CLB billing overview, pricing, fees - Server Load Balancer

Note

Adjustments are made to the billable items of CLB. Beginning 00:00:00 (UTC+8), December 1, 2024, the following new billable items are used by pay-as-you-go CLB instances:
- Instance fee is renamed public IP retention fee.
- A billable item instance fee is added.
For more information, see CLB billing adjustments.
The sale of pay-by-specification CLB instances has been discontinued since 00:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 1, 2025. For details, see End of sale for pay-by-specification CLB instances.

Metering methods

Pay-as-you-go CLB instances support two instance metering methods: pay-by-LCU and pay-by-specification (sale discontinued).
Internet data transfer metering methods: pay-by-bandwidth and pay-by-data-transfer.

Billing method	Instance metering method	Instance network type	Internet data transfer metering method	Use cases
Pay-as-you-go	Pay-by-LCU	Internet-facing	Pay-by-data-transfer	Workloads with periodic or large fluctuations, like gaming and video streaming. Temporary traffic spikes.
		Internal	N/A
	Pay-by-specification (sale discontinued)	Internet-facing	Pay-by-data-transfer	Stable traffic volume. Temporary traffic spikes.
			Pay-by-bandwidth
		Internal	N/A

Billable items

Billable items for a pay-as-you-go CLB instance:

Billable items

Billable items for pay-as-you-go CLB instances. Applicable items depend on network type and metering method.

Billable item	Description	Applies to
Public IP retention fee	Configuration fee for a public IP address, charged regardless of usage.	Internet-facing instances only
Instance fee	Fee charged for ownership over unreleased CLB instances.	All instances
LCU fee	Hourly fee based on actual Load Balancer Capacity Unit (LCU) consumption.	Pay-by-LCU instances only
Specification fee	Charged at a fixed rate regardless of your actual usage.	Pay-by-specification instances only
Internet data transfer fees	Fee for outbound Internet data transfers based on actual usage. Inbound Internet data transfers are free.	Only Internet-facing instances using the pay-by-data-transfer Internet data transfer metering method
Bandwidth fee	Fixed rate based on maximum bandwidth, regardless of actual usage.	Only Internet-facing instances using the pay-by-bandwidth Internet data transfer metering method

Important

Internal pay-as-you-go CLB instances do not incur public IP retention fees, Internet data transfer fees, or bandwidth fees. If you associate a separately purchased Elastic IP Address (EIP), fees are charged by EIP, not CLB.
Intra-region traffic between CLB and backend ECS instances incurs no data transfer fees.

Billing cycles

Billing cycles for CLB:

Billing cycle

Fee deduction time and bill generation time

Billable item

Hourly

Charged hourly. Bills generate approximately 1 hour after each cycle. Exact timing is system-determined.

Pay-as-you-go CLB billable items:

Instance fee
LCU fee
Specification fee (pay-by-specification instances - sale discontinued)
Data transfer fee
Public IP retention fee

For more information, see Pay-as-you-go billing for CLB.

Daily

Charged daily. Bills typically generate the following morning. Exact timing is system-determined.

Bandwidth fees (pay-as-you-go)

For more information, see Pay-as-you-go billing for CLB.

Pricing

For more information about the pricing of each CLB billable item, see Pay-as-you-go billing for CLB. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.

You can use the LCU calculator to estimate LCU consumption for a CLB instance.

References

Billing method: Pay-as-you-go billing for CLB

Specification changes: Modify pay-as-you-go instances

FAQ: CLB Billing FAQ

Learn more

Overdue payments

Payment status

Resource status

Solution

Overdue

Overdue payments affect all pay-as-you-go instances in your account.

After a payment becomes overdue, CLB instances continue running for 15 days before suspension.

Billing stops upon suspension.
If you top up your account and complete the overdue payment within 15 days after a CLB instance is suspended, the CLB service is automatically reactivated and you can continue to use the CLB instance.

After you top up the account balance, your service is resumed.

If the overdue payment remains unsettled 15 days after CLB instance suspension, the instance is released. You are notified one day before release. All configurations and data are permanently deleted.

Configuration and data cannot be recovered.

View amount due

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
On the Billing Account page, view overdue payments.

Expired instances

CLB instances that have overdue payments are moved to the Expired Instances list.

Background information

CLB instances continue running for 15 days after a payment becomes overdue.
After 15 days, the instance is suspended and moved to the Expired Instances list.
If you top up your account and complete the overdue payment within 15 days of suspension, the CLB instance is removed from the Expired Instances page and listed on the Instances page.
If the payment remains unsettled 15 days after suspension, the instance is released.

Renew an expired CLB instance

Log on to the CLB console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Expired Instances.
View the details of CLB instances that have overdue payments.
Find the target CLB instance and click Renew in the Actions column. The renewed instance moves from the Expired Instances page to the Instances page.

View resource usage

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Billing > Bill Details.
On the Bill Details page, click View Usage Details in the upper-right corner. Set Commodity Name to CLB (Pay-As-You-Go) International Site, set the mandatory Billable Item to Classic Load Balancer, specify a Time Period and Time Unit, then click Export CSV.

The downloaded file shows resource usage by instance ID, region, or IP address.

Query billing and spending details

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bill Details page.
On the Bill Details page, set the filter conditions to view the required information. For more information, see Bill details.