Alibaba Cloud accounts that pass real-name authentication can use Network Intelligence Service (NIS) after the Alibaba Cloud accounts activate NIS. Using the traffic analyzer feature of NIS incurs charges, while other features of NIS are free of charge.
When you use the Traffic analyzer (commercial version) feature, you need to enable the VPC flow log feature, which incurs charges. For more information about billing of VPC flow logs, see Billing of VPC flow logs. This topic describes the billing rules for araffic analyzers.
For more information about real-name authentication for Alibaba Cloud accounts, see Which users need to complete account authentication?
Billing rules
Traffic analyzers support only the pay-as-you-go billing method. You are charged based on your actual usage of each billable item.
Traffic analyzer bills are generated by region. Alibaba Cloud provides a free quota per month to each Alibaba Cloud account by region.
Traffic analyzer bills are generated on an hourly basis. If the usage duration is less than one hour, you are charged for a full hour. Bills are typically generated three to four hours after the current billing cycle ends. The actual bill genertion time may vary.
Billable items
Traffic analyzers include the following billable items: Traffic analysis processing fee and Traffic analysis storage fee.
Billable item | Description | Billing rule | Free quota |
Traffic analysis processing fee | Traffic analyzers read network logs to enrich traffic data. You are charged based on the network log data volume that is actually read, which is the traffic analysis processing volume. | The traffic analysis processing fee is calculated based on the total volume of network log data processed by all traffic analyzers in each region per month, using a tiered billing model. | 5 GB free quota per month per region |
Traffic analysis storage fee | Traffic analyzers provide high availability storage services. The enriched traffic data is stored based on the traffic analysis sampling policy that you defined to support comprehensive traffic visualization and insight services. Note The traffic analysis storage fee is calculated on an hourly basis. The larger the network log data volume, the more fine-grained the traffic analysis sampling interval and aggregation dimensions, and the longer the traffic analysis storage duration, the larger the storage volume and the higher the traffic analysis storage fee. | Traffic analysis storage fee = Hourly cumulative storage volume (GB) × Price per GB. | 500 GB free quota per month per region, accumulated hourly |
The free quota is calculated at the Alibaba Cloud account level. This means that all traffic analyzers in an Alibaba Cloud account share the monthly free quotas for traffic analysis processing and traffic analysis storage.
Pricing
Tiered price for traffic analysis processing fee:
10 TB = 10240 GB
Traffic analysis processing volume tier (monthly) | Price (USD/GB) |
0~5 GB | Free of charge |
5 GB~10 TB (including 10 TB) | 1 |
10 TB~30 TB (including 30 TB) | 0.5 |
30 TB~50 TB (including 50 TB) | 0.25 |
More than 50 TB | 0.15 |
Price for traffic analysis storage fee:
Billable item | Price (USD/GB/hour) |
Traffic analysis storage fee | 0.00072 (500 GB free quota per month per region, accumulated hourly) |
Example of free quota of traffic analysis storage fee: If Traffic Analyzer A stores 8 GB of data in the China (Hangzhou) region, with a storage duration of 7 days, the total hourly storage for this 8 GB of data over the 7 days is (8×7×24) GB. Among the storage, 500 GB is free, and you need to pay for the additional traffic analysis storage fee: (8 GB × (7 days × 24 hours/day)-500 GB*hours) × USD 0.00072/GB/hour = USD 0.60768.
Billing example
Assume that you enable the Traffic Analyzer feature at 00:00:00 April 1, 2025 and create Traffic Analyzer A and Traffic Analyzer B. By 00:00:00 May 1, 2025,
Traffic Analyzer A processes 3 GB of log data in the China (Hangzhou) region and 35 TB of log data in the China (Shanghai) region. The traffic analysis sampling policy is set to analyze 5-tuple statistics at 1-minute intervals, with a storage duration of 7 days.
Traffic Analyzer B processes 20 TB of log data in the China (Shanghai) region. The traffic analysis sampling policy is set to analyze 2-tuple statistics at 1-day intervals, with a storage duration of 1 year.
Traffic analysis processing fee
Traffic Analyzer A and Traffic Analyzer B process a total of 3 GB of log data in the China (Hangzhou) region and 55 TB of log data in the China (Shanghai) region:
The total log processing volume in the China (Hangzhou) region is less than 5 GB, so the processing volume is covered by the free quota and no fee is charged.
The China (Shanghai) region has 5 GB free quota, and you need to pay for the remaining traffic analysis processing fee based on the tiered pricing:
5 GB to 10 TB (including 10 TB): (10 × 1024－5) × 1= USD 10235
10 TB to 30 TB (including 30 TB): 20 × 1024 × 0.5 = USD 10240
30 TB to 50 TB (including 50 TB): 20 × 1024 × 0.25 = USD 5120
More than 50 TB: (55-50) × 1024 × 0.15 = USD 768
Total traffic analysis processing fee for the month: 10235 + 10240 + 5120 + 768 = USD 26363.
Traffic analysis storage fee
Assume that at a certain minute, Traffic Analyzer A processes and samples logs, and ultimately stores 8 GB of data in the China (Shanghai) region. This 8 GB of data is retained for 7 days. Because storage volume is billed on an hourly basis, the storage fee for this 8 GB of data in the China (Shanghai) region is: (8 GB × (7 days × 24 hours/day)-500 GB*hours) × USD 0.00072 /GB/hour = USD 0.60768.
Assume that Traffic Analyzer B processes a stable set of 2-tuple traffic, and after log enrichment processing and sampling, the average storage in the China (Shanghai) region is 512 MB per hour. Because the data is retained for 1 year, and Traffic Analyzer A can fully offset the free storage quota in the China (Shanghai) region, the total storage fee for this 512 MB of data in the China (Shanghai) region for the month is: 512/1024 × 0.00072 × (30 × 24) = USD 0.2592.
Overdue payments and top-up
Overdue payments
Overdue payments on your Alibaba Cloud account affect the service status of your traffic analyzers:
Within 15 days of an overdue payment, the traffic analyzers continue to provide services normally.
After 15 days of an overdue payment, if you still have not settled the payment, the traffic analyzers automatically stop providing services. All NIS Traffic Analyzer (NTA) instances in the Alibaba Cloud account are stopped and no longer process or generate new traffic analysis data.
If you settle the overdue payment within 15 days after the NTA instances stop providing services, the traffic analyzers automatically resume to the state before NTA instances stop providing services.
If you do not settle the overdue payment within 15 days after the NTA instances stop providing services, you are deemed to have voluntarily given up using the Traffic Analyzer feature. All NTA instances in your Alibaba Cloud account are to be released. You receive short message service (SMS) and email notifications one day before the instances are released. After the instances are released, the related configurations and data are deleted and cannot be recovered.
ImportantDuring the period when NTA instances stop providing services, they no longer process or generate new traffic analysis data. However, the traffic analysis data that has been generated continues to incur traffic analysis storage fees and the overdue amount accumulates. If you are sure that you no longer need the traffic analyzer service, delete the NTA instances.
Top-up
Traffic analyzers are pay-as-you-go resources for which you do not need to renew. Make sure that you have sufficient balance in your payment method.
View bills
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud Expenses and Costs Console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose to view bill details. For more information, see Bill Management.