Data Transfer Plan:FAQ

Can I increase the purchase quota for Data Transfer Plans?

No.

Each account can hold up to 200 Data Transfer Plans that have not expired, and this quota cannot be increased. Consider your business needs and then choose appropriate plan sizes.

Do I need to configure a Data Transfer Plan after I purchase it?

No.

After purchase, the plan automatically deducts data transfer fees for multiple pay-by-data-transfer cloud services. For details about supported services, see Supported services and data transfer types.

Does using a Data Transfer Plan affect the peak bandwidth of cloud services?

The Data Transfer Plan is a resource plan that does not affect cloud service peak bandwidth.

Will my services be affected or my website go down if my Data Transfer Plan expires?

No. When a Data Transfer Plan expires, your cloud service's public network services continue to operate normally — your website will not go down.

However, note the following:

• Unused capacity is cleared upon expiration — Any remaining data transfer capacity in the expired plan is forfeited and cannot be refunded or transferred.

• Automatic switch to pay-as-you-go — After the plan expires, any subsequent data transfer fees are automatically billed on a pay-as-you-go basis according to actual usage.

• Auto-switch to other active plans — If your account has multiple Data Transfer Plans and one expires, data transfer deduction automatically switches to any remaining active plans. Your services are not affected.

Does the Data Transfer Plan support expiration reminders?

Yes.

The system sends you an email reminder 7 days (168 hours), 3 days (72 hours), and 1 day (24 hours) before your Data Transfer Plan expires.

Are Data Transfer Plans used on a first-in, first-out basis?

No.

Can a Data Transfer Plan deduct data transfer from cloud services in regions not listed on the purchase page?

No, it cannot.

If a region is not listed on the purchase page, the plan cannot deduct data transfer generated by cloud service instances in that region.

Can a Data Transfer Plan deduct data transfer from pay-by-bandwidth cloud service instances?

No, it cannot.

A Data Transfer Plan can only deduct data transfer fees generated by pay-by-data-transfer ECS instances, EIPs, CLB instances, Internet Shared Bandwidth instances, and IPv6 gateways.

Can I export the deduction details of a Data Transfer Plan?

Yes, you can.

You can export the deduction details of a Data Transfer Plan from the Billing Account > Resource Plans page in the Expenses and Costs console. For information about bills and usage, see Bills and usage.

How is the usage of a Data Transfer Plan calculated?

A Data Transfer Plan automatically offsets data transfer fees from pay-by-data-transfer cloud services until depleted or expired. Usage equals the actual data transfer generated by the supported cloud services. For example, a pay-by-data-transfer ECS instance is charged only for outbound data transfer to the internet, so the Data Transfer Plan deducts that outbound data transfer.

Can I still use a Data Transfer Plan after upgrading to CDT billing?

Yes.

After ECS, EIP, CLB, Internet Shared Bandwidth, or IPv6 Gateway is upgraded to Cloud Data Transfer (CDT) billing, Data Transfer Plans can offset its data transfer to the internet. Note that Data Transfer Plans offset only the first billing tier of CDT internet data transfer (0 to 10 TB). Internet data transfer beyond the first tier is billed by CDT on a pay-by-data-transfer basis or offset by CDT resource plans.

Why am I still being charged or have overdue payments after purchasing a Data Transfer Plan?

• Possible cause 1: The cloud service that generated the data transfer is not supported by Data Transfer Plan.

  A Data Transfer Plan only offsets fees from supported services such as pay-by-data-transfer ECS, EIP, CLB, and Internet Shared Bandwidth. For more information, see Supported services and data transfer types.

• Possible cause 2: The Data Transfer Plan you purchased does not cover the region of your cloud service.

  Each Data Transfer Plan covers specific regions. A plan only offsets data transfer from supported services within its covered regions. For example, a Chinese mainland plan cannot offset data transfer in regions covered by the Outside the Chinese mainland plan. For more information, see Areas.

• Possible cause 3: There is a delay in bill generation.

  A Data Transfer Plan takes effect immediately after purchase, but Alibaba Cloud bills for pay-by-data-transfer services have approximately a one-hour delay. For example, if you purchase a Data Transfer Plan at 17:10:00 on December 1, 2022, a bill viewed at 17:30:00 may still show charges for the 16:00:00 to 17:00:00 period. Any data transfer fees generated after 17:00:00 have not yet been billed. Check the billing period timestamp to confirm.

• Possible cause 4: The resource plan has expired or its remaining capacity is 0.

  After a Data Transfer Plan expires or its remaining capacity is depleted, it can no longer offset data transfer fees. The system automatically switches to pay-as-you-go billing method, generating charges.

  To check the expiration date, remaining quota, and status of your resource plans, go to the Expenses and Costs console - Resource Plans page. If the plan has expired or its remaining quota is 0, purchase a new Data Transfer Plan.

  We recommend that you configure a quota alert so that you can renew the plan in time before it expires or runs low. Alternatively, you can set up auto-renewal for an existing plan so that the system automatically purchases a new, identical plan when the current one is about to expire or run out. For more information, see Set a quota alert for a data transfer plan and Set auto-renewal for a Data Transfer Plan.

After a Data Transfer Plan deducts ECS data transfer, are the deduction records shown in the ECS instance data transfer details?

No. After a Data Transfer Plan deducts ECS data transfer, the deduction records are not shown in the ECS instance data transfer details. To view deduction records, go to the Resource Plans page in the Expenses and Costs console:

1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Billing Account > Resource Plans.

3. Click the Details tab and view the deduction details of your Data Transfer Plan, including the deduction time, deduction amount, deducted resource instance ID, deducted billable item, and other details for each deduction record.

How do I check which IPs are consuming my Data Transfer Plan?

Data Transfer Plan does not support viewing which specific IP addresses consumed the data transfer capacity. To get this information, try the following steps: Log on to the Expense and Costs console, go to the Resource Plans page > Details tab, and filter for your Data Transfer Plan to view its overall usage details. Once you have identified instances that consumed the plan, use the monitoring feature of the corresponding cloud service or the traffic analyzer in Alibaba Cloud Network Intelligence Service (NIS) to analyze the specific IPs that generated the data transfer. For detailed steps, see Data transfer surge troubleshooting guide.

Data transfer surge troubleshooting guide

When the usage of your Data Transfer Plan increases sharply over a short period, use the following steps to identify the data transfer source and block abnormal access.

1. Check the usage details to confirm the time scope and source of the surge

   Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Resource Plans page > Details tab, filter the records for the affected date to confirm the time window of the surge and the deduction sources (ECS, EIP, or CLB).

   Note

   The Details tab show only the hourly total data transfer consumption and the deduction sources (such as ECS, EIP, and CLB). They do not show which specific IP address, user, or webpage generated the data transfer.

2. Check ECS server logs to identify suspicious IPs

   Log on to the affected ECS server and review system logs or service access logs to identify suspicious IP addresses based on the time window of the data transfer surge.

3. Use NIS for traffic tracing analysis (optional)

   Log on to the NIS console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Traffic Analyzer. Click Activate Now, and use the feature to locate the source IP addresses with the highest traffic in a specified time range.

4. Windows users can use the TCPView tool (optional)

   Windows users can use TCPView, a free official tool from Microsoft, to view the network connections of each process on the system in real time, which helps identify the processes and destination IP addresses that generate large amounts of data transfer.

5. Block the suspicious IP addresses by using ECS security group rules

   After you confirm the suspicious IP addresses, add an inbound deny rule to the ECS security group:

   1. Log on to the ECS console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Network & Security > Security Groups.

   2. Find the target security group and click Manage Rules.

   3. On the Inbound tab, click Add Rule.

   4. Set Action to Deny, and set Source to the suspicious IP addresses. CIDR format is supported, for example, 192.168.1.1/32.

   5. Set other mandatory parameters and click Submit. The rule takes effect immediately.