This topic provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the billing of Express Connect.

What are the changes made to the billable items of Express Connect?

The following changes are made to the billable items of Express Connect:

  • You are no longer charged the initial installation fee of USD 1,500. This reduces the costs of connecting data centers to Alibaba Cloud.
  • You can create more virtual border routers (VBRs) free of charge to meet the requirements of complex networking.
  • Data transfer from your data center to Alibaba Cloud is no longer billed. You are charged only for data transfer from Alibaba Cloud to your data center. This reduces the cost of data transfer when you use an Express Connect circuit to connect to Alibaba Cloud.

Can I request a refund for the initial installation fees that I have paid before July 1, 2021?

No, you cannot request a refund for the initial installation fees that you have paid before July 1, 2021.

Can I get a discount on outbound data transfer fees?

Alibaba Cloud provides 50 TB of outbound data transfer free of charge for each Alibaba Cloud account every month. After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can use 50 TB of outbound data transfer free of charge every month until the end of December 31, 2023. Starting from January 1, 2024, you will be charged for the outbound data transfer in your service.

Can Alibaba Cloud provide the usage details of 50 TB of outbound data transfer that is free of charge?

After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, Alibaba Cloud does not provide the usage details of outbound data transfer that is free of charge and automatically offsets the data transfer fees. To query the usage details of outbound data transfer, you can Log on to the Express Connect console. For more information, see Enable billing for outbound data transfer.

50 How are the fees for 50 TB of outbound data transfer offset?

For the outbound data transfer that is not consumed before January 1, 2023, the fees are offset by using data transfer plans. Starting from January 1, 2023, the system automatically offsets the fees of 50 TB of outbound data transfer every month.

Can I purchase data transfer plans to offset outbound data transfer fees?

No, you cannot purchase data transfer plans to offset outbound data transfer fees.

After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can use 50 TB of outbound data transfer free of charge each month until December 31, 2023. After the quota of 50 TB per month is reached, you are charged based on the amount of used outbound data transfer.

After Alibaba Cloud starts charging for outbound data transfer fees, how can I establish a hosted connection over an Express Connect circuit?

Express Connect partners create shared ports instead of VBRs for tenants to establish hosted connections.

Can I request a refund if the expiration date of the VBRs that I have renewed is later than July 1, 2021?

Yes, you can request a refund if the expiration date of the VBRs that you have renewed is later than July 1, 2021. However, you must enable outbound data transfer billing before you can request a refund. Then, you can Submit a ticket to Alibaba Cloud and request a refund for the VBR subscription from the date when you enabled outbound data transfer billing.

For example, you have prepaid subscription fees for using the VBRs till December 31, 2021 and enabled outbound data transfer billing on August 1, 2021. In this case, you can request a refund for the subscription from August 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

What shared Express Connect circuits can Express Connect partners purchase?

Express Connect partners can purchase the following shared Express Connect circuits: 50 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, 200 Mbit/s, 300 Mbit/s, 400 Mbit/s, 500 Mbit/s, 1 Gbit/s, 2 Gbit/s, 5 Gbit/s, 8 Gbit/s, and 10 Gbit/s.

How are tenants of existing hosted connections charged?

If the hosted connection of a tenant is created before September 1, 2021, the Express Connect partner will add a shared port to the hosted connection. The process does not interrupt your business.

Then, the VBR is associated with the shared port that belongs to the tenant account.