Starting from 00:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 24, 2024, Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) Real User Monitoring (RUM) becomes a commercial service. RUM supports both pay-as-you-go and resource plan billing methods. This topic describes the billable items, pricing, free quotas, and billing cycle of RUM.
Billable items and pricing
Real User Monitoring (RUM) bills you based on observability capacity units (OCUs) at a fixed unit price, with charges settled daily.
Region | OCU unit price | Storage duration | Free quota |
Public cloud regions in the Chinese mainland | USD 0.023/OCU |
Note The default storage duration is provided free of charge. |
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Public cloud regions in Hong Kong (China) and other regions outside the Chinese mainland | USD 0.033/OCU |
All applications and instances under the same Alibaba Cloud account share this quota, which can be used across regions.
OCU deduction rules
RUM uses the following two models to deduct OCUs.
Session-based deduction
A session represents the period of user activity from when an application is opened until it is closed. It includes all page views, resource loads, and exception events such as crashes, hangs, and JavaScript errors. RUM charges based on the number of sessions.
Client type | OCU conversion |
Web & H5 | 200 sessions = 1 OCU |
mini program | 100 sessions = 1 OCU |
mobile app | 200 sessions = 1 OCU |
Uniapp | 200 sessions = 1 OCU |
Minigame | 100 sessions = 1 OCU |
PC application | 100 sessions = 1 OCU |
RUM splits long-running sessions for billing purposes:
If a session lasts 4 hours or less, it is billed as 1 session.
If a session lasts more than 4 hours, the billable session count is calculated as: Session Duration / 4 hours (rounded up to the nearest integer).
When a session ends
For browsers, H5, and mini programs: A session ends when the user or system closes the application, or after 30 minutes of inactivity.
For mobile apps: A session ends when the user or system closes the application, or after it runs in the background for 60 seconds.
For PC applications: A session ends when the user or system closes the application, or after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Event-based deduction
RUM deducts OCUs based on the volume of reported events during user interactions, including page loads, resource request calls, behavioral events, and exception reports.
Event type | Description | Sampling supported |
Page view (PV) | The number of times a page is viewed. | Yes |
Resource request (API) | Includes both static and dynamic resource requests. | Yes |
Behavioral events | Includes operational behaviors such as application starts and clicks. | Yes |
Exception reports | Reports for exceptions such as crashes, hangs, JavaScript errors, and blank screen analysis. | Yes |
OCU deduction for reported data = [PV + resource requests × 0.1 + behavioral events + exception reports] / 3,000. This is equivalent to CNY 0.5 per 10,000 reports.
Event-based billing vs. session-based billing
By default, RUM prioritizes the session-based billing model. You can switch billing models at any time to suit your business needs and monitoring requirements.
Dimension | Event-based billing | Session-based billing |
Metering unit | Volume of events related to PVs, resource requests, errors, behavioral events, exception reports, and custom reports. |
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OCU deduction | 3,000 events = 1 OCU 600 custom reports = 1 OCU | 200 sessions = 1 OCU 600 custom reports = 1 OCU |
Data granularity control | Allows separate sampling for different event types. | Once sampling is triggered, all events (including PV, API, behavioral events, etc.) are reported. |
Considerations | Low page complexity, API call frequency, error rates, and single-page applications. | High page complexity, focus on user activity, session duration, and conversion path length. |
Use cases |
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Other billable items
Custom reports
You can use the custom reporting interface to send custom data, such as custom events, exceptions, and logs.
Custom reporting is an optional feature that helps developers collect various types of custom data to enhance their business scenario analysis. RUM charges based on the number of custom reports.
Note: The OCU deduction factor for custom reports depends on the daily reporting volume, which is tiered.
Daily reports | OCU deduction factor | Unit price per 10,000 custom reports (CNY) |
Up to 1 million | 600 reports = 1 OCU | 2.5 |
1 million to 5 million | 1,500 reports = 1 OCU | 1 |
5 million to 10 million | 3,000 reports = 1 OCU | 0.5 |
Over 10 million | 5,000 reports = 1 OCU | 0.3 |
Session Replay
Session Replay is an optional feature that can be enabled as needed. RUM deducts OCUs based on the number of sessions that have replay data.
Note: Currently, Session Replay is only supported for Web & H5 applications. 75 session replays = 1 OCU.
Storage duration
In the ARMS console, navigate to Real User Monitoring > System Management > Storage Settings to configure the data storage duration based on your business needs. This setting is applied at the Workspace level.
Billable item | Unit price in public cloud regions in the Chinese mainland (CNY/GB) | Unit price in public cloud regions in Hong Kong (China) and other regions outside the Chinese mainland (CNY/GB) | Unit price for Finance Cloud (CNY/GB) |
Data storage | 0.0017 | 0.00238 | 0.00323 |
Billing formula
Daily storage cost = Daily cumulative storage (GB) × Unit price per GB.
Optional storage durations
After you enable extended storage, you can select a preset tier, or choose a custom or permanent retention period:
Tier | Extended duration | Total storage duration |
60 days | 60 days | 90 days |
90 days | 90 days | 120 days |
180 days | 180 days | 210 days |
365 days | 365 days | 395 days |
Custom | Minimum 60 days | From 90 days, calculated based on your input |
Permanent | ∞ | Permanent (continuous billing) |
Important
Currently, you can only configure the storage duration for detail data.
The default 30-day basic storage is free and fixed. The minimum configurable duration for extended storage is 60 days. Therefore, once you enable extended storage, the total storage duration will be at least 90 days.
RUM bills you daily only for the extended storage (archive storage) period. For more information about archive storage rules, see Billable items for the pay-by-feature billing model.
If you select permanent retention, data is stored long-term and billed daily until you manually disable extended storage. Otherwise, data is automatically deleted after the specified storage duration expires.
If you configure the storage duration in the ARMS console, the setting applies at the region level. If you configure it in the CloudMonitor 2.0 console, it applies at the Workspace level.
Configuration path
Navigate to the RUM console > System Management > Storage Settings > Storage Duration Settings, and follow these steps:
View the "Basic Storage" information (30 days free, fixed and non-editable).
Enable the "Extended Storage" switch.
Select a preset tier (60 / 90 / 180 / 365 days), or click "Custom" to enter an extended duration (minimum 60 days), or choose "Permanent".
Check the summary section to see the extended and total storage durations.
Click "Save" and confirm the changes in the pop-up dialog.
Activation
Click the activation link, and follow the prompts on the product page to complete the activation.
Resource plans
Purchase a resource plan for the region where your application is deployed. Resource plans are region-specific and cannot be used to cover usage in other regions.
ARMS RUM provides resource plans with the following specifications. For specific pricing, see the product purchase page.
To use a prepaid resource plan, you must first enable pay-as-you-go.
If you have multiple resource plans under your account, they are used in order of their expiration dates. Once a plan is depleted, billing automatically reverts to pay-as-you-go.
Specification | Validity period |
5,000 OCU | 3 months |
10,000 OCU | 6 months |
150,000 OCU | 6 months |
630,000 OCU | 1 year |
3.6 million OCU | 1 year |
18 million OCU | 1 year |
How to purchase
On the Real User Monitoring resource plan page, follow the prompts to purchase a plan.
Refund policy
RUM allows you to cancel active resource plans. You can choose from different cancellation methods depending on your scenario. For more information about the refund rules, see Unsubscription rules.
Refund destination
The system calculates refunds based on actual resource usage. For more information about where your refund is sent, see Refund destination.
Refunds only apply to payments made with cash or stored value cards. Amounts paid with vouchers or coupons are not refundable.
Impact of refunds
If you refund one of multiple resource plans, the remaining plans are used in order of their expiration dates. When all plans are depleted, billing automatically reverts to pay-as-you-go.
If you refund your only resource plan, billing automatically reverts to pay-as-you-go.
You can continue to use the Real User Monitoring service as long as your account balance is sufficient to cover pay-as-you-go fees. If your balance becomes insufficient, your payments will be considered overdue. For details on the consequences of overdue payments, see Overdue payments.
Billing cycle
RUM uses a daily billing cycle. The bill for the previous day's resource consumption is calculated starting at 04:00 and typically generated by 08:00. The total amount is then automatically deducted from your account balance. You can view your bills on the Expenses and Costs page and check your resource consumption in the ARMS console.