This topic describes the billing methods, billable items, and pricing of Object Storage Service (OSS).
Billing methods
- Pay-as-you-go: By default, the pay-as-you-go billing method applies to all billable items. You are charged for the actual usage of each billable item. Fees are paid after resources are consumed. This billing method is ideal for scenarios in which the usage of resources is difficult to predict. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go.
- Subscription (resource plan): OSS provides resource plans to offset fees generated for some billable items. You can purchase resource plans that cover specific billable items at discount prices. Resources are consumed before fees are offset by resource plans. Resource plans are ideal for scenarios in which the usage of resources is easy to predict. For more information, see Overview.
- Storage capacity unit (SCU): You can use SCUs to offset storage fees that are generated for using OSS and other Alibaba Cloud storage services. For more information, see SCU.
- Compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method, resource plans and SCUs are more cost-effective.
- Each resource plan and SCU have a quota for resource usage. If your resource usage exceeds the quota, you are charged for the excess resource usage based on the pay-as-you-go billing method. We recommend that you purchase resource plans and SCUs based on your workloads and business scale.
Billable items
The following figure shows the billable items of OSS.
- Pay-as-you-go: For more information about the pay-as-you-go price of each billable item, see OSS pricing.
- Subscription (resource plan): For more information about the pricing of resource plans, go to the buy page.
Standard (LRS) Storage Plan
Standard (LRS) storage plans can be used to offset storage fees of Standard locally redundant storage (LRS) objects. Purchase
IA (LRS) Storage Plan
IA (LRS) storage plans can be used to offset storage fees of Infrequent Access (IA) LRS objects. Purchase
Outbound Traffic Plan
Outbound traffic plans can be used to offset fees for traffic that is generated when data is downloaded from OSS over the Internet. Purchase
Transfer Acceleration Plan
Transfer acceleration plans can be used to offset fees that are generated when you use an acceleration endpoint to access OSS resources. Purchase
DDoS Protection Basic Plan
DDoS protection basic plans can be used to offset fees for Anti-DDoS Pro or Anti-DDoS Premium resource reservation. Purchase
Billing cycle
OSS calculates all resource usage by hour and fees for actual usage are billed. Bills are generally generated one hour after a billing cycle ends. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system. For example, you are billed at 09:30:00 for the fees that are generated from 08:00:00 to 09:00:00 of the same day.
Billing formulas
USD per GB-month, as instructed on the OSS pricing page. When you use the pay-as-you-go billing method, fees are calculated based on the following formula: Fees = Actual usage (GB) × Unit price per hour. Therefore, when you calculate storage fees charged based on actual storage usage, you must convert GB-month to GB-hour to calculate the fees based on the following formula: Unit price in GB-hour = Unit price in USD per GB-month/30/24. For example, the unit price for the storage of Standard LRS objects is USD 0.0173 per GB-month, and the unit price in GB-hour is USD 0.000024 per GB-hour (0.0173/30/24). References
- Resource plansOverviewPurchase resource plansUpgrade resource plansRenew resource plansOverviewView the usage details of a resource plan
- ReferencesBillable itemsQuery billsQuery resource usageRefund resource plansOverdue paymentsFAQ