ApsaraVideo Live offers cost-effective resource plans. You can purchase various plans, such as data transfer plans and transcoding plans. You can use the Expenses and Costs console to view details about your purchased resource plans, including the remaining usage, effective period, and expiration time.
Resource plan types
Resource plan | Description | Billable items covered |
Live stream data transfer plan |
Note Purchase general-purpose plans for wider service coverage and better prices. | |
Live stream transcoding duration plan | Offsets the duration of H.264 standard transcoding only. It does not support other transcoding types, such as H.265 standard transcoding, Narrowband HD transcoding, or audio-only transcoding. The offset ratio for transcoding duration varies by output definition (transcoding duration:plan duration consumed):
Example: If you transcode a one-hour standard definition (SD) video, two hours of duration are deducted from your resource plan. |
To purchase a resource plan, click to purchase.
Notes
Region-specific live stream data transfer plans are region-locked. Plans for different acceleration regions cannot be used interchangeably.
Resource plans take effect immediately after purchase. An active resource plan is always used first to offset usage. You can purchase multiple plans. If you have multiple plans of the same type, they are used in order of their expiration dates, with the plan that expires first being used first.
After a resource plan of a specific type is fully used, any additional usage is automatically billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
A resource plan is valid for its subscription duration. You must use the plan within this period. Any unused portion of an expired resource plan is forfeited and is not eligible for replacement or supplementation. The validity periods of multiple resource plans of the same type are calculated independently and do not stack.
Unused resource plans are eligible for a full refund for any reason within five days of purchase. The five-day period is calculated as 5 × 24 hours from the time the service is activated. Used resource plans and the remaining usage of expired plans are not eligible for refunds.
Live stream data transfer plans
These plans are available in general-purpose and region-specific types.
The general-purpose data transfer plan can be used in place of a region-specific data transfer plan. It has no regional restrictions and is more cost-effective.
General-purpose data transfer plans
This plan is designed to reduce your resource plan management costs. It has the following features:
Offsets traffic for standard live streaming, Real-Time Streaming (RTS), .
Offers a single price for China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland. You do not need to purchase separate plans for different regions.
Usage for different service types (standard live streaming, RTS) and different regions (the Chinese mainland, China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland) is deducted from the data transfer plan at different ratios.
Resource plan types
Global: Select this type if your business is only in the Chinese mainland, or is distributed globally (including the Chinese mainland).
Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland): This specification is for businesses distributed globally (excluding the Chinese mainland). It reduces your cost of converting offset ratios. However, it cannot be used to offset usage in the Chinese mainland. Select this type if your live streaming business is only in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland.
For detailed pricing, go to the purchase page: Click to purchase
Both specifications can be used to offset traffic outside the Chinese mainland. The price per GB is the same after conversion.
Scope of offset
Standard streaming: Covers standard streaming playback traffic (including protocols such as RTMP, FLV, and HLS).
Real-Time Streaming (RTS): Refers to the traffic generated when end users pull streams using RTS (artc://).
Pricing
Specification | Global pricing | Global (excluding the Chinese mainland) pricing |
100 GB | 4 USD | 10 USD |
500 GB | 19 USD | 49 USD |
1 TB | 37 USD | 98 USD |
5 TB | 180 USD | 485 USD |
10 TB | 350 USD | 960 USD |
50 TB | 1,740 USD | 4,700 USD |
200 TB | 5,038 USD | 13,429 USD |
1 PB | 25,795 USD | 68,755 USD |
Offset ratios
Global
Offset ratio | The Chinese mainland | China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside China |
Standard live streaming | 1 | 2.7 |
Real-Time Streaming (RTS) | 1.5 | 3.7 |
Formula:
Data consumed from the resource plan = Actual usage × Offset coefficient
Example:
A customer purchases a 500 GB Global data transfer plan. The customer uses 10 GB of standard traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland. The customer also uses 10 GB of standard traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland.
The remaining data is calculated as follows: 500 GB - (10 GB × 1) - (10 GB × 1.5) - (10 GB × 2.7) - (10 GB × 3.7) = 411 GB.
Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland)
Offset ratio | Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland) |
Standard live streaming | 1 |
Real-Time Streaming (RTS) | 1.4 |
Formula:
Data consumed from the resource plan = Actual usage × Offset coefficient
Example:
A customer purchases a 500 GB Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland) data transfer plan. The customer uses 10 GB of standard traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland. This usage cannot be offset. The remaining data is 500 GB.
Another customer purchases a 500 GB Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland) data transfer plan. The customer uses 10 GB of standard traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in China (Hong Kong), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), and other regions outside the Chinese mainland. This usage can be offset at the specified ratios. The remaining data is calculated as follows: 500 GB - (10 GB × 1) - (10 GB × 1.4) = 476 GB.
Standard data transfer plan
These plans are specifically for offsetting downstream playback traffic in standard live streaming scenarios. They do not support RTS traffic.
We offer eight types of data transfer plans, each specific to an acceleration region. A plan can only offset live streaming data usage in its corresponding region and cannot be used across regions. For example, a plan purchased for the Chinese mainland cannot be used to offset traffic in Asia-Pacific 1.
For detailed pricing, go to the purchase page: Click to purchase
Pricing
Specification | The Chinese mainland | Global (Excluding the Chinese mainland) | Asia-Pacific 1 | Asia-Pacific 2 | Asia-Pacific 3 | Europe | North America | South America | Middle East/Africa |
100 GB | 4 USD | 10 USD | 8 USD | 10 USD | 9 USD | 7 USD | 7 USD | 20 USD | 20 USD |
500 GB | 19 USD | 50 USD | 38 USD | 49 USD | 44 USD | 33 USD | 33 USD | 94 USD | 94 USD |
1 TB | 37 USD | 99 USD | 75 USD | 98 USD | 88 USD | 65 USD | 65 USD | 185 USD | 185 USD |
5 TB | 180 USD | 472 USD | 365 USD | 485 USD | 430 USD | 315 USD | 315 USD | 900 USD | 900 USD |
10 TB | 350 USD | 893 USD | 720 USD | 960 USD | 850 USD | 620 USD | 620 USD | 1,780 USD | 1,780 USD |
50 TB | 1,740 USD | 4,155 USD | 3,520 USD | 4,700 USD | 4,170 USD | 3,040 USD | 3,040 USD | 8,700 USD | 8,700 USD |
200 TB | 5,038 USD | 16,028 USD | 9,010 USD | 13,429 USD | 11,756 USD | 5,038 USD | 5,223 USD | 23,798 USD | 25,498 USD |
1 PB | 25,795 USD | 79,023 USD | 46,127 USD | 68,755 USD | 60,188 USD | 25,795 USD | 26,739 USD | 12.1845 USD | 130,548 USD |
Calculation example
A customer purchases a 500 GB region-specific live stream data transfer plan for the Chinese mainland. The customer uses 10 GB of standard traffic and 10 GB of RTS traffic in Asia-Pacific 1, and 10 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland. This usage cannot be offset. The remaining data is 500 GB.
Another customer purchases a 500 GB region-specific live stream data transfer plan for the Chinese mainland and uses 10 GB of standard traffic in the Chinese mainland. This usage can be offset. The remaining data is calculated as follows: 500 GB - 10 GB = 490 GB.
Choosing a resource plan
Compared to region-specific data transfer plans, a single general-purpose data transfer plan can offset traffic for standard live streaming, RTS, across all regions. Therefore, if you choose a general-purpose plan, you only need to purchase one plan with enough data to cover all your business needs.
Example 1:
A customer previously purchased the following resource plans based on their business needs:
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for the Chinese mainland × 1
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for Europe × 1
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for South America × 1
Calculate the required amount based on the offset ratios for the Global general-purpose data transfer plan:
(500 GB × 1) + (500 GB × 2.7) + (500 GB × 2.7) = 500 GB + 1350 GB + 1350 GB = 3200 GB
A 3200 GB Global general-purpose data transfer plan is sufficient to cover the existing business needs.
Example 2:
A customer previously purchased the following resource plans based on their business needs:
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for the Chinese mainland × 1
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for Europe × 1
Region-specific live stream data transfer plan: 500 GB for South America × 1
The following was generated during the epoch:
500 GB of RTS traffic in the Chinese mainland
500 GB of RTS traffic in Europe
500 GB of RTS traffic in South America
Calculate the required amount based on the offset ratios for the Global general-purpose data transfer plan:
(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
A 7650 GB Global general-purpose data transfer plan is sufficient to cover the existing business needs.
Query resource plan details
You can view details about your purchased resource plans, such as the remaining usage, effective period, and expiration time.
Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console.
Click Billing in the top menu bar to open the Alibaba Cloud Expenses and Costs console.
In the left navigation pane, choose . On this page, you can view your purchased resource plan usage on the Instance Summary and Usage Details tabs.
