This topic describes the payment methods, billing methods, and billable items of Data Transmission Service (DTS).

Pricing

For information about how DTS is priced, see DTS pricing.

Payment methods

You can use the following methods to pay for DTS:

  • Bank card
  • PayPal

    Alibaba Cloud pre-authorizes your PayPal account to pay for DTS after fees are generated for your pay-as-you-go resources.

  • Paytm

    Paytm is applicable only in India. Alibaba Cloud pre-authorizes your Paytm account to pay for DTS after fees are generated for your pay-as-you-go resources. You can use coupons to pay for your resource usage before bills are issued. If you use coupons, no actual payments are involved.

Billing methods

DTS provides two billing methods for you: subscription and pay-as-you-go. Data migration instances support only pay-as-you-go.

Billing methodSupported DTS featureDescription
Subscription
  • Data synchronization
  • Change tracking
  • You pay for your subscription on a monthly or yearly basis when you create an instance.
  • If you plan to use DTS for a month or longer, we recommend that you select the subscription billing method, which is more cost-effective.
  • You cannot release a subscription instance. If the subscription is not renewed, the instance expires at the end of the subscription duration.
  • In the new DTS console, you can switch the billing method of an instance between subscription and pay-as-you-go. In the earlier DTS console, you can switch the billing method of an instance only from pay-as-you-go to subscription. We recommend that you use the new DTS console.
Pay-as-you-go
  • Data migration
  • Data synchronization
  • Change tracking
  • Your instances are charged based on the duration of your tasks. A pay-as-you-go instance is charged on an hourly basis. The hourly fee is calculated based on the instance specifications, and you are charged by using your selected billing method.
    Note If a data synchronization instance expires, the source and destination databases of the instance are locked but can still be connected. Make sure that you release the expired instance in time to prevent additional fees.
  • You can release a pay-as-you-go instance at any time. If you want to use DTS only for a short period of time, we recommend that you select the pay-as-you-go billing method. For more information, see Release pay-as-you-go instances.
  • You can switch a pay-as-you-go instance to a subscription instance. For more information, see Switch from pay-as-you-go to subscription.
Note
  • For data synchronization and data migration tasks, you are still charged during the period when the tasks are paused.
  • When data synchronization or incremental data migration is paused, DTS temporarily stops writing data to the destination database but continues to read logs from the source database. This helps to quickly resume data synchronization or migration after the task is resumed.

Billable items

DTS featureBillable itemBilling rule
Data migrationInstance specifications
  • You are charged only when incremental data migration is in progress, including the period when the incremental data migration is paused. You are not charged for schema migration or full data migration.
    Note If data migration fails, you are not charged during the period when the migration is in the Failed state.
  • Within one hour before an overdue payment occurs, if you have used the service for no more than half an hour, you are charged for half an hour of service usage. If you have used the service for more than half an hour, you are charged for one hour of service usage.
Internet traffic chargesDTS involves two types of Internet traffic: inbound traffic to Alibaba Cloud services and outbound traffic from Alibaba Cloud services.
  • Outbound traffic: You are charged for the outbound traffic that is generated. For example, you are charged when you migrate data from a self-managed database deployed on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance or an Alibaba Cloud database to an on-premises database over the Internet.
    Note Internet traffic charges are based on the actual traffic that is generated. The unit price is USD 0.154 per GB. Traffic of less than 1 GB is charged as 1 GB.
  • Inbound traffic: You are not charged for the inbound traffic that is generated. For example, you are not charged when you migrate data from an on-premises database to a self-managed database deployed on an ECS instance or an Alibaba Cloud database over the Internet.
Data synchronizationInstance specifications
  • Pay-as-you-go

    You are charged from the time when a task is configured and started. You are also charged during the period when the task is paused.

    Within one hour before an overdue payment occurs, if you have used the service for no more than half an hour, you are charged for half an hour of service usage. If you have used the service for more than half an hour, you are charged for one hour of service usage.

  • Subscription

    You must pay for your subscription based on the instance specifications, subscription duration, and number of instances.

Change trackingInstance specifications
  • Pay-as-you-go

    You are charged from the time when a task is configured and started.

    Within one hour before an overdue payment occurs, if you have used the service for no more than half an hour, you are charged for half an hour of service usage. If you have used the service for more than half an hour, you are charged for one hour of service usage.

  • Subscription

    You must pay for your subscription based on the instance specifications, subscription duration, and number of instances.

Amount of subscribed dataFree of charge
Internet traffic chargesFree of charge