Outbound data transfer refers to data 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. This topic also describes how to view the outbound data transfer of the corresponding VBR of each business system to implement data transfer allocation if multiple business systems use the same Express Connect circuit.
Billing overview
Item | Rule |
Billing cycle and bill generation time | If you use the service for less than 1 hour in a billing cycle, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour. In most cases, bills are generated within 1 hour after a billing cycle ends. The actual 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 fee | If you deploy Express Connect circuits in multiple regions within an Alibaba Cloud account, the outbound data transfer in the region in which you create connections over Express Connect circuits first is offset by the free quota. |
Billing description
In addition to the billing for outbound data transfer, the billing for Express Connect is adjusted in the following aspects:
You are no longer charged an initial installation fee of USD 1,500 for an Express Connect circuit. This reduces the costs of connecting your data center 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 center to Alibaba Cloud. You are charged only for data transfer from Alibaba Cloud to your data center. This reduces the costs of data transfer when you use an Express Connect circuit to connect your data center to Alibaba Cloud.
Alibaba Cloud provides a free quota of outbound data transfer 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, 2025. From January 1, 2026, no free quota is provided and you are charged for all outbound data transfer in your service based on the billing rules. For more information, see the Enable billing for outbound data transfer section of this topic.
Unit price of outbound data transfer
The unit price of outbound data transfer varies based on the region. The following table describes the unit prices.
The unit prices are provided for reference only. The unit prices in your bills prevail.
Area | Region | Unit price (USD per 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), and Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.0390 |
Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.0780 | |
Europe & Americas | US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), and UK (London) | 0.0190 |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai) | 0.0855 |
SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.0468 |
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 enable billing for outbound data transfer as a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, make sure that the RAM user is granted the
AliyunExpressConnectFullAccessorvpc: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 outbound data transfer fee
You have two data centers. One data center is located in the China (Beijing) region and the other is located in the US (Virginia) region. You want to use an Express Connect circuit to connect the data center in the China (Beijing) region to an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance in a virtual private cloud (VPC) that is deployed in the same region. You also want to connect the data center in the US (Virginia) region to an ECS instance in a VPC that is deployed in the same region. After you use the same Alibaba Cloud account to establish connections over Express Connect circuits in the preceding regions, data is transferred 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 per GB × (100 - 50) × 1,024 GB = USD 640
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190 per 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 per GB × 100 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,280
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190 per 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
Description
In this section, outbound data transfer refers to the outbound data transfer that is not discounted or offset by resource plans. For more information, see the Usage notes section of this topic and Outbound data transfer plans.
View the outbound data transfer of an Express Connect circuit
If you create multiple VBRs that use the same Express Connect circuit for your business systems, you can view the data transfer and data transfer proportion of each VBR created for the Express Connect circuit to understand the data transfer of each business system.
If a VBR created for a shared Express Connect circuit is not displayed for the dedicated Express Connect circuit that is associated with the VBR, you can view the VBR by using the shared Express Connect circuit.
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.
On the Physical Connection page, find the Express Connect circuit that you want to manage and click the
icon in the Metering column. After you move the pointer over the data transfer, the system automatically displays the detailed data transfer and data transfer proportion of each VBR created for the Express Connect circuit.
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 custom 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.
View the outbound data transfer of a VBR
If you want to view the outbound data transfer of a single VBR, perform the following steps:
Log on to the Express Connect Console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, 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 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 custom 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 5 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 VBR quotas, see Express Connect quotas and Manage Express Connect quotas.
References
OpenPhysicalConnectionService: enables billing for outbound data transfer.
GetPhysicalConnectionServiceStatus: checks whether billing for outbound data transfer is enabled for the current account.