Outbound data transfer refers to data transfer that flows from Alibaba Cloud networks to the ports or virtual border routers (VBRs) that are associated with your data center. This topic describes the billing rules for outbound data transfer.
Overview
Item | Rule |
Billing cycle and bill generation time | If you use the service for less than 1 hour, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour. In most cases, bills are generated within 1 hour after a billing cycle ends. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system. |
Billable item and billing formula | You are charged for outbound data transfer in all regions within your Alibaba Cloud account. The outbound data transfer fee for a region is calculated by using the following formula:
|
Deduction rule for outbound data transfer fees | If you deploy Express Connect circuits in multiple regions within an Alibaba Cloud account, the region in which you create connections over Express Connect circuits first is prioritized when the outbound data transfer fee is deducted. |
Description
In addition to the billing for outbound data transfer, the following changes are made to the billing for Express Connect:
You are no longer charged an initial installation fee of USD 1,500 for an Express Connect circuit. This reduces the costs of connecting data centers to Alibaba Cloud.
You can create additional VBRs free of charge to meet the requirements of complex networking.
You are not charged for data transfer from your data centers to Alibaba Cloud. You are charged only for data transfer from Alibaba Cloud to your data centers. This reduces the cost of data transfer when you use an Express Connect circuit to connect to Alibaba Cloud.
Alibaba Cloud provides an outbound data transfer quota for each Alibaba Cloud account. After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can use 50 TB of outbound data transfer free of charge each month until the end of December 31, 2023. Starting January 1, 2024, you are charged for all of the outbound data transfer in your service based on the billing rules. For more information, see Outbound data transfer fees.
Unit price of outbound data transfer
The unit price of outbound data transfer varies based on the region. The following table describes the prices.
The prices are provided for reference only. You can view the actual unit price in your bills.
Area | Region | Unit price (USD/GB) |
Chinese mainland | China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Nanjing - Local Region), China (Wuhan-Local Region), China (Xi'an-Local Region), and China (Fuzhou - Local Region) | 0.0125 |
Asia Pacific | China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.0390 |
Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.0780 | |
Australia (Sydney) | 0.0399 | |
India (Mumbai) | 0.0428 | |
Europe and Americas | US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), and UK (London) | 0.0190 |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai) | 0.0855 |
Enable billing for outbound data transfer
Before you enable billing for outbound data transfer, make sure that your Alibaba Cloud account completes real-name registration. For more information about real-name registration, see Real-name registration FAQs.
If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, make sure that you are granted the
AliyunExpressConnectFullAccesspermission or thevpc:OpenPhysicalConnectionServicepermission.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region and click Physical Connection in the left-side navigation pane.
In the Enable Outbound Data Transfer Billing section, click Enable Now.
On the page that appears, read and agree to Terms of Service and click Activate.
Example of billing for outbound data transfer
You have two data centers. One is located in Beijing and the other is located in Virginia. You want to use an Express Connect circuit to connect the data center in Beijing to an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance in a virtual private cloud (VPC) that is deployed in the China (Beijing) region. You also want to connect the data center in Virginia to an ECS instance in a VPC that is deployed in the US (Virginia) region. After you use the same Alibaba Cloud account to establish connections over Express Connect circuits in the preceding regions, data is transmitted from Alibaba Cloud to the data centers. 100 TB of outbound data is transferred in the China (Beijing) region and 80 TB of outbound data is transferred in the US (Virginia) region per month.
Before the free quota of outbound data transfer expires, the outbound data transfer fee that you must pay each month is calculated by using the following formulas:
China (Beijing): USD 0.0125/GB × (100 - 50) × 1,024 GB = USD 640
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190/GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total fee = USD 640 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,196.48
After the free quota of outbound data transfer expires, the outbound data transfer fee that you must pay each month is calculated by using the following formulas:
China (Beijing): USD 0.0125/GB × 100 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,280
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190/GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total fee = USD 1,280 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,836.48
What to do next
View the details of outbound data transfer
You can view the details of the outbound data transfer of an Express Connect circuit in the Express Connect console.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Physical Connection.
On the Physical Connection page, find the Express Connect circuit and click the
icon in the Metering column. By default, the system displays the monitoring data of the previous day. You can set the time granularity to Daily or Hourly and select a predefined time period or specify a time period.
Predefined time periods:
To query monitoring data by day, select 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, or 30 days.
To query monitoring data by hour, select 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.
Custom time period: If you set the time granularity to Hourly, you can specify a time period in the previous 24 hours. If you set the time granularity to Daily, you can specify a time period in the previous 30 days.
Apply for a quota increase for VBRs
After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can create up to 10 VBRs for each Express Connect circuit within an Alibaba Cloud account free of charge. You can apply for a quota increase for your account based on your business requirements.
For more information about the quota for VBRs, see Limits.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Physical Connection.
In the Increase VBR Quota for Current Account section, click Upgrade Now.
In the Request Quota Increase dialog box, select a quota, configure the Requested Quota, Reason, Mobile/Landline, and Email, and then click OK.
References
OpenPhysicalConnectionService: enables billing for outbound data transfer.
GetPhysicalConnectionServiceStatus: checks whether billing for outbound data transfer is enabled for the current account.