Serverless billing - PolarDB - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

This topic describes the billable items and pricing for PolarDB for PostgreSQL Serverless.

Billable items

Billable item	Description
Compute nodes	Serverless compute nodes include primary nodes and read-only nodes. The minimum scaling granularity for Serverless compute nodes is 0.5 PCU. You are billed for PCUs per second, and bills are generated hourly. The hourly fee is calculated and billed using the following formula: (Sum of actual PCUs per second / 3600) × Hourly price per PCU The fees for compute nodes vary based on the region and usage duration.
Storage space	Storage space refers to the space occupied by data files, index files, log files (online and archived logs), and temporary files. You are charged for the storage space that you use. The fees for storage space vary based on the data volume and storage duration. Note Serverless storage capacity can be offset by storage plans. For more information about the billing rules, see Storage plans.
Backup storage (billed only for usage that exceeds the free quota)	Backup files occupy storage space. PolarDB provides a free quota for storage space. You are charged for usage that exceeds this quota. The fees for backup files vary based on the capacity and retention period.
SQL Explorer (optional)	SQL Explorer provides value-added services for databases, such as security audit and performance diagnostics. If you enable this feature, you are charged for audit log storage. The fees for SQL Explorer vary based on the storage capacity and retention period of audit logs.

Note

When a serverless cluster is in the Normal state, you are charged for compute nodes, storage capacity, backup storage, and SQL Explorer (if enabled).
After a serverless cluster is paused, you are not charged for compute nodes. However, you are still charged for storage capacity, backup storage, and SQL Explorer (if enabled).

Billing rules

Compute nodes

Compute nodes are billed per second based on PCU usage, and bills are generated hourly. The following tables list the prices.

Note

PCU is the abbreviation for PolarDB Capacity Unit. One PCU is equivalent to the service capacity of 1 CPU core and 2 GB of memory. PCUs are the unit of measurement for the elastic resources of a PolarDB serverless cluster. The minimum scaling granularity is 0.5 PCU.
Standard Edition is not available in some regions, such as South Korea and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). Therefore, no prices are available for these regions.

Table 1. Pay-as-you-go price per PCU (USD/hour)

Region	Enterprise Edition	Standard Edition
The Chinese mainland	0.0610	0.054
China (Hong Kong)	0.1160	0.102
Japan (Tokyo)	0.0977	N/A
South Korea	0.0977	N/A
Singapore	0.1160	0.102
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)	0.1160	N/A
Indonesia (Jakarta)	0.1069	0.094
Germany (Frankfurt)	0.1038	0.092
US (Silicon Valley)	0.0947	N/A
US (Virginia)	0.0794	N/A

The hourly fee range for compute nodes is calculated using the following formula: [Price per PCU × (Minimum number of read-only nodes + 1 RW node) × Minimum PCUs per node] to [Price per PCU × (Maximum number of read-only nodes + 1 RW node) × Maximum PCUs per node].

Storage space

The billing rules vary based on the storage class and are as follows:

PSL4 and PSL5: You do not need to specify a capacity at the time of purchase. The storage space automatically scales out as your data grows. You are charged only for the storage space that you use.
Enterprise SSD (ESSD): You must specify a storage capacity at the time of purchase. You are charged based on the capacity that you select. If your data volume exceeds the purchased storage capacity, the ESSD automatically scales out. An upfront payment is charged for the scaled-out capacity. If your Alibaba Cloud account balance is insufficient to cover the payment for the scale-out, the scale-out operation fails.
Note
The ESSD scale-out rules are as follows:
- An automatic scale-out is triggered if any storage resource, such as the current capacity, Inode, or Blktag, is insufficient. The trigger conditions are as follows:
  - The storage space is less than 1 TB and the remaining resources are less than 30%.
  - The storage space is greater than or equal to 1 TB but less than 10 TB, and the remaining resources are less than 20%.
  - The storage space is greater than 10 TB and the remaining resources are less than 10%.
- Each automatic scale-out adds 20 GB of storage or 15% of the current storage space, whichever is larger. For example, if the current storage space is 200 GB, 30 GB is added in each scale-out. If the current storage space is 100 GB, 20 GB is added in each scale-out.

Price list: Pay-as-you-go price per GB of storage space (USD/GB/hour)

Storage class		The Chinese mainland	China (Hong Kong)	Singapore	Japan (Tokyo)	Indonesia (Jakarta)	Germany (Frankfurt)
ESSD PL0	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.00016	0.00016	0.000304	0.000256	0.00028	0.000273
ESSD PL1	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.000321	0.000321	0.000609	0.000513	0.000561	0.000545
ESSD PL2	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.000641	0.000641	0.001218	0.001026	0.001122	0.00109
ESSD PL3	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.001282	0.001282	0.002436	0.002051	0.002244	0.002179
ESSD AutoPL	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.000321	0.000321	0.000609	0.000513	0.000561	0.000545
PSL4	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.00025	0.00025	0.000276	0.000276	0.000276	0.000276
PSL5	Single zone (hot standby storage cluster disabled)	0.000385	0.000385	0.000425	0.000425	0.000425	0.000425

Note

Fees for storage resources can be offset by storage plans. For more information about the billing rules, see Storage plans.

Backup storage

PolarDB Serverless supports level-1 backup, level-2 backup, and log backup. For more information about the billing rules, see Backup storage billing rules (for usage that exceeds the free quota).

SQL Explorer

You are charged for SQL Explorer only if you enable this feature. For more information about how to enable SQL Explorer, see SQL Explorer. For more information about the billing rules, see SQL Explorer billing rules (optional).