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ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ:Billing overview

Last Updated:Aug 28, 2026

ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ offers two product series: the Serverless series and the non-Serverless series (subscription and pay-as-you-go). Each series has distinct billing methods, billable items, and pricing rules. Select the series and billing method that best matches your use case and business scale.

Product series

Series

Sub-series

Billing method

Non-serverless

  • Standard Edition

  • Professional Edition

  • Platinum Edition

  • Subscription

  • Pay-as-you-go

Serverless

  • Shared

  • Dedicated

  • Pay-as-you-go

For more information, see Instance specification.

Billing methods

ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ supports the following billing methods, organized by product series.

Non-Serverless series

Billing method

Description

Best for

Supported editions

Subscription

You select a computing specification and pay upfront for a specific period (in months). Other resources are billed based on actual usage.

Stable workloads with predictable, high traffic volume.

Standard Edition, Professional Edition, Enterprise Platinum Edition

Pay-as-you-go

You select a computing specification and are billed hourly for the instance runtime. Other resources are billed based on actual usage.

Early-stage testing, short-term workloads such as marketing campaigns, or time-bound end-to-end stress tests. After testing, you can switch to subscription billing for long-term use. For more information, see Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription.

Standard Edition, Professional Edition, Enterprise Platinum Edition

Serverless series

Billing method

Description

Best for

Supported editions

Pay-as-you-go

All billable items are charged based on actual resource consumption. A bill is generated and settled after each one-hour billing cycle ends.

All traffic patterns:

  • Cumulative usage-based billing: Best for low-throughput scenarios, such as development environment instances.

  • Reserved capacity plus elastic billing: Best for elastic workloads with steady baseline traffic and occasional peaks.

Shared, Dedicated

Billable items for non-Serverless series instances

ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ non-Serverless series instances (subscription and pay-as-you-go) share the same billable items. The only difference is how the computing specification for messaging is charged:

  • Subscription instances: After you select a computing specification, you pay for the subscription duration (in months) in advance.

  • Pay-as-you-go instances: After you select a computing specification, you are billed for the instance runtime (in hours) on a postpaid basis. Billing starts immediately after the instance is created.

The following diagram shows the billable items for non-Serverless series instances.

image.svg

Billable items for Serverless series instances

The following diagram shows the billable items for ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ Serverless series instances. All items are charged based on actual resource consumption.

Billable items for serverless instances

Supported regions

Serverless series instances are currently available in select regions, with more regions to be supported over time. For the current list, see Supported regions for Serverless series.

Frequently asked questions

How much does ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ cost per month?

There is no fixed monthly fee. Your actual cost depends on the following factors:

  • Product series and edition: The Serverless series and non-Serverless series have different pricing structures. Within the non-Serverless series, Standard Edition, Professional Edition, and Enterprise Platinum Edition have different computing specification prices.

  • Instance specification: For non-Serverless series instances, the computing specification tier you select determines the base cost.

  • Billing method: Subscription (prepaid), pay-as-you-go (postpaid by hour), or Serverless (postpaid by usage).

  • Actual usage: The volume of messages produced and consumed, as well as the amount of data stored.

To estimate your costs based on billable items and pricing for your chosen series, see Billing of non-Serverless series (subscription and pay-as-you-go) instances and Billing of Serverless instances.

To choose the edition that best fits your workload and business requirements, see Select a suitable edition.

Why do charges appear for instances I cannot find in the console?

If your bill shows charges for ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ but no instances appear in the console, the instances may be in a different region. Check the billing details to identify the region, then switch to that region in the console to locate the instances. Also verify whether a different Alibaba Cloud account was used to create them.

How do I view a detailed breakdown of my spending?

To view a detailed breakdown of your ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ spending, log on to the Billing Management console, go to Bills >Bill Details, and filter by Cloud Message Queue MQ. You can review individual billable items such as API call counts, storage, network traffic, and reserved capacity to identify usage trends and understand your cost composition.

References