Pay-as-you-go is a post-paid billing model — you are billed based on actual resource usage, with no upfront commitment. Billing is measured in compute units (CUs), where one CU represents one unit of compute and memory capacity, accurate to the minute.
For critical services, pre-configure resources or use the subscription model to reserve capacity. In the pay-as-you-go model, jobs request underlying resources when they start or restart. If a region or zone is under high demand, jobs may fail to start.
When to use pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go works best when:
Service usage fluctuates frequently
Resource usage is temporary or has sudden bursts
How billing works
Each Flink workspace is billed separately. The hourly bill for a workspace consists of two fees:
| Fee | Formula |
|---|---|
| Compute resource fee | (Sum of per-minute CU usage in one hour ÷ 60) × hourly unit price |
| Management service resource fee | (60 ÷ 60) × 2 CUs × hourly unit price |
The management service fee is fixed: the service runs for 60 minutes per hour and always consumes 2 CUs.
End-to-end example (using $0.09/CU/hour as an illustrative regional price): Suppose you use 4 CUs for the first 30 minutes and 2 CUs for the second 30 minutes.
| Fee component | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Compute resource fee | (4 × 30 + 2 × 30) ÷ 60 × $0.09 | $0.27 |
| Management service resource fee | (60 ÷ 60) × 2 × $0.09 | $0.18 |
| Total | $0.45 |
For details on what compute resources and management service resources include, see Billable items.
Actual fees are subject to the prices on the product purchase page.
If you have multiple workspaces under one account, the total fee across all workspaces is calculated at settlement.
Billing cycle
Fees are calculated on the hour, every hour (UTC+8). After each billing cycle, the system generates a bill and deducts the fee from your account balance.
What counts as billable
Billing is tied to the workspace, not to running jobs. Billing continues as long as a workspace exists — even without active jobs. Specifically:
Idle jobs — jobs that are terminated or never run — are still billed if your account has no overdue payments.
Session clusters — billed regardless of whether a job is configured.
To stop all billing, release the workspace. Pausing or stopping individual jobs is not sufficient.
Unit prices by region
Actual prices are subject to the prices on the product purchase page.
You cannot purchase new resources in China (Hangzhou) Zone H and the China (Zhangjiakou) region. Scaling out existing resources is still supported. Supported regions and zones are subject to change — check the purchase page for the latest information.
| Region | Unit price (USD/CU/hour) |
|---|---|
| China (Shenzhen), China (Beijing), China (Shanghai), China (Hangzhou) | $0.06 |
| China (Hong Kong) | $0.09 |
| Singapore | $0.09 |
| US (Silicon Valley) | $0.07 |
| Germany (Frankfurt) | $0.10 |
| Japan (Tokyo) | $0.10 |
| Indonesia (Jakarta) | $0.08 |
| UK (London) | $0.09 |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | $0.08 |
| China (Zhangjiakou) | $0.05 |
| UAE (Dubai) | $0.0854 |
| Mexico | $0.0532 |
| US (Virginia) | $0.075 |
Release a workspace to stop billing
Before releasing, back up or migrate any data you need to keep. After you click Release, uploaded JAR packages are not deleted and remain in your OSS bucket.
Open the Realtime Compute for Apache Flink console and switch to the destination region.
In the Actions column of the target workspace, click Release.
In the dialog that appears, click OK.
Billing stops after the workspace is released.
If you are still being billed after releasing a workspace, view your bill and check the Consumption Time to confirm when the charges occurred.
For details on how overdue payments affect your services, see Overdue payments and expiration.
What's next
FAQ
Am I charged if no jobs are running?
Yes. Billing is tied to the workspace, not to running jobs. Idle jobs and running session clusters both incur charges as long as the workspace exists. To stop all billing, release the workspace.
Am I charged if my workspace fails to be created?
See FAQ: Am I charged if my workspace fails to be created?
How do I release a Flink workspace?
See Release a workspace to stop billing above.