This topic describes the Bill Management feature of Cloud Firewall, which allows you to view detailed bills for pay-as-you-go services and post-paid features of subscription plans.
Pay-as-you-go Cloud Firewall bills
Bills for the previous day are generated and settled after 18:00 each day (T+1).
Log on to the Cloud Firewall console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
Today’s Estimated Bill: The Today’s Estimated Bill section displays the estimated cost for today. Click View Details to view a detailed cost breakdown.
NoteThis data is an estimate based on usage within the current day and is for reference only. The final charges are subject to the actual bill generated on a T+1 basis.
In the Actual Usage section, view the activation status of each billable Cloud Firewall feature, including firewall instance, processed traffic, Log Analysis, Sensitive Data Leak Detection, and Threat Intelligence.
View your historical bills at the bottom of the page.
Item
Description
Date
The date covered by the bill.
Instance Fee
The total fee for created Internet Firewall, NAT Firewall, and VPC Firewall instances, including instances managed by the multi-account management feature.
Traffic Processing Fee
The fee for traffic processed by the firewall, which includes traffic from Internet Firewall, NAT Firewall, and VPC Firewall.
Feature Fee
The fee for enabled firewall features, including sensitive data leakage detection, threat intelligence, and log analysis.
Theoretical Fee
The theoretical amount for pay-as-you-go billing. If you have purchased a pay-as-you-go savings plan, charges are deducted from the plan first.
Bill Details
In the Actions column, click View Details to open the Bill Details page, which shows usage and cost information categorized by hour and feature.
NoteThe Bill Management page displays billing data for the last 30 days. To find bills older than 30 days or view monthly and annual billing details, log on to the Alibaba Cloud Expenses and Costs console. For more information, see View and analyze bills.
Post-paid bills for Cloud Firewall subscriptions
For Cloud Firewall subscription plans, the Elastic Traffic Inspection and Sensitive Data Leak Detection features are billed post-paid. You can view the billing details on the Bill Management page.
Bills for the previous day are generated and settled after 18:00 each day (T+1).
Procedure
Log on to the Cloud Firewall console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
On the Bill Management page, view the following information.
Elastic Traffic Inspection
On the Elastic Traffic Inspection tab, view the post-paid bills generated for this feature.
NoteUnder the Subscription 2.0 billing method, the burstable protected traffic feature is enabled by default. If your actual service bandwidth exceeds your subscribed bandwidth, the excess traffic is billed post-paid at USD 0.06 per GB.
You can configure Burstable Billing Alerts on the page to receive notifications when your peak bandwidth approaches the subscribed limit.
Item
Description
Date
The date covered by the bill.
Peak Processing Bandwidth
The total peak bandwidth processed by Internet Firewall, NAT Firewall, and VPC Firewall.
Peak Bandwidth Time
The specific time when the peak bandwidth occurred.
Provisioned Throughput Capacity
The subscribed firewall bandwidth limit.
Elastic Traffic
The specific burstable excess traffic volume (in GB) that exceeded your subscribed bandwidth limit.
Theoretical Fee
The fee calculated based on the Elastic Traffic. This amount is for reference only. Final charges are shown on the Billing Management console. For more information, see View and analyze bills.
Sensitive Data Leak Detection
When you enable the sensitive data leakage detection feature, you receive a monthly quota of free traffic. Traffic that exceeds this quota is billed post-paid.
Item
Description
Date
The date covered by the bill.
Remaining Free Quota
The remaining free traffic quota for the month.
Daily Inspected Traffic
The amount of detection traffic used today.
Billed Traffic
The amount of traffic billed for the day after the free quota was exhausted.
Theoretical Fee
The fee calculated based on the Billed Traffic.
FAQ
How to check for recent excess traffic on a subscription Cloud Firewall
To check for recent excess traffic on your subscription Cloud Firewall, follow these steps:
Check for excess traffic in the last 30 days: Log on to the Cloud Firewall console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose . If the value for Elastic Traffic is greater than 0, you have generated excess traffic.
Check for excess traffic older than 30 days: Go to the Expenses and Costs console to check for pay-as-you-go bills for Cloud Firewall. For more information, see View and analyze bills.
How to determine whether to purchase a Cloud Firewall pay-as-you-go savings plan
Assessment
Log on to the Cloud Firewall console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose . You can also go to the Alibaba Cloud Expenses and Costs console. Estimate your monthly or yearly costs based on your recent pay-as-you-go expenses.
Recommendation
Pay-as-you-go savings plans allow you to flexibly set a committed spending amount and a subscription duration, starting from a minimum of CNY 50. Purchase a plan from a tier that matches your estimated spending:
If your estimated spending is between CNY 50 and CNY 999, you receive a 5% discount on all pay-as-you-go billing items.
If your estimated spending is between CNY 1,000 and CNY 9,999, you receive a 9% discount.
If your estimated spending is between CNY 10,000 and CNY 100,000, you receive a 14% discount.
How to determine if a sudden increase in Cloud Firewall costs is due to configuration changes or increased traffic
To investigate a sudden increase in Cloud Firewall costs, follow these steps:
Check expense details: Log on to the Cloud Firewall console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose to view your expense details.
Compare changes in billing items:
Increased traffic: If the Traffic Processing Fee on your bill increases significantly while the Instance Fee remains unchanged, this typically indicates an increase in service traffic.
Configuration changes: If the Instance Fee or Feature Fee increases, check whether you recently made configuration changes, such as upgrading the edition, enabling new features, or adding protected assets.