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    Network Intelligence Service:Billing

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    Network Intelligence Service:Billing

    Last Updated:Jun 08, 2026

    You can use Network Intelligence Service (NIS) after enabling it for an identity-verified Alibaba Cloud account. Only the Traffic Analyzer feature incurs charges; all other NIS features are free.

    The NIS Traffic Analyzer (Commercial Edition) feature requires VPC flow logs, which incur separate charges (VPC Flow Logs billing).

    Verify your account as described in Who must complete identity verification?.

    Billing rules

    • NIS Traffic Analyzer uses pay-as-you-go billing based on actual usage.

    • Bills are generated per region. Each region includes a monthly free quota.

    • Bills are generated hourly and available 3–4 hours after each billing cycle ends. Usage under one hour is rounded up to one hour.

    Billable items

    NIS Traffic Analyzer has two billable items: processing fees and storage fees.

    Billable item

    Description

    Billing method

    Free quota

    Processing fee

    Processing fees are based on the volume of network logs read for data enrichment.

    Calculated monthly per region across all Traffic Analyzer instances. Tiered pricing applies.

    A free quota of 5 GB is provided for each region every month.

    Storage Fees for Network Traffic Analysis

    Enriched traffic data is stored based on your sampling policies for traffic analysis visualization.

    Note

    Storage fees are calculated hourly. Fees increase with log volume, sampling granularity, aggregation dimensions, and storage duration.

    Storage fee = Total hourly storage (GB) × Unit price per GB.

    A free quota of 500 GB-hours is provided for each region every month.
    Note

    The free quota applies at the account level. Monthly free quotas for processing and storage are shared across all Traffic Analyzer instances under the account.

    Pricing

    Tiered pricing for processing fees:

    Note

    10 TB = 10,240 GB

    Monthly data processing tier

    Unit price (USD/GB)

    0 to 5 GB

    Free

    5 GB to 10 TB (inclusive)

    1

    10 TB to 30 TB (inclusive)

    0.5

    30 TB to 50 TB (inclusive)

    0.25

    Over 50 TB

    0.15

    Pricing for storage fees:

    Billable item

    Unit price (USD/GB/hour)

    Storage Fee for Network Traffic Analysis

    0.00072 (A free quota of 500 GB-hours is provided for each region every month)
    Note

    For example, assume an NIS Traffic Analyzer instance stores 8 GB of data in the China (Hangzhou) region for 7 days. The first 500 GB-hours of storage are free. The storage fee for the remaining usage is calculated as follows: (8 GB × (7 days × 24 hours/day) - 500 GB-hours) × 0.00072 USD/GB/hour = 0.60768 USD.

    Billing example

    Assume you enable NIS Traffic Analyzer at 00:00:00 on April 1, 2025 and create instances A and B. From 00:00:00 April 1 to 00:00:00 May 1, 2025:

    • NIS Traffic Analyzer A processes 3 GB of logs in China (Hangzhou) and 35 TB of logs in China (Shanghai). The sampling policy performs statistical analysis on 5-tuples at 1-minute intervals with 7-day storage.

    • NIS Traffic Analyzer B processes 20 TB of logs in China (Shanghai). The sampling policy performs statistical analysis on 2-tuples at 1-day intervals with 1-year storage.

    Processing Fee for Network Traffic Analysis

    Instances A and B processed a combined 3 GB in China (Hangzhou) and 55 TB in China (Shanghai):

    • The total volume in China (Hangzhou) is less than 5 GB, so no fee is charged (covered by the free quota).

    • China (Shanghai) has a 5 GB free quota. The remaining usage is charged at tiered rates:

      • 5 GB to 10 TB (inclusive): (10 × 1,024 - 5) × 1 = 10,235 USD

      • 10 TB to 30 TB (inclusive): 20 × 1,024 × 0.5 = 10,240 USD

      • 30 TB to 50 TB (inclusive): 20 × 1,024 × 0.25 = 5,120 USD

      • Over 50 TB: (55 - 50) × 1,024 × 0.15 = 768 USD

    Total processing fee for the month: 10,235 + 10,240 + 5,120 + 768 = 26,363 USD.

    Storage fees for network traffic analysis

    • Assume that after enrichment and sampling, NIS Traffic Analyzer A stores 8 GB of data in China (Shanghai) for 7 days. The storage fee is calculated hourly: (8 GB × (7 days × 24 hours/day) - 500 GB-hours) × 0.00072 USD/GB/hour = 0.60768 USD.

    • Assume Traffic Analyzer B has a stable 2-tuple collection. After enrichment and sampling, average hourly storage in China (Shanghai) is 512 MB with 1-year retention. If the free quota is fully used by instance A, the monthly storage fee for instance B is: 512/1,024 × 0.00072 × (30 × 24) = 0.2592 USD.

    Overdue payments and top-ups

    Overdue payments

    If your account has an overdue payment, NIS Traffic Analyzer is affected as follows:

    • NIS Traffic Analyzer continues operating for 15 days after a payment becomes overdue.

    • After 15 days, NIS Traffic Analyzer is suspended. All instances stop processing and generating traffic analysis data.

    • If you clear the overdue payment within 15 days of suspension, the service resumes automatically.

    • If you do not clear the overdue payment within 15 days of suspension, all Traffic Analyzer instances are released. You receive SMS and email notification one day before release. After release, all configurations and data are permanently deleted.

      Important

      During suspension, Traffic Analyzer stops processing new data, but storage fees continue to accrue. Delete your instances if you no longer need the service.

    Top-up instructions

    NIS Traffic Analyzer is pay-as-you-go and does not require renewal. Ensure that your payment method has a sufficient balance.

    View bills

    Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Expenses and Costs console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Billing Management > Billing Details. Billing Management.