Object Storage Service (OSS) bills based on actual usage.
After data is stored in OSS, you will incur storage fees based on the duration of storage; request fees for each data upload, download, or access; and outbound data transfer fees for data distributed over the public internet. Additionally, enabling value-added services such as CDN Acceleration, Image Processing, Transfer Acceleration, and DDoS Protection will incur corresponding charges.
If your business has a stable access pattern with predictable storage volume, request volume, and outbound data transfer, we recommend purchasing resource packages to offset specific billing items and reduce costs. Resource packages must correspond precisely to their intended billing item (for example, an Outbound Data Transfer Package can only be used to offset outbound data transfer fees). Purchasing the wrong package type will result in a failure to apply the deduction.
Unit price
For pricing details of OSS, see OSS Fees.
Billable items
The billable items of OSS are classified into the following types:
Basic billable items: Fees that most users incur when using OSS, including storage fees for data storage, traffic fees for downloading objects from OSS buckets or delivering objects by using Alibaba Cloud CDN, and API operation calling fees for read and write requests.
Billable items for value-added features: Fees incurred by a minority of users who enable and use value-added features. To improve data processing efficiency or enhance user experience, the value-added features, such as image processing (IMG), transfer acceleration, and DDoS protection, are provided. For more information, see Billable items for value-added features.
Billable items
The following figure shows the billable items of OSS.
Billing methods
OSS supports the following billing methods:
Pay-as-you-go: By default, the pay-as-you-go billing method applies to all billable items. You are charged based on the actual usage of each billable item after you use resources. This billing method is ideal for scenarios in which resource usage fluctuates.
Subscription (resource plans): OSS provides resource plans to offset fees of specific billable items, such as storage and traffic fees. You can purchase resource plans that cover specific billable items at favorable prices. Resources are consumed before fees are offset by resource plans. If the resource plans are exhausted, you are charged for excess resource usage on a pay-as-you-go basis. This billing method is suitable for scenarios in which resource usage is stable.
Free tier
New users activating OSS for the first time are eligible for our Free tier, which includes a free allowance of Standard (LRS) storage.
Billing cycle
OSS calculates all resource usage by hour and charges you based on your actual usage.
Storage fees are calculated in USD per GB-month, as indicated on the OSS pricing page. When you use the pay-as-you-go billing method, storage fees are calculated based on the following formula: Storage fees = Actual storage usage (GB) × Unit price per hour. Therefore, when you calculate storage fees charged based on actual storage usage, convert GB-month to GB-hour based on the following formula: Unit price in USD per GB-hour = Unit price in USD per GB-month/30/24. For example, the unit price for the storage usage of Standard locally redundant storage (LRS) objects is USD 0.0173 per GB-month, and the hourly pricing is approximately USD 0.000024 per GB-hour (0.0173/30/24).