This topic describes the resource metering method, billable items, and billing methods of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. This topic also describes the costs of other cloud services that are required to activate and use Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.
Metering method
The billing unit of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspaces is compute unit (CU), which is a unit of measurement for computing resources. One CU is equal to 1 CPU core, 4 GiB of memory, and 20 GB of local storage. The local storage stores information such as logs and checkpoints. The number of CUs consumed reflects the resources used by Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. The number of CUs consumed by a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink deployment varies based on the queries per second (QPS) of input data streams, computing complexity, and input data distribution of the deployment. You can estimate the number of CUs that you need to purchase based on your business scale and the computing capability of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. The following table describes the processing capability of CUs in Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.
Scenario | Processing capability |
Simple streaming stress testing in which operations such as filtering and cleansing are included. | Each CU can process 40,000 to 55,000 data records per second. |
Complex streaming stress testing in which operations such as aggregations and complex user-defined function (UDF) calculations are included. | One CU can process 5,000 to 10,000 data records per second. |
The preceding estimate applies only to the internal processing capability of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. The external data read and write capabilities are not included. The external data read and write efficiency may affect the computing capability estimate of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink.
If you want to use Realtime Compute for Apache Flink to read data from Simple Log Service but the query quota of Simple Log Service is limited, the overall computing capability of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink is subject to the capability allowed by Simple Log Service.
If the number of connections or transactions per second (TPS) is limited for the ApsaraDB RDS database that Realtime Compute for Apache Flink references, the throughput of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink is limited by the throttling of the ApsaraDB RDS database.
Window functions are complex operations and consume more CUs than simple operations. If your applications require the use of window functions, we recommend that you purchase at least four CUs.
Billable items
The following table describes the billable items of a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace.
Billable item | Description |
Management resources | When you create a workspace, the system provides a development console for the workspace. The development console and its components consume about 2 CUs for management. |
Computing resources | Computing resources are the resources that are consumed when you perform computing tasks, and are metered in CUs. You are charged for the CUs based on the subscription or pay-as-you-go billing method. |
The following table describes the supported billing methods.
Billing method | Description |
Subscription | The subscription billing method allows you to pay for resources before you use the resources. You make a payment based on the subscription duration when you purchase a subscription workspace. The resource price in the billing cycle is calculated based on the subscription duration. For more information, see Subscription. |
Pay-as-you-go | The pay-as-you-go billing method allows you to use resources before you pay for the resources. You do not need to purchase a large number of resources in advance. The system calculates the fees based on the actual resource usage of your workspace. Bills are generated on an hourly basis at the begining of every hour (UTC+8). The new billing cycle starts after the bills are settled. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go. Important We recommend that you configure the required resources in advance or use the subscription billing method for important business to ensure that resources are reserved. If you use the pay-as-you-go billing method, underlying physical resources are required when a job is started or restarted. If resources in specific regions or zones are extremely insufficient, tasks may fail to be started. This affects business continuity. |
Hybrid billing | Hybrid billing is the billing method that calculates the sum of fixed resource fees and elastic resource fees. For more information, see Hybrid billing. |
Billing rules for related services
The fees that are required in the activation process of a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace include only service fees for Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. When you activate and use Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, you may also be charged for other cloud services. The following table describes these services.
Alibaba Cloud service | Billing rule |
VPC | When you purchase a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace, you must select a virtual private cloud (VPC) in the region in which the workspace resides. For more information about billing, see Billing. |
OSS | If you set the storage type to OSS Bucket when you activate a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace and associate the workspace with a bucket, deployment information, such as checkpoints, savepoints, logs, and JAR packages, is stored in the associated bucket. For more information about billing, see Billing. |
ARMS | If you select Managed Service for Prometheus when you purchase a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace, Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) is automatically activated to provide the commercial edition of Managed Service for Prometheus, which is used for monitoring and alerting. Monitoring fee: For Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspaces that are purchased after 10:00 on December 8, 2023, the new billing method of ARMS is used. For more information, see Billing. For Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspaces that are purchased before 10:00 on December 8, 2023, the old billing method of ARMS is used. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go. In this case, you can change the billing method to the new billing method of ARMS. For more information about how to use the new billing method of ARMS, see Service notices of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink. Important
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CloudMonitor | If you select the free monitoring service when you purchase a Realtime Compute for Apache Flink workspace, CloudMonitor provides basic monitoring and alerting capabilities. For more information, see Free quotas. Note
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References
For more information about how to calculate the number of consumed CUs in a workspace, see the "How do I calculate the number of consumed CUs in a workspace?" section of the FAQ about the service console topic.
For more information about how to view the bills of Realtime Compute for Apache Flink, see View bills.