 | ||
> 10x1024 | 0.00006 | 0.00010 | ||
Region group 3 | [1,1024] | 0.00002 | 0.00013 | 0.00020 |
(1024,5x1024] | 0.00010 | 0.00015 | ||
(5x1024,10x1024] | 0.00008 | 0.00011 | ||
> 10x1024 | 0.00006 | 0.00009 |
Storage unit prices -- Finance Cloud regions
Region | Storage space tier (GB) | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | [1,1024] | 0.00003 | 0.00019 | 0.00029 |
(1024,5x1024] | 0.00014 | 0.00022 | ||
(5x1024,10x1024] | 0.00011 | 0.00016 | ||
> 10x1024 | 0.00008 | 0.00013 |
Storage unit prices -- Gov Cloud regions
Region | Storage space tier (GB) | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | [1,1024] | 0.00004 | 0.00020 | 0.00030 |
(1024,5x1024] | 0.00015 | 0.00023 | ||
(5x1024,10x1024] | 0.00011 | 0.00017 | ||
> 10x1024 | 0.00008 | 0.00014 |
Storage billing example
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 60 MB/s reserved sending capacity:
Time | First hour | Second hour | Third hour | Fourth hour | Fifth hour |
Maximum storage space (GB) | 1000 | 1000 | 2000 | 2000 | 2000 |
Hours 1--2: Maximum storage is in the [1, 1024] tier. Fee: 0.00010 (USD/hour) x 2 (hours) x 1000 (GB) = USD 0.2.
Hours 3--5: Maximum storage is in the (1024, 5x1024] tier. Fee: 0.00010 (USD/hour) x 3 (hours) x 1024 (GB) + 0.00008 (USD/hour) x 3 (hours) x (2000 - 1024) (GB) = USD 0.54144.
Total: USD 0.2 + USD 0.54144 = USD 0.74144.
Partition pricing
Billing rules
The maximum total number of partitions and partition replicas used within each hour determines the applicable pricing tier and fee.
Partition unit prices -- public cloud regions
Region | Partition quantity tier | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
Region group 1 | [1,1000] | 0.00006 | 0.000062 | 0.000112 |
> 1000 | 0.00003 | 0.000032 | 0.000055 | |
Region group 2 | [1,1000] | 0.00008 | 0.000090 | 0.000162 |
> 1000 | 0.00004 | 0.000045 | 0.000080 | |
Region group 3 | [1,1000] | 0.00008 | 0.000082 | 0.000148 |
> 1000 | 0.00004 | 0.000042 | 0.000073 |
Partition unit prices -- Finance Cloud regions
Region | Partition quantity tier | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
China (Hangzhou) Finance Cloud, China (Shanghai) Finance Cloud, China (Shenzhen) Finance Cloud, China (Beijing) Finance Cloud (Invitational Preview) | [1,1000] | 0.00011 | 0.000117 | 0.000212 |
> 1000 | 0.00005 | 0.000058 | 0.000105 |
Partition unit prices -- Gov Cloud regions
Region | Partition quantity tier | Basic Edition (USD/hour) | Standard Edition (USD/hour) | Professional Edition (USD/hour) |
China (Beijing) Gov Cloud 1 | [1,1000] | 0.00011 | 0.000123 | 0.000222 |
> 1000 | 0.00006 | 0.000062 | 0.000112 |
Partition billing example
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 60 MB/s reserved sending capacity:
Time | First hour | Second hour | Third hour | Fourth hour | Fifth hour |
Maximum partitions (including replicas) | 1000 | 1000 | 2000 | 2000 | 2000 |
Hours 1--2: Maximum partitions are in the [1, 1000] tier. Fee: 0.000062 (USD/hour) x 2 (hours) x 1000 = USD 0.124.
Hours 3--5: Maximum partitions are in the > 1000 tier. Fee: 0.000062 (USD/hour) x 3 (hours) x 1000 + 0.000032 (USD/hour) x 3 (hours) x (2000 - 1000) = USD 0.282.
Total: USD 0.124 + USD 0.282 = USD 0.406.
Internet bandwidth pricing
Billing formula
Hourly Internet bandwidth fee = Total Internet bandwidth traffic (GB) x Unit price (USD/GB)Internet bandwidth unit prices
Area | Region | Traffic price (USD/GB) |
China | China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing) - Local Region, China (Fuzhou) - Local Region - Decommissioning, China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu) | 0.133 |
China (Qingdao) | 0.12 | |
China (Hong Kong) | 0.167 | |
Asia Pacific | Singapore, Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.125 |
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), South Korea (Seoul) | 0.133 | |
Japan (Tokyo) | 0.1 | |
Europe and Americas | US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley) | 0.083 |
Germany (Frankfurt) | 0.083 | |
UK (London) | 0.083 | |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai) | 0.167 |
Internet bandwidth billing example
Standard Edition instance in the China (Hangzhou) region with 60 MB/s reserved sending capacity and 10 GB of Internet bandwidth traffic consumed within one hour:
Fee: 10 x 0.133 = USD 1.33.