Auto Scaling is free of charge. However, you must pay for the resources of other Alibaba Cloud services used in Auto Scaling, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Elastic Container Instance, Server Load Balancer (SLB), and ApsaraDB RDS.
ECS
Auto Scaling manages the following types of ECS instances:
- Existing ECS instances that are manually added to a scaling group. The subscription, pay-as-you-go, and preemptible instance billing methods are supported.
- ECS instances that are automatically created during scale-out activities. Only the pay-as-you-go and preemptible instance billing methods are supported.
The following table describes the ECS resources for which you must pay. ① specifies a more cost-effective billing method that reduces the costs of pay-as-you-go resources. You can buy pay-as-you-go resources based on your business requirements. For more information, see ECS billing overview.
Resource type | Description | Billing method | References |
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Computing resource (vCPUs and memory) | You are charged based on the instance type. The instance type determines the number of vCPUs and the size of memory that you can consume. |
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Image | Image fees are determined based on the image type and your usage. |
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Disk | Disk fees are determined based on the disk capacity and usage duration. |
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Snapshot | Snapshot fees are determined based on the snapshot size and storage duration. |
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Public bandwidth | If you use a public IP address to access the Internet, you are charged only for the outbound public bandwidth. |
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The following table describes the billing methods of ECS instances in different states. For more information, see Economical mode.
Billing method | Instance status | ECS resources |
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Subscription | Running | You are charged for ECS resources such as images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots based on their individual billing methods. |
Stopped | You are charged for ECS resources such as images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots based on their individual billing methods. | |
Pay-as-you-go (including preemptible instances) | Running | You are charged for ECS resources such as images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots based on their individual billing methods. |
Stopped |
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Elastic Container Instance
The following table describes the Elastic Container Instance resources that you must pay.
Resource type | Description | References |
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Elastic container instance | You are charged for the vCPUs and memory that you consume. | Billing |
Image cache | If you use the image cache feature, you are charged for the creation and usage of image caches. | |
Network | If your elastic container instances require Internet access, you must configure EIPs or NAT gateways for the elastic container instances. You are charged for the network resources that you consume. | |
Storage | If you need to add temporary storage space to your elastic container instances or persistently store data on your elastic container instances, you can attach disks and mount a NAS file system to your elastic container instances. You are charged for the storage resources that you consume. |
Other Alibaba Cloud services
Auto Scaling does not create the resources that are described in the following table. Auto Scaling associates scaling groups with these resources during your usage. Before you use the resources, you must create and pay for them in the consoles of other Alibaba Cloud services or by calling API operations of other Alibaba Cloud services.
Alibaba Cloud service | Description | References |
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SLB | If you want to associate a scaling group with SLB instances, you must first create and pay for the SLB instances. | Pay-as-you-go |
ApsaraDB RDS | If you want to associate a scaling group with ApsaraDB RDS instances, you must first create and pay for the ApsaraDB RDS instances. | Billable items, billing methods, and pricing |