When you use Alibaba Cloud CDN to accelerate content delivery from an Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket, two separate bills are generated: one from Alibaba Cloud CDN and one from OSS. The pricing of each service is independent.
CDN and OSS billing is separate. Data transfer bills for each service are generated independently, and their pricing differs. For details, see the pricing pages for Alibaba Cloud CDN and OSS.
Billable items
When your origin server is an OSS bucket, the following items may be charged:
| Billable item | Description |
|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud CDN service fee | Outbound data transfer is charged in most cases. In specific cases, other items such as HTTPS requests for static content may also apply. For details, see Billing overview. |
| OSS service fee | Data storage is charged in most cases. In specific cases, other items such as requests may also apply. For details, see Billing overview. |
How data transfer is charged
Three data flows occur when your origin server is an OSS bucket. Each flow has a different billing rule:
| Data flow | Direction | Charged by |
|---|---|---|
| Flow 1 | CDN points of presence (POPs) to clients | Alibaba Cloud CDN — this is outbound data transfer |
| Flow 2 | POPs to OSS | Not charged |
| Flow 3 | OSS to CDN POPs | OSS — this is when POPs retrieve content from OSS |
Preferential pricing for OSS-to-CDN transfer
OSS applies preferential pricing for data transfer to CDN POPs. To qualify, you must set the origin server type to OSS Domain in the Alibaba Cloud CDN console.
| Origin server type in CDN console | OSS billing for data transfer to POPs |
|---|---|
| OSS Domain | Preferential pricing applies |
| Site Domain | OSS identifies the traffic as outbound data transfer over the Internet; standard charges apply |
If the POP and the bucket are both located in regions outside the Chinese mainland, data transfer from OSS to POPs is not charged.
Resource plans
OSS and Alibaba Cloud CDN each offer resource plans to offset predictable usage costs. Overages beyond the plan are billed at pay-as-you-go rates. Purchase the two plans separately based on which cost you want to offset.
| Resource plan | What it offsets |
|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud CDN outbound data transfer plan | Data transfer fees for content distributed from POPs to clients |
| OSS standard locally redundant storage (LRS) storage plan | Standard LRS storage fees |