Billable items and pricing for Serverless - PolarDB - Alibaba Cloud - PolarDB

This topic describes the billable items and billing rules for serverless clusters of PolarDB for PostgreSQL.

Billable items

Billable item	Description
Compute nodes	Serverless compute nodes include a primary node and read-only nodes. The minimum scaling granularity for Serverless compute nodes is 0.5 PCU. Compute nodes are billed per PCU per second and settled hourly. The hourly fee is calculated using the following formula: (Sum of actual PCUs per second / 3,600) × 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, manifest, log files (online logs 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.
Backup storage (charged only when the free quota is exceeded)	Backup files occupy storage space. PolarDB provides a free quota for backup storage. You are charged for the storage that exceeds the free quota. The fees for backup files vary based on the storage 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 this feature is enabled.
If 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 this feature is enabled.

Billing rules

Compute nodes

Compute nodes are billed per PCU per second, and fees are settled hourly. The following table lists the prices.

Note

PCU is the abbreviation for PolarDB Capacity Unit. One PCU is equivalent to the computing resources of 1 core and 2 GB of memory. PCUs are the units used to measure and manage the elasticity of PolarDB serverless clusters. 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 provided for these regions.

Table 1. Pay-as-you-go prices 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. The rules are as follows:

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

Price list: Pay-as-you-go price per GB of storage (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

Backup storage

Serverless clusters support level-1 backups, level-2 backups, and log backups. For more information, see Billing rules for backup storage (for usage that exceeds the free quota).

SQL Explorer

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