When you use Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), you are charged fees based on the connected areas and transit router editions. This topic describes the billing rules for CEN.

Free trial

Beginning March 31, 2021, first-time users of Alibaba Cloud are eligible for free trials of CEN bandwidth plans. The duration of a free trial is one month, and the maximum bandwidth value of a free-trial bandwidth plan is 5 Mbit/s. If you are interested, you can apply for a free trial. For more information, see Free trial: subscription bandwidth plans for CEN.

Billable items of resources

Resource Billable Item Scenario References
Enterprise Edition transit routers Connections An Enterprise Edition transit router is connected to virtual private clouds (VPCs), virtual border routers (VBRs), or IPsec-VPN connections. Billing rules for Enterprise Edition transit routers
Data forwarding An Enterprise Edition transit router forwards network traffic for VPCs, VBRs, or IPsec-VPN connections.
Inter-region connections Bandwidth plans Enable network communication between network instances in different regions.

To allow network instances in different regions to communicate with each other, you must create inter-region connections between the network instances. Bandwidth resources for inter-region connections can be allocated in the following modes. You can select a mode based on your business requirements.

  • Allocate bandwidth from bandwidth plans

    In this mode, you are charged for bandwidth plans.

  • Pay-by-data-transfer

    In this mode, you are charged for data transfer.

Billing rules for inter-region connections
Data transfer

Billing rules for Enterprise Edition transit routers

Billing rules

Billable item Billing rule Billing method Billing cycle
Connections You are charged based on the total number of VPC, VBR, and IPsec-VPN connections on the Enterprise Edition transit router.

Connection fee for an Enterprise Edition transit router = Unit price of the connection (USD/connection/hour) × (The total number of VPC connections + VBR connections + IPsec-VPN connections on the Enterprise Edition transit router) × Usage duration (hours).

The usage duration refers to the total period of time from when the connection is created on the Enterprise Edition transit router to when the connection is closed on the Enterprise Edition transit router.

Pay-as-you-go

A billing method that allows you to use resources and pay for them afterwards. You are billed based on the resources that are consumed.

1 hour

If the usage duration is less than an hour, it is rounded up to 1 hour.

Data forwarding You are charged based on the amount of data transfer from the VPCs, VBRs, and IPsec-VPN connections to the Enterprise Edition transit router.

Data forwarding fee for an Enterprise Edition transit router = Unit price of data forwarding (USD/GB) × (The total amount of data transfer from the VPCs, VBRs, and IPsec-VPN connections to the Enterprise Edition transit router).

Data transfer from the Enterprise Edition transit router to the VPCs, VBRs, and IPsec-VPN connections is free of charge.

1 hour

Pricing of connections and data forwarding on transit routers

Important The pricing information listed in the following table is for reference only. If the prices in the following tables are different from those on the buy page, the prices on the buy page shall prevail.
Area Region Connection fee

Unit:(USD/connection/hour)

 Data forwarding fee

Unit:USD/GB.
Chinese mainland China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Nanjing - Local Region), China (Fuzhou - Local Region), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), and China (Chengdu) 0.05 0.02
Asia Pacific Singapore (Singapore), China (Hong Kong), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), India (Mumbai), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), and Thailand (Bangkok) 0.06
Europe Germany (Frankfurt) and UK (London)
North America US (Virginia) and US (Silicon Valley)
Australia Australia (Sydney)

Billing rules for inter-region connections

Billing rules

Billable Item Billing rule Billing method Billing cycle
Bandwidth plans To allow network instances in different regions to communicate with each other, you must create inter-region connections between the network instances. Bandwidth resources for inter-region connections can be allocated in the following modes. You can select a mode based on your business requirements.

The billing rules for the allocation modes are:

  • Allocate bandwidth from bandwidth plans

    Before you can create an inter-region connection, you must purchase a bandwidth plan and allocate bandwidth resources from the bandwidth plan to the inter-region connection. Each bandwidth plan is billed for its maximum bandwidth value.

    Fee of a bandwidth plan = Unit price of bandwidth ((USD/month for every Mbit/s) × Maximum bandwidth value (Mbit/s) × Subscription duration (months).

  • Pay-by-data-transfer

    For more information about pay-by-data-transfer, see What is CDT?

Subscription

A billing method that allows you to subscribe to bandwidth plans on a monthly or annual basis. Fees must be paid before resources can be consumed.

1 month
Data transfer Pay-as-you-go

A billing method that allows you to use resources and pay for them afterwards. You are billed based on the resources that are consumed.

1 hour

Pricing of bandwidth

The following table describes the prices of bandwidth within the Chinese mainland. For more information about the pricing of bandwidth in other areas,visit the buy page. For more information about the pricing of data transfer, see Cross-region data transfers.

Bandwidth is billed based on a tiered pricing model. For example, Alice purchased a bandwidth plan that supports network communication within the Chinese mainland. The maximum bandwidth value of the bandwidth plan is 110 Mbit/s, and the subscription duration is one month. The fee for the bandwidth plan is:

USD 34/month for every Mbit/s × 100 Mbit/s × 1 (month) + USD 13/month for every Mbit/s × 10 Mbit/s × 1 (month) = USD 3,530

Areas to be connected Bandwidth tier

Unit: Mbit/s

 Bandwidth unit price

Unit:USD/Mbit/s/month
Within the Chinese mainland 0 to 100 (including 100) 34
100 to 1,000 (including 1,000) 13
>1,000 8

Billing examples

The following examples show the billing rules for CEN.

Billing example

A company attached VPC1, VPC2, VBR1, VBR2, and IPsec-VPN Connection 1 to a CEN instance. The IPsec-VPN connection is an Internet connection. The company also purchased Bandwidth Plan 1 for network communication within the Chinese mainland. The maximum bandwidth of Bandwidth Plan 1 is 160 Mbit/s, and the subscription duration is one month. Bandwidth resources for Inter-region Connection 1, Inter-region Connection 2, and Inter-region Connection 3 are allocated from Bandwidth Plan 1. Network communication among the network instances attached to the CEN instance is established.

The following table describes the resources consumed by each network instance and inter-region connection in June 2022 (30 calendar days).

Table 1. Resources consumed by the network instances and connections
Network instance/connection Total duration of connection to Enterprise Edition transit router Total data transfer to Enterprise Edition transit router
VPC1 24 hours/day × 30 days = 720 hours 20 GB of data transfer to the Enterprise Edition transit router in China (Hangzhou)
VPC2 24 hours/day × 30 days = 720 hours 20 GB of data transfer to the Enterprise Edition transit router in China (Shenzhen)
VBR1 24 hours/day × 30 days = 720 hours 30 GB of data transfer to the Enterprise Edition transit router in China (Hangzhou)
VBR2 24 hours/day × 30 days = 720 hours 30 GB of data transfer to the Enterprise Edition transit router in China (Qingdao)
IPse-VPN Connection 1 24 hours/day × 30 days = 720 hours 40 GB of data transfer to the Enterprise Edition transit router in China (Qingdao)
Table 2. Bandwidth resources allocated to the inter-region connections
Inter-region connection Maximum bandwidth Connected regions Bandwidth plan Connected areas in bandwidth plan
Inter-region Connection 1 50 Mbit/s China (Hangzhou) and China (Shenzhen) Bandwidth Plan 1 Within the Chinese mainland
Inter-region Connection 2 100 Mbit/s China (Shenzhen) and China (Qingdao) Bandwidth Plan 1 Within the Chinese mainland
Inter-region Connection 3 10 Mbit/s China (Hangzhou) and China (Qingdao) Bandwidth Plan 1 Within the Chinese mainland

The following table describes the connection fee, data forwarding fee, and inter-region connection fee of VPC1, VPC2, VBR1, VBR2, and IPsec-VPN Connection 1 in June 2022.

Connection and data forwarding fees

Network instance/connection Connection fee Data forwarding fee Connection and data forwarding fees of each network instance
VPC1

USD 0.05/connection/hour × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 1 connection = USD 36.00

USD 0.02/GB × 20 GB =USD 0.40

USD 36.40
VPC2

USD 0.05/connection/hour × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 1 connection = USD 36.00

USD 0.02/GB × 20 GB =USD 0.40

USD 36.40
VBR1

USD 0.05/connection/hour × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 1 connection = USD 36.00

USD 0.02/GB × 30 GB = USD 0.60

USD 36.60
VBR2

USD 0.05/connection/hour × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 1 connection = USD 36.00

USD 0.02/GB × 30 GB = USD 0.60

USD 36.60
IPsec-VPN Connection 1

USD 0.05/connection/hour × 24 hours/day × 30 days × 1 connection = USD 36.00

USD 0.02/GB × 40 GB = USD 0.80

USD 36.80
Connection and data forwarding fees of all network instances

USD 180.00

USD 2.80

USD 182.8

Inter-region connection fee

Bandwidth resources for Inter-region Connection 1, Inter-region Connection 2, and Inter-region Connection 3 are allocated from Bandwidth Plan 1. Therefore, the company is charged only for Bandwidth Plan 1. The fee for Bandwidth Plan 1 is:

USD 34/month/Mbit/s × 100 Mbit/s × 1 month + USD 13/month/Mbit/s × 60 Mbit/s × 1 month = USD 4,180

Total fee

The total fee in June is: USD 182.80 + USD 4,180.00 = USD 4362.80

FAQ

What fees am I charged for using a Basic Edition transit router?

A Basic Edition transit router is billed for the bandwidth plans that you use to establish inter-region connections on the transit router.
Note Beginning March 31, 2022, Basic Edition transit routers are no longer available for purchase. We recommend that you use Enterprise Edition transit routers. Enterprise Edition transit routers provide more features. For more information, see Functions and features.