This topic describes the billable items, rules, and details regarding overdue payments and top-ups for the Express Connect Router (ECR) flow log service, which includes traffic collection service fees and Simple Log Service usage fees.
Billable items
Billable items for ECR flow logs include two parts, traffic collection service fee from Express Connect and the Simple Log Service usage fee.
Traffic collection service fee
The ECR flow log service currently only supports shipping generated flow logs to Simple Log Service for analysis, hence the traffic collection service fee pertains to delivery to Simple Log Service.
The traffic collection service fee is billed hourly and settled at the top of each hour (UTC+8). A new billing cycle starts after settlement. Usage less than one hour is rounded up to one hour.
Bills are generated approximately 3 to 4 hours after the billing cycle ends, with the issuance time determined by the system.
Billing for the traffic collection service fee is tiered based on the log usage in each region monthly, with separate billing for each region and no cross-region aggregation.
NoteEach Alibaba Cloud account has a monthly 5 GB exemption quota per region, which is time-limited. Stay updated with product announcements for the expiration date.
Refer to the table below for traffic collection service fee pricing.
Flow log generation volume (monthly) | Pricing (USD/GB) |
0 TB to 10 TB (including 10 TB) | 0.37 |
10 TB to 30 TB (including 30 TB) | 0.185 |
30 TB to 50 TB (including 50 TB) | 0.074 |
More than 50 TB | 0.037 |
Usage fee of Simple Log Service
Traffic data captured by a flow log is stored in Simple Log Service, where you can view and analyze the data. Usage of Simple Log Service incurs charges for data storage and retrieval. For more information, see Simple Log Service billing.
Billing examples
Example 1
If you activate the flow log feature in China (Shanghai) on December 1, 2024, and deliver 100 GB of logs to Simple Log Service by January 1, 2025:
Monthly traffic collection service fee = 100 × 0.37 = USD 37. Total monthly flow log fee = USD 37 + Simple Log Service usage fee
Example 2
If you activate the flow log feature in China (Beijing) on December 1, 2024, and deliver 60 TB of logs to Log Service by January 1, 2025:
The traffic collection service fee is tiered:
0 to 10 TB: 10 × 1,024 × 0.37 = USD 3,788.8
10 TB to 30 TB: 20 × 1,024 × 0.185 = USD 3,788.8
30 TB to 50 TB: 20 × 1,024 × 0.074 = USD 1,515.52
50 TB to 60 TB: 10 × 1,024 × 0.037 = USD 378.88
Total monthly traffic collection service fee: USD 9,472. Total monthly flow log fee = USD 9,472 + Simple Log Service usage fee
Overdue payments and top-ups
Overdue payments
The ECR flow log service will pause traffic collection when the payment is overdue. The service will automatically resume when you settle the bills.
The ECR flow log instance will continue to operate normally for 15 days after a payment becomes overdue.
If the overdue payment reaches 15 days without settlement, the ECR flow log instance will pause, and you will be unable to perform any operations on it.
Renewal policy
If you top up within 15 days of an overdue payment, your service continues without interruption.
Topping up within 30 days of an overdue payment will result in the system immediately settling the unpaid bill. Once the payment is successful, the ECR flow log instance will automatically recover, with no need to restart the flow log.
WarningIf the instance remains paused for 15 days without payment, it will be automatically deleted. An email notification will be sent one day before deletion. After deletion, all related configurations and data will be permanently lost.