File Backup Essential Edition backs up files on Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances. Billing is based on the total block storage capacity attached to backed-up ECS instances. Each account gets a permanent free quota of 100 GiB — no minimum fee and no setup charge.
You are only charged when your total backed-up block storage capacity exceeds 100 GiB.
Benefits
Free quota: 100 GiB of block storage backup capacity per account, permanently offered.
Shared across regions: The free quota is shared by an Alibaba Cloud account and its Resource Access Management (RAM) users across all regions.
Automatically applied: The free quota is applied automatically when you use ECS File Backup Essential Edition. No manual action is required.
Deduction rule
The free quota is applied to your usage details in the order they are generated. The specific deduction order may vary.
Billing after the free quota is exceeded
Billing starts on the day the first backup completes. After the free quota is used up, charges are calculated daily. To stop billing, cancel the backup plan for the ECS instance — see How do I stop billing?
Billing formula
| Formula parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Total backed-up block storage capacity | Each day, your bill is calculated based on the total capacity of all block storage attached to the ECS instance. This capacity is measured at the time of the last successful backup completed before midnight (24:00). Billed storage types include cloud disks, local disks, and elastic ephemeral disks. |
| Free quota | An Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users share a free quota of 100 GiB across all regions. The quota is automatically applied during billing. No manual action is needed. |
| Daily unit price | Billing is calculated daily, and usage details are generated daily. The price is the same across all regions. For detailed pricing, see Pricing. |
Billing example
Suppose you back up files daily at 05:00, with the first backup on September 1, 2025. The ECS instance has one 40 GiB system disk and one 20 GiB data disk. On September 2, 2025 at 09:00, you add a 70 GiB data disk. The unit price is 0.005630 USD/GiB/month.
The price in this example is for reference only. For the actual price, see the Pricing page.
| Backup date | Backed-up capacity | Chargeable capacity | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 1, 2025 | 40 + 20 = 60 GiB | 0 GiB (within free quota) | 0 USD |
| September 2, 2025 | 60 GiB (the 70 GiB disk added at 09:00 falls after the 05:00 backup window) | 0 GiB (within free quota) | 0 USD |
| September 3, 2025 | 40 + 20 + 70 = 130 GiB | 130 - 100 = 30 GiB | 0.005630/30 × 30 = 0.005630 USD |
FAQ
How do I view my free quota?
Go to ECS console - File Backup and view your free quota usage in the All Regions view.
How do I stop billing?
Cancel the backup plan for the ECS instance. Canceling the plan deletes all associated backup points.
All backup points for the instance will be deleted and cannot be recovered. Proceed with caution.
A backup point is a file backup for a partition — for example, the C: or D: drive in Windows, or the / directory in Linux. Backup points cannot be deleted manually and are retained for 30 days by default.
Go to ECS console - File Backup. At the top of the page, select the region of the target instance.
Find the target instance. In the Actions column, click Cancel Backup, then click OK in the confirmation dialog box.
How do I query detailed bills?
View the bills and usage details for ECS File Backup Essential Edition in the Expenses and Costs center.
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
In the left-side navigation pane, go to the bills section.
Set the Product filter to Cloud Backup and view the billable item named ECS File Backup Essential Edition.
What's next
To activate and configure ECS File Backup, see File backup and recovery.