You are charged for using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) NAT gateways. This topic describes the billing method and billable items of VPC NAT gateways.

Billing overview

VPC NAT gateways support the pay-as-you-go billing method.

The billable items of VPC NAT gateways consist of instances and Capacity Units (CUs).
VPC NAT gateway fee = Instance fee + CU fee
Pay-as-you-go VPC NAT gateways have the following features:
  • You are billed based on the billing cycle. Bills are generated and fees are deducted on a regular basis. The billing cycle of VPC NAT gateways is 1 hour. Bills are generated and fees are deducted on an hourly basis.
  • After you delete a VPC NAT gateway, the billing is immediately stopped. For more information about how to delete a VPC NAT gateway, see Delete a VPC NAT gateway.
  • VPC NAT gateways can handle traffic spikes. The following table describes the metrics of performance.
    Specification Number of maximum connections Maximum number of new connections Throughput
    Default 2,000,000 100,000 5 Gbps
    Maximum quota that you can apply for by submitting a ticket 10,000,000 1,000,000 100 Gbps

Instance fee

You are charged an instance fee for a VPC NAT gateway on an hourly basis. If the usage duration of a VPC NAT gateway is less than 1 hour, it is rounded up to 1 hour. 

Instance fee = Unit price(USD/hour) × Usage duration (hours)

The usage duration is the period from the time when a VPC NAT gateway is created to the time when it is deleted.

The following table describes the unit prices of VPC NAT gateways.
Note The prices in the following table are only for reference. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.
Region Unit price(USD/hour)
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Chengdu), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), and China (Ulanqab) 0.034
China (Hong Kong), UK (London), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore (Singapore), Australia (Sydney), Germany (Frankfurt), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), India (Mumbai), UAE (Dubai), and Philippines (Manila) 0.043

CU fees

You are charged a CU fee for a VPC NAT gateway on an hourly basis. If the usage duration of a VPC NAT gateway is less than 1 hour, it is rounded up to 1 hour. 

CU fee per hour = CU unit price (USD/CU) × Number of CUs consumed per hour
Number of CUs consumed per hour = Max{Number of CUs based on new connections per hour, Number of CUs based on concurrent connections per hour, Number of CUs based on data transfer per hour}
CUs are used to measure the performance of VPC NAT gateways when VPC NAT gateways process traffic. The following table describes the metrics.
Metric Unit CU coefficient How the number of CUs per hour is calculated
Connections per second (CPS) Second 1,000 The system collects all CPS values within a billing cycle and then divides the highest CPS value by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs. The number of CUs based on CPS is calculated by using the following formula:
Number of CUs based on CPS = Highest CPS value/CU coefficient
Concurrent connections (CONNS) Minute 10,000 The system collects all CONNS values within a billing cycle and then divides the highest CONNS value by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs. The number of CUs based on CONNS is calculated by using the following formula:
Number of CUs based on CONNS = Highest CONNS value/CU coefficient
Data transfer (bytes) Hour 1 GB The system collects the total amount of data transfer including the inbound and outbound traffic within a billing cycle. Then, the system divides the total amount by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs.
Note The amount of outbound and inbound network traffic collected by the system equals the amount of network traffic to be processed by a NAT gateway.
The number of CUs based on data transfer is calculated by using the following formula:
Number of CUs based on data transfer = Total amount of data transfer/CU coefficient
The following table describes the unit prices of CUs for VPC NAT gateways.
Note The prices in the following table are only for reference. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.
Region Unit price of CU(USD/ENI/hour)
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Chengdu), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), and China (Ulanqab) 0.034
China (Hong Kong), UK (London), Japan (Tokyo), Singapore (Singapore), Australia (Sydney), Germany (Frankfurt), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), India (Mumbai), UAE (Dubai), and Philippines (Manila) 0.043

Example of CU billing

You created three VPC NAT gateways in the Germany (Frankfurt) region at 08:10:00 (UTC+8) on November 8, 2021. Then, you released them at 08:50:00 (UTC+8) on November 8, 2021. The following table describes the highest CPS value, the highest CONNS value, and the total amount of data transfer of the three VPC NAT gateways from 08:10:00 (UTC+8) to 08:50:00 (UTC+8).
Metric NAT Gateway 1 NAT Gateway 2 NAT Gateway 3
Highest CPS value (connections/second) 1100 32 0
Highest CONNS value (connections/minute) 20000 8 0
Total amount of data transfer (GB/hour) 3.5 0.0056 0
The following table describes the numbers of CUs based on new connections, concurrent connections, and data transfer, and the CU fees of the NAT gateways.
The CU fee is calculated by using the following formula:
CU fee per NAT gateway per hour = Max{Number of CUs based on new connections per hour, Number of CUs based on concurrent connections per hour, Number of CUs based on the amount of data transferred per hour} × CU unit price
Number of CUs NAT Gateway 1 NAT Gateway 2 NAT Gateway 3
Number of CUs based on CPS 1100÷1000=1.1 32÷1000=0.032 0
Number of CUs based on CONNS 20000÷10000=2 8÷10000=0.0008 0
Number of CUs based on data transfer 3.5÷1=3.5 0.0056÷1=0.0056 0
CU fee (USD) 3.5×0.043=0.1505 0.032×0.043=0.001376 0

Overdue payments and top-ups

  • Take note of the following information about overdue payments:
    • A VPC NAT gateway continues to serve your workloads within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue.
    • If the outstanding amount is not paid 15 days after the payment becomes overdue, the VPC NAT gateway is suspended. You cannot manage a suspended NAT gateway.
    • If the outstanding amount is not paid 15 days after the NAT gateway is suspended, the NAT gateway is automatically deleted. An email notification is sent to you one day before the NAT gateway is deleted. After the NAT gateway is deleted, the configurations and data of the NAT gateway are deleted and cannot be restored.
  • Take note of the following information about top-ups:
    • If you top up your account balance within 15 days after the payment becomes overdue, your service is not interrupted.
    • If you top up your account balance within 30 days after the payment becomes overdue, the system automatically pays the outstanding amount. After the overdue payment is completed, the VPC NAT gateway immediately resumes services.