General questions
Data transfer plan deduction FAQ
Can I increase the purchase quota for data transfer plans?
No.
Each account can hold up to 200 active data transfer plans. This quota is fixed.
Do I need to configure a Data Transfer Plan after I purchase it?
No.
After purchase, the plan automatically deducts data transfer fees from pay-by-data-transfer cloud products. Supported products and traffic types.
Does using a data transfer plan affect the peak bandwidth of cloud products?
The data transfer plan is a resource plan that does not affect cloud product peak bandwidth.
Does the Data Transfer Plan support expiration reminders?
Yes.
The system will send you an email reminder 7 days (168 hours), 3 days (72 hours), and 24 hours (1 day) before your general data transfer plan expires.
If your account has multiple Data Transfer Plans and one of them is about to expire, the system will still send an expiration reminder for that specific plan — even if you have other active plans. This is expected behavior. After confirming that at least one active plan is valid, you can safely ignore the reminder for the expiring plan.
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 product's public network services continue to operate normally — your website will not go down.
However, note the following:
Unused traffic is forfeited — Any remaining traffic 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, traffic deduction automatically switches to any remaining active plans. Your services are not affected.
Are data transfer plans used on a first-in, first-out basis?
No.
Data Transfer Plans are deducted by expiration date — the earliest-expiring plan is used first. For example, if you have two plans expiring on June 1, 2023 and February 1, 2023, the February 1, 2023 plan is deducted first.
If two data transfer plans share the same expiration date, the plan purchased first is used first.
Can a Data Transfer Plan deduct traffic from cloud products in regions not listed on the purchase page?
No, it cannot.
A data transfer plan only covers regions listed on its purchase page.
Can a Data Transfer Plan deduct traffic from pay-by-bandwidth cloud products?
No, it cannot.
General-purpose data transfer plans only offset fees from pay-by-data-transfer products such as ECS, EIP, SLB, and Internet Shared Bandwidth.
Can I export the deduction details of a Data Transfer Plan?
Yes, you can.
Export usage details from the Resource Plans page in Expenses and Costs. For information about bills and usage, see Query bills and resource usage.
After a Data Transfer Plan deducts traffic, are the deduction records shown in the ECS instance traffic details?
No. After a Data Transfer Plan deducts traffic, the deduction records are not shown in the ECS instance traffic details. To view deduction records, go to the Resource Plans page in the Expenses and Costs console:
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Billing Account > Resource Plans.
Click the Details tab to view the deduction details of your Data Transfer Plan.
On the Details page, you can view the deduction time, deduction amount, deducted resource instance ID, deducted billable item, and other details for each deduction record.
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 products until depleted or expired. Usage equals the actual traffic generated. For example, a pay-by-data-transfer ECS instance is charged only for outbound traffic, so the Data Transfer Plan deducts that outbound traffic.
Why am I still being charged or have overdue payments after purchasing a Data Transfer Plan?
After you purchase a Data Transfer Plan, charges may still appear. When your cloud products use CDT (Cloud Data Transfer) billing, the following offset order determines how charges are applied:
CDT free quota is applied first — CDT public network traffic includes a monthly free quota of 220 GB — 20 GB/month for Chinese mainland regions and 200 GB/month for regions outside the Chinese mainland. Free-quota usage appears in bills at a unit price of 0.
Data Transfer Plans only offset the first CDT billing tier — After the free quota is exhausted, CDT bills traffic cumulatively in tiers starting from 0. A Data Transfer Plan can only offset traffic in the first tier (0–10 TB). It offsets pay-by-data-transfer ECS, elastic IP addresses (EIPs), CLB, and pay-by-primary-traffic Internet Shared Bandwidth. It does not offset Function Compute public network traffic.
CDT resource plans offset Function Compute traffic — A CDT resource plan (cdt_Freetierbag_dp_cn) can offset outbound public network traffic from Function Compute instances.
Possible reason 1: The cloud product that generated the data transfer fees is not supported by the Data Transfer Plan
A Data Transfer Plan only offsets fees from supported pay-by-data-transfer products such as ECS, EIP, SLB, and Internet Shared Bandwidth. For more information, see Supported products and traffic types.
Possible cause 2: The data transfer plan you purchased does not cover the region of your cloud product.
Each data transfer plan covers specific regions. A plan only offsets traffic from supported products within its covered regions. For example, a Chinese mainland plan cannot offset traffic in regions covered by the Outside Chinese mainland plan. For more information, see Areas.
Possible reason 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 products 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 reason 4: The resource plan has expired or its remaining quota is 0
After a Data Transfer Plan expires or its remaining quota is depleted, it can no longer offset data transfer fees. The system automatically switches to pay-as-you-go billing method, generating daily charges.
To check the expiration date, remaining quota, and status of your resource plans, go to the Resource Plans page in the Expenses and Costs console. If the plan has expired or its remaining quota is 0, purchase a new Data Transfer Plan.
We recommend that you set a quota alert so that you can renew or replenish your resource plan before it expires or runs out. For more information, see Set a quota alert for a data transfer plan.
Possible reason 5: Billing delay after unsubscribing an old plan and purchasing a new one
After you purchase a new Data Transfer Plan and unsubscribe from an old one, you may still see ECS outbound data transfer charges or overdue payment notices. This can happen for either of the following reasons:
There is a billing switchover window between when the new plan takes effect and when the old plan is fully unsubscribed.
A system billing delay causes charges incurred before the plan switch to appear temporarily as overdue.
To resolve this, first verify that the new Data Transfer Plan is active. Then check your bill details and confirm that the charge timestamps fall within the period before the new plan took effect. If the charges match that period, they are expected and not the result of a configuration error.
How do I check which IPs are consuming my Data Transfer Plan?
The Data Transfer Plan console does not support viewing traffic consumption broken down by individual IP address.
To view overall usage details, log in to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Resource Plans page, click the Details tab, then filter by your Data Transfer Plan to view its overall usage.
For IP-level traffic analysis, use one of the following methods:
ECS Resource Monitor — On your ECS server, use the built-in resource monitor to inspect current network connections and filter business logs to identify traffic sources.
Network Intelligence Service (NIS) — Use the traffic analysis feature of Alibaba Cloud Network Intelligence Service (NIS) for in-depth monitoring and IP-level traffic attribution.
Traffic surge troubleshooting guide
When your Data Transfer Plan usage shows an unexpected surge, use the following steps to identify the traffic source and take corrective action.
The Data Transfer Plan console's Details shows only hourly aggregated traffic consumption and deduction sources (such as ECS, EIP, and SLB). It does not display IP-level, user-level, or webpage-level traffic details. Alibaba Cloud does not monitor traffic sources or destinations by default.
Check usage details to confirm the traffic surge
Log in to Expenses and Costs, navigate to Resource Plans > Details, and filter by your Data Transfer Plan to confirm the time period and affected deduction sources (ECS, EIP, or SLB).
Check ECS server logs to identify abnormal IPs
Log in to the affected ECS server and review system logs or business access logs to identify abnormal IP addresses and the time window corresponding to the traffic surge.
Block abnormal IPs using ECS security group rules
Log in to the ECS console. Find the security group for the affected instance and click Manage Rules. On the Inbound tab, click Add Rule, set the source IP to the abnormal address, and set Action to Deny. Click OK to save the rule.
Use Network Intelligence Service (NIS) for traffic analysis (optional)
NIS supports real-time traffic analysis and historical traffic tracing, enabling you to pinpoint the source of abnormal traffic. NIS is currently in public preview and is free of charge during the preview period.
Activate NIS in the console and use the traffic analysis feature to trace historical traffic and locate the source of the surge.
Use TCPView on Windows (optional)
On Windows systems, you can use the free TCPView tool to view current network connections and identify IP addresses generating abnormal traffic.