Outbound data transfer is traffic that flows from Alibaba Cloud to the ports or virtual border routers (VBRs) associated with your data center. This topic describes the billing rules for outbound data transfer fees. It also explains how to view the outbound traffic on each VBR to implement traffic splitting when business departments share an Express Connect circuit.
Billing overview
Item | Rule |
Billing cycle and bill generation | Partial hours are rounded up as a full hour. Bills are typically generated within one hour after a billing cycle ends. The actual generation time depends on the system. |
Billable items and formulas | The total outbound data transfer fee is the sum of the outbound data transfer fees from all regions under your Alibaba Cloud account. The fee for the outbound data transfer fee of a region is:
|
Discount and deduction rules for outbound data transfer fees | If you have Express Connect circuit resources in multiple regions under one Alibaba Cloud account, the free quota for outbound data transfer is applied to the region where the service is first used. |
Billing details
With the launch of the outbound data transfer fee feature, the billing for Express Connect is adjusted as follows:
The one-time USD 1,500 setup fee for a port is waivered, lowering the barrier to migrating your business to the cloud.
The free quota for VBRs has been increased to meet your needs in more complex networking.
Inbound data transfer is unlimited and free of charge. You are charged only for the outbound data transfer that you use, reducing your data transfer costs for cloud connections.
After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, each Alibaba Cloud account is eligible for a promotional free quota of 50 TB for outbound data transfer per month. This offer is valid until December 31, 2025. Starting from January 1, 2026, the free quota for outbound data transfer will no longer be available, and it will be charged based on standard billing rules.
Unit prices for outbound data transfer
The unit price for outbound data transfer varies by region. Details are shown in the table below.
Note that the prices in the following table are for reference only. The actual prices on your bill prevail.
Area where outbound traffic is generated | Rregions | 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), China (Fuzhou - Local Region) | 0.0130 |
Asia-Pacific | China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.0390 |
Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.0780 | |
Europe and Americas | US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London) | 0.0190 |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai), SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.0860 |
Enable billing for outbound data transfer
Before you enable billing for outbound data transfer, make sure that your account has completed identity verification. For more about how to complete identity verification, see FAQ about identity verification.
If you use a RAM user, make sure that the RAM user has the
AliyunExpressConnectFullAccessorvpc:OpenPhysicalConnectionServicepermission.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top menu bar, select the target region. Then, in the navigation pane on the left, click Physical Connection.
In the Enable Outbound Data Transfer Billing section, click Enable Now.
On the activation page, read and select the terms of service, and then click Enable Now.
Example of outbound data transfer fees
For example, you have a data center in the China (Beijing) region and another in the US (Virginia) region. You plan to use Express Connect circuits to connect them to Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances in VPCs that are deployed in the China (Beijing) and US (Virginia) regions, respectively. You use the same Alibaba Cloud account to deploy the circuits in both regions. Each month, you first use 100 TB of outbound traffic in the China (Beijing) region, and then 80 TB of outbound traffic in the US (Virginia) region.
During the promotional period, your monthly outbound data transfer fees are as follows:
China (Beijing) region: USD 0.0130/GB × (100 - 50) × 1,024 GB = USD 665.6
US (Virginia) region: USD 0.0190/GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total cost = USD 640 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,196.48
After the promotion expires, your monthly outbound data transfer fees are calculated as follows:
China (Beijing) region: USD 0.0130/GB × 100 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,331.2
US (Virginia) region: USD 0.0190/GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total cost = USD 1,280 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,836.48
More operations
Measure outbound traffic
Metering description
The measured outbound traffic is the total traffic before any discounts or resource plans are applied. For more information about promotional offers and resource plans, see Billing details and Outbound data transfer plans.
View outbound traffic by physical port
If multiple business departments create multiple VBR instances that share one Express Connect circuit, you can view the traffic volume and percentage for each VBR associated with the physical port and know the traffic usage of each department.
If a VBR is created for a shared port but is not displayed under the dedicated port, query the VBR in shared port.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top menu bar, select the target region. Then, in the navigation pane on the left, click Physical Connection.
On the Physical Connection page, find the target Express Connect circuit instance and click the
icon in the Metering column.Hover your mouse over the traffic usage. The system automatically calculates and displays the detailed traffic and traffic percentage for each VBR on the current port.
By default, the system displays monitoring data from the last day. You can set the time granularity for monitoring to Daily or Hourly. Select a default time range or specify a custom time range.
Default time ranges:
By Day: Select 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, or 30 days.
By Hour: Select 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.
Custom time range: When set to By Day, you can query data from the last 30 days. When set to By Hour, you can query data from the last 24 hours.
View outbound traffic by VBR
To view the traffic of a single VBR, use the following method.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top menu bar, select the target region. Then, in the navigation pane on the left, click Virtual Border Routers (VBRs).
On the Virtual Border Routers (VBRs) page, find the VBR that you want to manage and click the
icon in the Metering column.By default, the system displays monitoring data from the last day. You can set the time granularity for monitoring to Daily or Hourly. Select a default time range or specify a custom time range.
Default time ranges:
By Day: Select 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, or 30 days.
By Hour: Select 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.
Custom time range: When set to By Day, you can query data from the last 30 days. When set to By Hour, you can query data from the last 24 hours.
Increase the VBR instance quota
After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can create up to five VBR instances for each Express Connect circuit. You can request a quota increase for VBR instances as needed. For more information about VBR instance quotas, see Quotas and Manage Express Connect quotas.
References
OpenPhysicalConnectionService: Enables the outbound data transfer fee feature.
GetPhysicalConnectionServiceStatus: Queries whether the outbound data transfer fee feature is enabled for the current account.