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    Elastic Compute Service:Benefits of File Backup Essential Edition

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    Elastic Compute Service:Benefits of File Backup Essential Edition

    Last Updated:May 15, 2026

    Back up and recover files on ECS instances, billed by total block storage capacity with a 100 GiB free quota per account.

    Benefits

    • Free quota: 100 GiB of block storage backup capacity

    • Scope: An Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users share the free quota across all regions

    • Auto-applied: No manual activation required

    Free quota deduction

    The free quota offsets usage charges in chronological order.

    Overage billing

    Usage beyond the free quota incurs charges based on the following formula.

    Billing formula

    image

    Parameter

    Description

    Total backed-up block storage capacity

    The daily bill uses the total block storage capacity of the ECS instance after the day's final backup completes (before 24:00).

    Free quota

    Each Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users share a 100 GiB free quota across all regions. The quota is auto-applied during billing.

    Daily unit price

    Charges accrue daily from the day your first backup completes. The price is consistent across all regions. For specific pricing, see the Pricing page.

    Billing example

    You schedule daily file backups at 05:00. The first backup runs on September 1, 2025. The ECS instance has one 40 GiB system disk and one 20 GiB data disk. At 09:00 on September 2, 2025, you add a 70 GiB data disk. The unit price is 0.005630 USD/GiB/month.

    Prices shown are for example only. See the Pricing page for actual prices.

    Backup date

    Cost calculation

    September 1, 2025

    • Before 24:00, the total backed-up block storage capacity is 60 GiB.

    • Usage is within the 100 GiB free quota. Cost: 0 USD.

    September 2, 2025

    • Before 24:00, the total backed-up block storage capacity is 60 GiB.

    • Usage is within the 100 GiB free quota. Cost: 0 USD.

    September 3, 2025

    • Before 24:00, the total backed-up block storage capacity is 130 GiB.

    • Usage exceeds the free quota by 30 GiB. Overage cost: (0.005630 / 30) * 30 = 0.005630 USD.

    FAQ

    • How to view your free quota

      Go to the ECS console - File Backup page and check your free quota in the All Regions view.

      image

    • How to stop billing

      To stop charges for an ECS instance, cancel its backup. This deletes all backup points for that instance.

      A backup point is a file backup of a partition, such as the C: or D: drive in Windows or the / directory in Linux. Backup points cannot be deleted manually and are retained for 30 days.

      1. Log on to the ECS console - File Backup page. Select the region of your target instance.

      2. Find the target instance and click Cancel Backup in the Actions column. In the dialog box, click OK.

        Important

        All backup points for the instance are deleted and cannot be recovered. Proceed with caution.

    • How to query detailed bills

      View bills and usage data for File Backup Essential Edition in the Expenses and Costs center.

      1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.

      2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Bill > Expense Details.

      3. Select the appropriate tab, set Product Name to Cloud Backup, and view usage details for ECS File Backup Essential Edition.

    References

    To activate and configure file backup, see Configure automatic file backup and recovery for an ECS instance.