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Simple Log Service:Billable items for the pay-by-ingested-data model

Last Updated:Sep 10, 2026

In the pay-by-ingested-data model, Simple Log Service (SLS) charges you for each billable item separately. For example, you incur data ingestion fees when you upload data and storage fees when you store logs. This topic describes the billable items and billing methods for the pay-by-ingested-data model.

Notes

  • You can view your ingested traffic, read traffic, and storage usage for the previous day in the Simple Log Service console.

  • In the Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) region, you cannot use resource plans to offset fees for the pay-by-ingested-data model.

What is an OCU?

Observability Capacity Unit (OCU) is the billing unit for Alibaba Cloud-native Observability. OCU usage is calculated automatically based on hourly resource consumption.

Billing for the compute-optimized features of SLS is transitioning to an OCU-based model that charges based on actual compute resource consumption. In CPU scenarios, one OCU is equivalent to approximately 0.5 CPU cores, 2 GB of memory, and 3,000 IOPS. SLS calculates separate OCU values based on the consumption of CPU cores, memory, and IOPS. The highest of these three values determines the final OCU count for billing.

In GPU scenarios, one OCU is equivalent to approximately 1/60 of the computing power of an A10 card. The final OCU value is based on the consumed GPU computing power.

For example, a computation job that consumes 1 CPU core, 2 GB of memory, and 3,000 IOPS uses 2 OCUs. In a one-hour metering period, processing 1 GB of data consumes approximately 1/3 of an OCU for an ingest processor, 1/3 of an OCU for data transformation, and 0.3 OCUs for rule-based consumption.

Billable items

The following table describes the billable items for the pay-by-ingested-data model. For detailed pricing information, see pricing.

Item

Description

Billing method

Free tier

Ingested raw data volume

The ingested raw data volume is calculated based on the uncompressed volume of data uploaded to Simple Log Service.

  • pay-as-you-go: Ingestion fee = Total daily ingested raw data volume (GB) × Price per GB

  • resource plan: Fees are offset using cost units (CUs).

None

Hot storage tier

You are charged for the storage space occupied by compressed logs and their index data.

For example, if you ingest 1 GB of raw logs and create indexes for two fields, assuming a 20% compression ratio and 0.5 GB of index data, the billable storage is 0.2 GB + 0.5 GB = 0.7 GB.

  • pay-as-you-go: Hot storage fee = Total daily storage (GB) × Price per GB

  • resource plan: Fees are offset using cost units (CUs).

None

IA storage tier

If you enable intelligent tiered storage, logs are moved to the IA storage tier after the retention period for the hot storage tier expires. You are then charged for storage in the IA storage tier. Billable storage includes the space used by compressed log data and the associated indexes.

For example, if you ingest 1 GB of raw logs and create indexes for two fields, assuming a 20% compression ratio and 0.5 GB of index data, the billable storage for the IA storage tier is 0.2 GB + 0.5 GB = 0.7 GB.

  • pay-as-you-go: IA storage fee = Total daily storage (GB) × Price per GB

  • resource plan: Fees are offset using cost units (CUs).

None

Archive storage tier

If you enable intelligent tiered storage, logs are moved to the archive storage tier after the retention period for the hot storage tier or retention period for the IA storage tier expires. You are then charged for storage in the archive storage tier. Billable storage includes the space used by compressed log data and the associated indexes.

For example, if you ingest 1 GB of raw logs and create indexes for two fields, assuming a 20% compression ratio and 0.5 GB of index data, the billable storage for the archive storage tier is 0.2 GB + 0.5 GB = 0.7 GB.

  • pay-as-you-go: Archive storage fee = Total daily storage (GB) × Price per GB

  • resource plan: Fees are offset using cost units (CUs).

None

Public read traffic

You are charged for data pulled from Simple Log Service over a public endpoint. Charges are based on the compressed data volume.

  • pay-as-you-go: Read traffic fee = Total daily read traffic × Price per GB

  • resource plan: Fees are offset using cost units (CUs).

None

Transfer acceleration

You are charged for the total inbound and outbound traffic processed through a transfer acceleration endpoint.

The traffic is measured based on the volume of compressed data.

For more information, see Manage transfer acceleration.

  • pay-as-you-go: Transfer acceleration fee = Total accelerated traffic (inbound and outbound) × Price per GB

None

Ingest processor

You can use an ingest processor to process data before it is written to a Logstore. This includes operations such as data filtering, field extraction, field enrichment, and data masking. You are charged based on the computing resources consumed, which are metered in OCUs.

In a one-hour billing cycle, processing 1 GB of data with an ingest processor consumes approximately 1/3 of an OCU.

  • pay-as-you-go: Ingest processor fee = Number of OCUs consumed × Price per OCU

None