Simple Message Queue (formerly MNS) uses pay-as-you-go billing. Fees are settled hourly, and a bill is generated once per day. Each day, Alibaba Cloud measures the previous day's usage, generates a bill, and deducts fees from your account automatically.
Each Alibaba Cloud account gets 20 million free requests per month for Simple Message Queue (formerly MNS). Only normal messages count toward this free quota -- ordered messages are always billed at standard rates. Delete unused queues and topics to avoid unnecessary resource fees.
Estimate costs with the Simple Message Queue (formerly MNS) pricing calculator.
Billable items at a glance
| Billable item | Billing unit | Billing cycle | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queue resource usage | Per queue per day | Daily | None |
| Queue requests | Per million requests | Daily | 20 million requests/month (normal messages only) |
| Topic resource usage | Per topic per day | Daily | None |
| Topic requests | Per million requests | Daily | 20 million requests/month (normal messages only) |
| Subscription pushes | Per push (HTTP only) | Daily | HTTP pushes: temporarily free |
| Outbound internet traffic | -- | -- | Temporarily free |
| Message traces | Per million traces | Hourly | None |
How requests are counted
These rules apply to both queue requests and topic requests:
64 KB increments: Each request is measured in 64 KB chunks. A 256 KB message counts as four requests (256 / 64 = 4).
All API calls count: Every request sent to a queue or topic is billable, including SDK calls.
Deleted resources still incur charges: After you delete a queue or topic, stop sending requests to it. Requests sent through an SDK after deletion are still billed.
Queue resource usage fees
Queue resource fees are charged daily based on the number of queues that existed during the day.
Formula:
Number of queues x Unit price (USD/queue/day)
Each queue is billed once per day. Fees are charged to the Alibaba Cloud account that owns the queue.
Unit prices
| Region | Unit price (USD/queue/day) |
|---|---|
| China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Beijing), China (Qingdao), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Chengdu), China (Guangzhou), China (Ulanqab) | 0.08 |
| China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), US (Atlanta), UAE (Dubai), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.11 |
| SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.132 |
Example
In this example, you create queues in the China (Hangzhou) region at USD 0.08 per queue per day:
| Day | Activity | Billable queues | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Create 30 queues, then delete 10 (20 remain) | 30 | 0.08 x 30 = USD 2.40 |
| Day 2 | Create 50 more queues | 70 (50 + 20) | 0.08 x 70 = USD 5.60 |
Queue request fees
Formula:
Queue requests (in millions) x Unit price (USD/million requests)
The monthly free quota of 20 million requests applies before billing. Only requests exceeding the quota are charged.
The free quota covers only normal messages. Ordered messages are billed at standard rates regardless of the free quota.
Unit prices
| Region | Normal messages (USD/million) | Ordered messages (USD/million) |
|---|---|---|
| China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Beijing), China (Qingdao), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Chengdu), China (Guangzhou), China (Ulanqab) | 0.32 | 0.48 |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.43 | 0.645 |
| China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), US (Atlanta), Germany (Frankfurt), UAE (Dubai), UK (London), Thailand (Bangkok), South Korea (Seoul) | 0.46 | 0.69 |
| SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.552 | 0.828 |
Example
You create a standard queue in the China (Hangzhou) region at USD 0.32 per million requests. Out of 22 million requests in a month, 20 million are covered by the free quota. The remaining 2 million are billed:
2 x 0.32 = USD 0.64
Topic resource usage fees
Topic resource fees are charged daily based on the number of topics that existed during the day.
Formula:
Number of topics x Unit price (USD/topic/day)
Each topic is billed once per day. Fees are charged to the Alibaba Cloud account that owns the topic.
Unit prices
| Region | Unit price (USD/topic/day) |
|---|---|
| China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Beijing), China (Qingdao), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Chengdu), China (Guangzhou), China (Ulanqab) | 0.32 |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.43 |
| China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), US (Atlanta), UAE (Dubai) | 0.46 |
| SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.552 |
Example
In this example, you create topics in the China (Hangzhou) region at USD 0.32 per topic per day:
| Day | Activity | Billable topics | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Create 30 topics, then delete 10 (20 remain) | 30 | 0.32 x 30 = USD 9.60 |
| Day 2 | Create 50 more topics | 70 (50 + 20) | 0.32 x 70 = USD 22.40 |
Topic request fees
Formula:
Topic requests (in millions) x Unit price (USD/million requests)
The monthly free quota of 20 million requests applies before billing. Only requests exceeding the quota are charged.
The free quota covers only normal messages. Ordered messages are billed at standard rates regardless of the free quota.
Unit prices
| Region | Normal messages (USD/million) | Ordered messages (USD/million) |
|---|---|---|
| China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Beijing), China (Qingdao), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Chengdu), China (Guangzhou), China (Ulanqab) | 0.32 | 0.48 |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.43 | 0.645 |
| China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), US (Atlanta), Germany (Frankfurt), UAE (Dubai), UK (London), Thailand (Bangkok), South Korea (Seoul) | 0.46 | 0.69 |
| SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) | 0.552 | 0.828 |
Example
You create a standard topic in the China (Hangzhou) region at USD 0.32 per million requests. Out of 22 million requests in a month, 20 million are covered by the free quota. The remaining 2 million are billed:
2 x 0.32 = USD 0.64
Subscription push fees
| Subscription type | Billing |
|---|---|
| Queue | Free. Pushing messages to queues incurs no push fees. For queue-related costs, see Queue resource usage fees and Queue request fees. |
| HTTP | Billed based on the total number of pushes. |
Push fees for HTTP subscriptions are temporarily free. The official billing start date will be announced through notifications, text messages, and internal messages.
Outbound internet traffic fees
Outbound internet traffic is temporarily free. The official billing start date will be announced through notifications, text messages, and internal messages.
Message trace fees
When message tracing is enabled, fees are based on the number of traces recorded. Message trace fees are settled hourly.
How traces are counted
Trace count = Messages received from producers + (Messages delivered to consumers x 2)
Each message delivered to a consumer generates two traces: one before the consumption logic runs, and one after it completes.
Unit price
Formula:
Trace count x Unit price (USD/million traces)
| Region | Unit price (USD/million traces) |
|---|---|
| All available regions | 0.0155 |
The uniform rate of USD 0.0155 per million traces applies across all regions, including China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), US (Atlanta), Mexico, UAE (Dubai), SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region), and Thailand (Bangkok).
Example
In this example, your application in the China (Beijing) region sends 1 million messages per day, and each message is consumed once:
Sending traces: 1 million
Consumption traces: 1 million x 2 = 2 million
Total: 3 million traces per day
Daily cost: 3 x 0.0155 = USD 0.0465