ApsaraVideo Live resource plans offer cost-effective solutions. Currently, data transfer plans and transcoding plans are available. You can purchase these plans based on your needs. You can also view the remaining quota, effective time, and expiration time of your purchased resource plans in the ApsaraVideo Live console.
Types of resource plans
Resource plan | Description | Billable items that can be offset |
Live data transfer plans |
Note We recommend this type of resource plans because they are cheaper and simpler. | |
Live transcoding plans | These plans can be used to offset the length of transcoding in H.264 LD. You can also use the plan to offset the length of transcoding in H.264 standard definition (SD) based on a ratio of 1:2 or H.264 high definition (HD) based on a ratio of 1:4. |
Notes
For data transfer plans (including general-purpose plans, regular plans, and RTS data transfer plans): You can use data transfer plans to offset traffic fees only when the billing method is daily traffic. If the current billing method is bandwidth peak, the remaining downstream traffic in the resource plan will be frozen until you switch back to the pay-by-traffic billing method.
Regular live data transfer plans have region restrictions. You cannot use a regular live data transfer plan for a region to offset traffic fees in other regions.
Resource plans take effect immediately after purchase and are preferentially used to offset fees if valid resource plans exist. You can purchase multiple resource plans. Multiple resource plans of the same type are used in order of their expiration time. The resource plan that expires earlier is used first.
After all resource plans of the same type are used up, the excess part is automatically charged based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.
The validity period of a resource plan is the same as its subscription duration. You must use up the resource plan within its validity period. Resource plans that are not used up upon expiration become invalid, and Alibaba Cloud does not provide alternatives or supplements. The validity periods of multiple resource plans of the same type are calculated separately and are not accumulated.
Resource plans support full refunds within five days of purchase, provided that the resource plan is purchased within the last 5 days (inclusive) and has not been used (calculated as 5 × 24 hours from the time when the product is activated). Resource plans that have been used or the remaining quota of expired resource plans do not support unsubscription or refund.
Live data transfer plans
Live data transfer plans include general-purpose and regular types.
The scope of general-purpose data transfer plans includes regular data transfer plans. General-purpose data transfer plans have no region restrictions and are more cost-effective.
General-purpose data transfer plans
General-purpose data transfer plans are designed to reduce the costs of resource plan management. They have the following benefits:
1. General-purpose data transfer plans can be used to offset standard streaming traffic, Real-Time Streaming (RTS) traffic, and stream ingest traffic.
2. The prices for China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China are unified. You do not need to purchase separate plans for different regions.
3. Different types of traffic (standard streaming and RTS) and traffic in different regions (the Chinese mainland, China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China) are offset based on different ratios.
Types of resource plans:
General-purpose data transfer plan for global regions: If your service is distributed only in the Chinese mainland, or both in and outside the Chinese mainland, we recommend that you use this type of data transfer plan.
General-purpose data transfer plan for global regions excluding the Chinese mainland: If your service is distributed outside the Chinese mainland, we recommend that you use this type of data transfer plan, which eliminates the need to calculate different offset ratios for different regions. Note that you cannot use this type of data transfer plan to offset traffic fees in the Chinese mainland. If your live streaming service is distributed only in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China, we recommend that you use this type of data transfer plan.
For detailed pricing, visit the purchase page: Click to purchase
Both types of data transfer plans can be used to offset traffic fees outside the Chinese mainland, with the same unit price of traffic per GB.
Scope of offset
(1) Standard streaming: covers standard streaming playback traffic (including RTMP, FLV, and HLS protocols) and stream ingest traffic (Note: Stream ingest is free by default and is charged only under specific conditions. For more information, see Standard streaming fees. If stream ingest billing is enabled, stream ingest traffic is offset based on the coefficient of standard streaming by default).
(2) RTS: covers traffic generated when end users use RTS to pull streams.
Offset ratios
General-purpose data transfer plan for global regions:
Offset ratio | Chinese mainland | China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China |
Standard streaming | 1 | 2.7 |
Real-Time Streaming (RTS) | 1.5 | 3.7 |
Standard streaming traffic in the Chinese mainland is offset based on a ratio of 1:1. Standard streaming traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China is offset based on a ratio of 1:2.7. RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland is offset based on a ratio of 1:1.5. RTS traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China is offset based on a ratio of 1:3.7. Actual amount of traffic consumed = Actual traffic usage × Offset factor.
Example:
A customer purchases a general-purpose data transfer plan of 500 GB applicable to global regions. The customer uses 10 GB of standard streaming traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland, and 10 GB of standard streaming traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China.
Remaining traffic = 500 GB - 10 GB × 1 - 10 GB × 1.5 - 10 GB × 2.7 - 10 GB × 3.7 = 411 GB.
General-purpose data transfer plan for global regions excluding the Chinese mainland:
Offset ratio | General-purpose data transfer plan for global regions excluding the Chinese mainland |
Standard streaming | 1 |
RTS | 1.4 |
This type of data transfer plan can be used to offset only traffic outside the Chinese mainland. Standard streaming traffic is offset based on a ratio of 1:1. RTS traffic is offset based on a ratio of 1:1.4
Example:
A customer purchases a general-purpose data transfer plan of 500 GB applicable to global regions excluding the Chinese mainland. The customer uses 10 GB of standard streaming traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland. The remaining traffic is 500 GB. (The traffic cannot be offset.)
A customer purchases a general-purpose data transfer plan of 500 GB applicable to global regions excluding the Chinese mainland. The customer uses 10 GB of standard streaming traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and regions outside China. The remaining traffic is 500 GB - 10 GB × 1 - 10 GB × 1.4 = 476 GB. (The traffic can be offset.)
Selecting resource plans
In contrast to a regular live data transfer plan, a general-purpose live data transfer plan can be used to offset standard streaming traffic, RTS traffic, and stream ingest traffic in all regions. Therefore, you can purchase general-purpose live data transfer plans based on the total amount of traffic that you need.
Example 1:
A customer wants to purchase the following data transfer plans based on business requirements:
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in the Chinese mainland
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in Europe
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in South America
The equivalent amount of traffic that is required for a general-purpose live data transfer plan can be calculated based on the following formula:
500 GB × 1 + 500 GB × 2.7 + 500 GB × 2.7 = 500 GB + 1350 GB + 1350 GB = 3200 GB
In this case, the customer can simply purchase a general-purpose live data transfer plan of 3,200 GB applicable to global regions to meet the business requirements.
Example 2:
A customer wants to purchase the following data transfer plans based on business requirements:
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in the Chinese mainland
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in Europe
A regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB in South America
Meanwhile, the following amount of RTS traffic is required:
500 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland
500 GB of RTS traffic in Europe
500 GB of RTS traffic in South America
The equivalent amount of traffic that is required for a general-purpose live data transfer plan can be calculated based on the following formula:
500 GB × 1 + 500 GB × 2.7 + 500 GB × 2.7 + 500 GB × 1.5 + 500 GB × 3.7 + 500 GB × 3.7 = 500 GB + 1350 GB + 1350 GB + 750 GB + 1850 GB + 1850 GB = 7650 GB
In this case, the customer can simply purchase a general-purpose live data transfer plan of 7,650 GB applicable to global regions to meet the business requirements.
Regular data transfer plans
A regular data transfer plan can be used to offset traffic of standard streaming. It cannot be used to offset RTS traffic.
ApsaraVideo Live provides eight types of region-specific data transfer plans. You can use the plans to offset only the streaming traffic that is consumed in the corresponding regions. For example, you cannot use a plan for the Chinese mainland to offset the streaming traffic consumed in the "AP1" region.
For detailed pricing, visit the purchase page: Click to purchase
Billing examples
A customer purchases a regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB for the Chinese mainland. The customer uses 10 GB of standard streaming traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in AP1, and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland. The remaining traffic is 500 GB. (The traffic cannot be offset.)
A customer purchases a regular live data transfer plan of 500 GB for the Chinese mainland. The customer uses 10 GB of standard streaming traffic in the Chinese mainland. The remaining traffic is 500 GB - 10 GB = 490 GB. (The traffic can be offset.)
Query the details of resource plans
You can view the remaining quota, effective time, and expiration time of your purchased resource plans.
Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console.
Click Expenses in the top navigation bar to go to Expenses And Cost of Alibaba Cloud.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose . On the page that appears, you can view the usage and usage details of your purchased resource plans on the Instance Summary and Usage Details tabs.
