Billing - Data Lake Formation - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

This topic describes the billable items and cost components of a DLF catalog.

Cost components

DLF is billed per catalog. Costs primarily consist of table storage and table management & optimization. You are billed for each component based on your actual usage.

Note

Charges for internet traffic and object tagging are currently waived. We will notify you in advance if these items become billable.
Charges for GET and PUT data requests are currently waived. We will notify you in advance if these requests become billable.

Billable items

Cost component	Billable item	Description	Billing rule	Billing cycle
table storage	Storage fees	You are billed based on the volume of table data stored, including data in DLF Paimon managed storage. You can choose between zone-redundant storage (ZRS) or locally redundant storage (LRS) based on your data reliability requirements.	Storage fees You are billed for your actual usage, based on the selected region, storage class, redundancy option, storage capacity, and duration. Minimum storage duration and early deletion fee Certain storage classes have a minimum storage duration: Infrequent Access (IA): 30 days (720 hours) Archive Storage: 60 days Cold Archive Storage: 180 days If an object is deleted or converted to another storage class before its minimum storage duration ends, an early deletion fee applies for the remaining duration. Billing example For Infrequent Access (IA), if an object is deleted or overwritten after 20 days, you are billed for the storage fees of the remaining 10 days (720 hours minus the stored duration). This rule also applies to Archive Storage and Cold Archive Storage, which have different minimum storage durations.	Hourly Note The product pricing specifies the unit price for storage in `CNY/GB/month`. However, billable items are charged by the hour, and the calculation formula is `Actual resource usage × Hourly unit price`. Therefore, to calculate your actual storage fees, you must first convert the monthly unit price to an hourly unit price in `CNY/GB/hour`. For example, if the unit price for Standard Zone-Redundant Storage is `0.15 CNY/GB/month`, the hourly unit price is approximately `0.0002083333 CNY/GB/hour (0.15 ÷ 30 ÷ 24)`.
	Data request fees	You are charged for access and management operations on tables, such as requests made through API calls, SDKs, or the DLF management console. To access data from Cold Archive Storage, you must first restore it. This restoration also incurs request fees for data retrieval.	Charges are based on the request type and the number of requests.	Hourly
	Data retrieval fees	Includes fees for Infrequent Access (IA) retrieval, archive instant retrieval, and restoring data from Cold Archive Storage.	Charges are based on the retrieval type and the volume of data retrieved.	Hourly
	Temporary storage fees	When you restore an object from Cold Archive Storage, a temporary copy is created in Standard Storage (LRS) for you to access. You are charged for this temporary copy until it is automatically deleted when the restoration period ends.	Charges are based on the amount of data in temporary storage.	Hourly
table optimization and management	Compute unit (CU) fees	You are charged for the CUs consumed by DLF table optimization and management features. 1 CU = 1 vCPU + 4 GiB of memory. This includes operations such as compaction, snapshot and partition cleanup, orphan file cleanup, and bucket rebalancing.	Charges are based on your selected billing plan and actual CU consumption.	Subscription: Billed monthly. pay-as-you-go: Billed hourly.

Billing methods

Pay-as-you-go

By default, all billable items are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. This is a postpaid model where you are billed for your actual usage.

This model requires no upfront commitments and is ideal for workloads with fluctuating or unpredictable demand. It is also ideal for short-term projects with unpredictable resource needs.

Hybrid billing

You can also use a subscription for compute resources. When you purchase a subscription, your usage is first deducted from your plan's allowance. Any usage that exceeds this allowance is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

This approach optimizes spending by combining the cost savings of a subscription with the flexibility of pay-as-you-go, making it ideal for workloads with a stable baseline demand and occasional, unpredictable spikes.

Unit price

Important

Pricing varies by region, and final charges are based on your pay-as-you-go bill.

Lake table storage pricing

Note

The Infrequent Access, Archive, and Cold Archive storage classes have a minimum billable size. Files smaller than 64 KiB are billed as 64 KiB, while files 64 KiB or larger are billed at their actual size.

Storage capacity pricing

Storage information			Unit price
Region	Storage type	Storage redundancy type	Price (USD/GB/month)
China (Beijing) China (Shanghai) China (Hangzhou) China (Shenzhen) China (Ulanqab)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.02552
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.01903
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0155
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.012
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0051
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0051
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0022
China (Hong Kong)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0187
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.01173
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00935
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.002
Singapore	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0187
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.01173
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00935
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.002
Indonesia (Jakarta)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0187
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.01173
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00935
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.002
Japan (Tokyo)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0187
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.01173
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00935
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.002
Germany (Frankfurt)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0187
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.01148
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00918
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.0041
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0041
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0018
US (Silicon Valley)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0176
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	N/A
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00978
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	N/A
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0045
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.002
US (Virginia)	Standard	Zone-Redundant Storage	0.022
	Standard	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0176
	Infrequent Access	Zone-Redundant Storage	N/A
	Infrequent Access	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0085
	Archive	Zone-Redundant Storage	N/A
	Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.0036
	Cold Archive	Locally-Redundant Storage	0.00099

Data request fees

Storage details		Price
Region	Storage type	PUT requests Covers uploading, copying, and deleting table files.	GET requests For read operations on table files.	Retrieval requests For restoring data from Cold Archive.
China (Beijing) China (Shanghai) China (Hangzhou) China (Shenzhen) China (Ulanqab)	Standard	0.001563	0.001563	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.015	0.015	N/A
	Archive	0.016	0.016	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.016	0.016	0.5
China (Hong Kong)	Standard (Zone-redundant)	0.016	0.001	N/A
	Standard (Locally-redundant)	0.014	0.001	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
Singapore	Standard (Zone-redundant)	0.015629	0.001	N/A
	Standard (Locally-redundant)	0.014	0.001	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
Indonesia (Jakarta)	Standard	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.014	0.001	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
Japan (Tokyo)	Standard (Zone-redundant)	0.0157	0.0016	N/A
	Standard (Locally-redundant)	0.014	0.0014	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
Germany (Frankfurt)	Standard (Zone-redundant)	0.0157	0.0016	N/A
	Standard (Locally-redundant)	0.014	0.0014	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
US (Silicon Valley)	Standard	0.014	0.001	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5
US (Virginia)	Standard	0.014	0.001	N/A
	Infrequent Access	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Archive	0.05	0.01	N/A
	Cold Archive	0.05	0.01	0.5

Data retrieval fees

Storage details			Price
Region	Storage type	Retrieval type	Data retrieval fee (USD/GB)
China (Beijing) China (Shanghai) China (Hangzhou) China (Shenzhen) China (Ulanqab)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.005
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
China (Hong Kong)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.01
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
Singapore	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
Indonesia (Jakarta)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
Japan (Tokyo)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
Germany (Frankfurt)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
US (Silicon Valley)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01
US (Virginia)	Infrequent Access	infrequent access retrieval	0.0075
	Archive Storage	archive instant retrieval	0.03
	Cold Archive Storage	cold archive restore	0.01

Temporary storage pricing

Region	Price (USD/GB/month)
China (Beijing) China (Shanghai) China (Hangzhou) China (Shenzhen) China (Ulanqab)	0.0173


China (Hong Kong)	0.016
Singapore	0.016
Indonesia (Jakarta)	0.016
Japan (Tokyo)	0.016
Germany (Frankfurt)	0.016
US (Silicon Valley)	0.016
US (Virginia)	0.016

Compute resource pricing

Pay-as-you-go

Region	Unit price (USD/CU/hour)
China (Beijing)	0.06
China (Shanghai)	0.06
China (Hangzhou)	0.06
China (Shenzhen)	0.06
China (Ulanqab)	0.044
China (Hong Kong)	0.09
Germany (Frankfurt)	0.1
Indonesia (Jakarta)	0.08
Singapore	0.09
Japan (Tokyo)	0.1
US (Silicon Valley)	0.07
US (Virginia)	0.07

Subscription

Region	Unit price (USD/CU/month)
China (Beijing)	31.26
China (Shanghai)	31.26
China (Hangzhou)	31.26
China (Shenzhen)	31.26
China (Ulanqab)	21
China (Hong Kong)	47.55
Germany (Frankfurt)	48.4
Indonesia (Jakarta)	42.23
Singapore	45.94
Japan (Tokyo)	50.95
US (Silicon Valley)	37.35
US (Virginia)	35.96

Impact of overdue payments

If your payment is overdue for up to 72 hours, your managed metadata and storage in DLF are unaffected. However, you cannot perform the following actions:
- Create a new catalog.
- Create new databases or tables, or modify existing tables.
- Start a storage optimization task.
If your payment is more than 72 hours overdue, the system will further restrict your use of resources:
- The system will stop all running storage optimization tasks.
- The system will block calls to the metadata API.
If your payment is more than 360 hours overdue, the system will release and delete your resources:
- The system will clear all metadata (including databases, tables, and partitions) and data from your account, and delete your catalog.
- You will lose access to the console.

Important

You cannot recover data from a deleted catalog, so be sure to back up any important data in advance.

FAQ

Why am I still being charged when I am not actively using DLF?

Even if you are not actively reading or writing data with DLF, the following operations still incur charges:

Compute fees: System table compaction runs automatically, consuming CUs and incurring compute charges.
Storage fees: Data stored in lakehouse tables continues to occupy storage capacity and incurs storage fees.

To stop all charges, release your catalog. For more information, see Delete a catalog.