ApsaraDB RDS charges for two categories of billable items: RDS instance billable items and value-added service billable items.
RDS instances
When you purchase a subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instance, specify the instance type (computing resources) and storage capacity. You are then charged for two billable items: RDS instance type and storage capacity.
RDS instance type
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Fees for the computing resource specifications of subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances, including regular instances and read-only instances. The billable item appears as RDS Instance Type (rds_class) or Instance Type (ClassCode) in your bill. Fees start immediately after you create an instance. Changing the instance specifications adjusts the fees accordingly. |
| Billing formula | RDS High-availability Edition: RDS instance type fee = Unit price of the instance type × Duration |
| Billing method | Subscription or pay-as-you-go |
Savings plans or resource plans | You can purchase Data Disaster Recovery network plans to offset the fees that are generated for the traffic consumed by cross-region backups (NetworkOutDuplicationSize) of your subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instance. For more information, see Use network plans. |
The unit price varies by region, database engine, and instance specifications. For current pricing, visit the ApsaraDB RDS buy page or check your bills.
Storage capacity
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Fees for the storage capacity of subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances, including regular instances, read-only instances, and disaster recovery instances. The billable item appears as Storage Capacity (rds_storage) or Storage in your bill. Fees start immediately after you create an instance. Expanding or reducing the storage capacity adjusts the fees accordingly. |
| Billing formula | Storage capacity fee = Unit price of storage capacity × Storage used × Duration |
| Billing method | Subscription or pay-as-you-go |
Duration is calculated as follows:
Subscription instances: Duration is the subscription period.
Pay-as-you-go instances: Duration is the number of billable hours. The billing cycle is 1 hour.
The unit price of storage capacity varies by region, RDS edition, storage type, and billing method. Check the ApsaraDB RDS console for the actual price.
Value-added services
Value-added services are paid features provided by ApsaraDB RDS. Fees apply when you enable or use a value-added service.
Regular backup storage
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Definition | Data backup files and log backup files stored in Alibaba Cloud backup storage. Alibaba Cloud provides a free quota for backup storage. Usage that exceeds the free quota is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. The billable item appears as RDS Basic Backup Fee (backup_charged) in your bill. |
| Billable product | Relational database |
| Billing formula | Backup storage fee = (Total backup storage − Free quota) × Unit price of backup storage × Duration |
| Billing method | Pay-as-you-go |
Free quota by storage type:
| Storage type | Free quota |
|---|---|
| Cloud disks | 200% of the instance storage capacity |
| Local SSDs | 50% of the instance storage capacity |
Example calculation:
Assume your RDS instance uses cloud disks with 500 GB of storage capacity. The free quota is 1,000 GB (200% × 500 GB). If your total backup storage reaches 1,200 GB, the billable amount is 200 GB (1,200 − 1,000 = 200 GB), and you are charged for those 200 GB on an hourly basis.
For more information, see , Backup fees for ApsaraDB RDS for MariaDB TX, and Increase the free quota of MariaDB by scaling out storage space.
Full restoration (instance cloning)
When you restore data from the original instance's backups to a new instance, you are charged for the RDS instance type and storage capacity of the new instance. There is no separate billable item for full restoration — the costs are the same as standard instance charges.
For more information, see Restore MariaDB data网络费用网络费用Network traffic fees网络费用Network traffic fees网络费用.
Public endpoint traffic
If you apply for a public endpoint and use it to connect to your RDS instance, Internet traffic is used. Inbound and outbound Internet traffic through the public endpoint is currently free.
For more information, see Enable or disable the public endpoint for an RDS MariaDB instance.
FAQ
Why am I charged extra fees even though I purchased a subscription instance?
Subscription covers your RDS instance type and storage capacity for the subscription period. Backup storage that exceeds the free quota is billed separately on a pay-as-you-go basis, regardless of your instance billing method. Check your backup storage usage on the Database Backup page in the ApsaraDB RDS console to see if usage has exceeded the free quota.