This topic describes the billing methods, billable items, and billing rules for Alibaba Cloud CDN.
If Business Type is set to DCDN when you add a domain name to Alibaba Cloud CDN, the domain name is billed based on the billing rules of Dynamic Content Delivery Network (DCDN). You can log on to the DCDN console to view and manage domain names accelerated by DCDN.
A bill is issued 3 to 4 hours after a billing cycle ends.
By default, pay-by-data-transfer meters the amount of outbound data transfer on POPs and pay-by-peak-bandwidth meters the peak outbound bandwidth on POPs.
The following figure shows the billing rules.
Billing methods
Alibaba Cloud CDN supports the pay-as-you-go billing method, which is the default billing method. You can use resource plans to offset fees of commonly used resources.
Pay-as-you-go: You are charged for the actual usage of each billable item. Fees are deducted after resources are consumed. This billing method is ideal for scenarios in which the usage of resources is difficult to predict.
Resource plans (subscription): Resource plans use the subscription billing method and offer discounts on different billable items. Resources are consumed before fees are offset by resource plans. Resource plans are ideal for scenarios in which the usage of resources is easy to predict.
Compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method, resource plans are more cost-effective.
Resource overages are billed based on the pay-as-you-go billing method and included in the bills. We recommend that you purchase resource plans based on the services that you need and the estimated amount of resource usage. For more information, see Guidelines for choosing resource plans.
Billable items
Alibaba Cloud CDN is billed for basic services and value-added services. Basic services are required and value-added services are optional. The following figure shows the billable items.
Basic services (required): You can choose between pay-by-data-transfer and pay-by-peak-bandwidth. For more information, see Billing rules of basic services.
Value-added services (optional): You can enable one or more value-added services, such as HTTPS requests for static content and QUIC requests. For more information, see Billing of value-added services.
Billing cycles
The following table describes the billing cycles of Alibaba Cloud CDN.
Billing cycle | Bill release time | Billable item |
Hourly | You are charged on an hourly basis. A bill is issued about 3 to 4 hours after the end of a billing cycle. The time when bills are issued is determined by the system. |
|
Daily | You are charged on a daily basis. The bill of the current day is issued around 04:00 on the next day. The time when bills are issued is determined by the system. | Basic services. For more information, see Pay-by-peak-bandwidth. |
Billable regions
The data transfer fee is calculated based on the billable region where the data transfer is generated. Alibaba Cloud CDN has deployed sufficient redundant POPs in each billable region to ensure that each POP belongs only to one billable region.
Regions inside and outside the Chinese mainland are classified into different billable regions, as listed in the following table. For more information, see POP distribution.
Billable region | Region code | Region/Country |
Chinese mainland | CN | Regions in the Chinese mainland are in the same billable region. |
North America | NA | US |
Europe | EU | Ukraine, UK, France, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, and Germany |
Asia Pacific 1 | AP1 | Hong Kong (China), Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia |
Asia Pacific 2 | AP2 | Indonesia, India, Republic of Korea, and Pakistan |
Asia Pacific 3 | AP3 | Australia |
Middle East and Africa | MEAA | Türkiye, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Nigeria, and South Africa |
South America | SA | Brazil |
Pricing
For more information about the pricing of Alibaba Cloud CDN, see CDN pricing.
For more information about the pricing of resource plans, see CDN resource plans.
Outbound data transfer plans
You can use outbound data transfer plans to offset data transfer fees that are incurred when Alibaba Cloud CDN accelerates content delivery. Buy Now
We recommend that you choose resource plans based on the features and services that you want to use, and the business volume. For more information, see Overview, Guidelines for choosing resource plans, and Rules for applying resource plans.
Outbound data transfer plans can be applied only if the metering method is set to pay-by-data-transfer. If the metering method is not pay-by-data-transfer, the data transfer plans are suspended. For more information about how to change the metering method, see Change the metering method.
References
- Billable items and billing methodsBilling of basic servicesBilling of value-added servicesChange the metering methodPricing
- Resource plan overviewGuidelines for choosing resource plansRules for applying resource plansQuery details about resource plansConfigure low capacity alertsMoney-back guarantees
- MoreOverdue paymentsQuery resource usageQuery billsConfigure high bill alertsFAQ about billing