The billable items for ApsaraDB RDS include RDS instance fees, value-added service fees, and fees for other related Alibaba Cloud services. This topic describes the definitions, billing formulas, and billing methods for these items.
RDS instances
Based on the billing method, RDS instances are classified into two types:
Subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances: When you purchase this type of instance, you must specify the compute resources and storage capacity. After the purchase, you are charged for the RDS instance type and storage capacity.
Serverless instances automatically scale their compute resources within a specified range based on your workload and their storage capacity based on your data volume. You are charged for RCUs and storage capacity.
When you purchase a subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instance, you must specify the compute resources and storage capacity. You are then billed for the RDS instance type and storage capacity.
RDS instance type
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the compute resource specifications of subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances. This includes regular instances, read-only instances, disaster recovery instances, and DuckDB-based analytical instances.The billable item is named RDS Instance Type (rds_class) or Instance Type (ClassCode). After you create an instance, fees are generated for this billable item. An increase or decrease in the instance's compute resource specifications or number of nodes typically changes the fees for this item. |
Billing formula |
Note The unit price of an RDS instance type varies by region, database engine, and specifications. Refer to the product page and your bills for details. |
Billing method | Subscription or pay-as-you-go. |
RCU for serverless instances
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the compute resources of a serverless RDS instance. The billable item is named RCU (rds_serverless_rcu). After you create a serverless instance, fees are generated for this billable item based on the actual RCU usage. If you pause the instance, billing for this item also pauses. |
Billing formula | RCU fee = Unit price per RCU on a single node × RCU usage on a single node × Number of nodes × Duration RCU fee = Unit price per RCU × RCU usage × Duration Note For RCU unit prices, see Serverless ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL fees, , or . |
Billing method | Serverless. |
Storage capacity
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the storage capacity of subscription, pay-as-you-go, or serverless RDS instances. This includes regular instances, read-only instances, and disaster recovery instances. The billable item is named Storage Capacity (rds_storage or Storage). After you create an instance, fees are generated for this billable item. An increase or decrease in the instance's storage capacity changes the fees for this item. |
Billing formula |
Storage capacity fee = Unit price of instance storage × Instance storage capacity × Duration Note
|
Billing method | Subscription, pay-as-you-go, and serverless. |
RDS value-added services
RDS value-added services are paid features. You are charged for these features only after you enable or use them. The billable product for RDS value-added services is ApsaraDB RDS.
Automatic performance scaling
Category | Description |
Definition | You are not charged for enabling the automatic performance scaling feature. However, if you enable the feature and the CPU utilization reaches the threshold, the computing resources of the ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance are increased and fees are generated for the increased computing resources based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.
|
Billing formula |
Note
|
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
I/O burst for premium performance disks
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the I/O burst usage of an RDS instance that uses premium performance disks. Enabling the I/O burst feature is free. However, after it is enabled, if the I/O burst usage exceeds the free quota, fees are generated for the billable item named I/O Burst (io_burst). For more information, see I/O burst for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL. |
Billing formula | I/O burst fee for premium performance disks = (Total I/O burst usage of all nodes in the instance - Free quota) × Unit price of I/O burst × Duration Note For the total I/O burst usage of all nodes, free quota, and unit price of I/O burst, see Billing of I/O burst for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL or . |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Premium performance disk data archiving
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the archived data volume of an RDS instance that uses premium performance disks. Enabling data archiving is free. However, after it is enabled, data archived to Object Storage Service (OSS) incurs OSS bucket (rds_oss_storage) fees. For more information, see Data archiving for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL. |
Billing formula | Premium performance disk data archiving fee = Archived data volume × Unit price of data archiving × Duration Note For the unit price of data archiving, see Billing of data archiving for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL, , or . |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Regular and archived backups
Regular backup storage
Category | Description |
Definition | Data and log backups are stored in the backup space provided by Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud offers a free backup quota. If your backup storage exceeds the free quota, the excess amount is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. The billable item is named RDS Basic Backup Fee (backup_charged). For more information, see Back up ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL data. |
Billable product | Relational database. |
Billing formula | Backup storage fee = (Total backup size - Free backup quota) × Unit price of backup storage × Duration Note
|
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Archived backup storage
Category | Description |
Definition | Data backups retained for more than 730 days are automatically converted to archived backups. This generates fees for the billable item named Long-term Backup (ArchivedBackupCharged). For more information, see Automatic backup. |
Billable product | Relational database |
Billing formula | Archived backup storage fee = Unit price of archived backup storage × Archived backup storage usage × Duration Note For the unit price of archived backup storage, see Backup fees. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
The billable items for cross-region backups are billed under the ApsaraDB and Database Backup products. For more information, see Data disaster recovery: cross-region backup, backup storage for deleted instances, and backup download.
The billable items for backup storage for deleted instances and backup downloads are billed under the Database Backup product. For more information, see Data disaster recovery: cross-region backup, backup storage for deleted instances, and backup download.
Full restoration and regular database and table restoration
Restore full data (clone instance)
When you restore data to a new instance using the data and log backups of the original instance, you are charged for the new instance's RDS instance type and storage capacity.
For more information, see Restore MySQL data.
Regular database and table restoration
When you restore specific databases or tables to a new instance from a backup set or to a point in time, you are charged for the new instance's RDS instance type and storage capacity. No fees are charged if you restore the data to the original instance.
There is no charge for restoring specific databases or tables to the original instance from a backup set or to a point in time.
For more information, see Restore ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL databases and tables or .
SQL Audit (DAS Enterprise Edition V0)
Category | Description |
Definition | Storage fees for SQL audit logs. After you enable SQL Audit, you are billed based on the storage space occupied by the SQL audit logs and the storage duration. The billable item is named SQL Audit (sql_collected). For more information, see SQL Explorer and Audit for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL, , or . |
Billable product | Relational database. |
Billing formula | SQL Audit fee = Unit price × Storage space × Duration Note For the unit price of SQL Audit, see Billing, , or . |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
For the SQL Explorer and Audit feature provided by DAS Enterprise Edition V3, V2, or V1, the billable product is Database Autonomy Service. For more information, see DAS: SQL Explorer and Audit.
Performance monitoring
Category | Description |
Definition | When you set the performance monitoring frequency for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance to 5 seconds, you incur performance monitoring (advanced_monitor) fees. Frequencies of 60 seconds and 300 seconds are free. Performance monitoring is free for ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MariaDB instances. For more information about this feature, see Set the frequency of the legacy monitoring. |
Billing formula | Performance monitoring fee = Unit price of performance monitoring × Duration Note For the unit price of performance monitoring, see Fees. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Database proxy
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees for the database proxy. When you enable the database proxy and select Dedicated as the proxy type, you are billed based on the proxy specifications and usage duration. The billable item is named Number of database proxy instance shards (MaxscaleChargedSliceNum). General-purpose database proxies are free. For more information, see Database proxy for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL or . |
Billing formula | Database proxy fee = Unit price × Number of proxies × Duration Note For the unit price of database proxies, see Dedicated proxy pricing or . |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Public endpoint traffic
If you apply for and use a public endpoint to connect to your RDS instance, outbound traffic over the Internet is generated. Currently, both inbound and outbound traffic over the Internet for connecting to an RDS instance using a public endpoint is free of charge.
For more information, see Enable or disable the public endpoint for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance, , , or .
Services and billing from other Alibaba Cloud products
RDS integrates services from other Alibaba Cloud products. When you use the following features, billable items from other Alibaba Cloud products are generated.
Data disaster recovery: cross-region backup, backup storage for deleted instances, and backup download
Cross-region backup
Category | Description |
Definition | Cross-region backups incur backup storage fees and network fees. The billable items are as follows: Geo-redundant storage (DdrOssStorageSize) and cross-region backup network traffic (NetworkOutDuplicationSize).
For more information, see Cross-region backup for MySQL. |
Billable product |
|
Billing formula |
Note
|
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Offset by savings plans or resource plans | DBS network plans can offset fees for Cross-region backup network traffic (NetworkOutDuplicationSize) on subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances. |
Backup storage for deleted instances
Category | Description |
Definition | Storage fees for the backup sets of deleted ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances. Storage is free for 7 days. After 7 days, you are billed for the storage based on the backup set size and storage duration. The specific billable items are as follows:
For more information, see Configure a backup retention policy for released instances. |
Billable product | Database Backup. |
Billing formula | Backup storage fee for a deleted instance = Unit price of backup storage for a deleted instance × Backup size of the deleted instance × Duration Note For the unit price of the backup storage for a deleted instance, see Billing. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Download backup
Category | Description |
Definition | Fees generated when you download RDS instance backups. This includes outbound traffic over Internet (NetworkOutSize) fees and backup calculation data volume (BackupAnalyticSize) fees when using the Advanced Download feature. For more information, see Download ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL backups, , or . |
Billable product | Database Backup. |
Billing formula |
Note For the unit price of backup calculation data volume (also called the backup conversion fee unit price) and the unit price for outbound traffic over the Internet generated by downloading backups, see Download backups. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Can be offset by savings plans or resource plans | DBS network plans can offset the outbound traffic over Internet (NetworkOutSize) fees for subscription or pay-as-you-go RDS instances. |
Data Disaster Recovery: fast restoration of individual databases and tables (within 5 minutes), emergency recovery
Fast restoration for individual databases and tables & Fast 5-minute restoration for individual databases and tables
Fast 5-minute restoration for individual databases and tables is no longer available for new users.
Category | Description |
Definition | The fast restoration for individual databases and tables feature for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances with Premium Local SSDs is available in Free and Paid editions.
For more information, see Fast restoration of individual databases and tables and fast restoration of individual databases and tables within 5 minutes. |
Billable product | Database Backup. |
Billing formula | Fee = Unit price of CDM local disk storage × CDM local disk storage capacity × Duration Note For the unit price of the CDM local disk storage, see Restore individual databases and tables. |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Can be offset by savings plans or resource plans | CDM sandbox storage plans can offset the CDM local disk storage capacity (CapacitySandboxStorageSize) fees for subscription or pay-as-you-go ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL with Premium Local SSDs instances. |
Emergency recovery
Category | Description |
Definition | The emergency recovery feature for ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instances with Premium Local SSDs involves the following billable items:
For more information, see Use the emergency recovery feature for an ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL instance. |
Billable product | Database Backup. |
Billing formula |
Note
|
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go. |
Can be offset by savings plans or resource plans | CDM sandbox storage plans can offset the CDM local disk storage capacity (CapacitySandboxStorageSize) fees for subscription or pay-as-you-go ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL with Premium Local SSDs instances. |
DAS: SQL Explorer and Audit
The billable items for DAS Enterprise Edition V3, V2, and V1 are billed under the Database Autonomy Service product.
DAS Agent
Chinese mainland regions
|
Edition |
Max managed instances |
Max agents |
Character usage |
Concurrency limit |
List price |
|
Basic Edition |
10 |
1 |
Billed monthly with overage charges. |
1 |
USD 15/month. Includes a 100,000-character usage quota. Usage that exceeds the quota is billed at USD 0.00021 per character. |
|
Enterprise Edition-SAAS |
20 |
Unlimited |
Unlimited usage |
3 |
USD 1,500/month |
|
40 |
3 |
USD 3,000/month |
|||
|
60 |
3 |
USD 4,500/month |
|||
|
80 |
3 |
USD 6,000/month |
|||
|
100 |
3 |
USD 7,500/month |
|||
|
200 |
3 |
USD 15,000/month |
|||
|
300 |
3 |
USD 22,500/month |
|||
|
400 |
3 |
USD 30,000/month |
|||
|
500 |
5 |
USD 37,500/month |
|||
|
600 |
5 |
USD 45,000/month |
|||
|
700 |
5 |
USD 52,500/month |
|||
|
800 |
5 |
USD 60,000/month |
|||
|
900 |
5 |
USD 67,500/month |
|||
|
1000 |
5 |
USD 75,000/month |
Other regions
|
Edition |
Max managed instances |
Max agents |
Character usage |
Concurrency limit |
List price |
|
Basic Edition |
10 |
1 |
Billed monthly with overage charges. |
1 |
USD 30/month. Includes a 100,000-character usage quota. Usage that exceeds the quota is billed at USD 0.00021 per character. |
|
Enterprise Edition-SAAS |
20 |
Unlimited |
Unlimited usage |
3 |
USD 2,250/month |
|
40 |
3 |
USD 4,500/month |
|||
|
60 |
3 |
USD 6,750/month |
|||
|
80 |
3 |
USD 9,000/month |
|||
|
100 |
3 |
USD 11,250/month |
|||
|
200 |
3 |
USD 22,500/month |
|||
|
300 |
3 |
USD 33,750/month |
|||
|
400 |
3 |
USD 45,000/month |
|||
|
500 |
5 |
USD 56,250/month |
|||
|
600 |
5 |
USD 67,500/month |
|||
|
700 |
5 |
USD 78,750/month |
|||
|
800 |
5 |
USD 90,000/month |
|||
|
900 |
5 |
USD 101,250/month |
|||
|
1000 |
5 |
USD 112,500/month |
-
Monthly fee for the Basic Edition
-
The monthly fee includes a usage quota of 100,000 characters. Unused characters are cleared at the end of the month and cannot be rolled over to the next month or refunded.
-
If you unsubscribe early, the monthly fee is refunded on a pro-rata basis, deducting the cost for the days the service was used. For example, in regions other than China (Shanghai), if the monthly fee is USD 30, the month has 30 days, and you have used the service for 10 days, you will receive a refund of USD 20 upon unsubscription.
-
The character count in DAS Agent includes all characters in questions, answers, and O&M reports, such as letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces, and line feeds.
-
To provide a "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) experience, DAS Agent uses character-based billing instead of token-based metering. For example, when you ask if an instance is abnormal, DAS Agent may check multiple metrics, such as CPU utilization, I/O, queries per second (QPS), transactions per second (TPS), and memory. It may also review slow SQL lists, lock analysis results, and even security risk detection results. The agent's inference determines the specific checks performed, which typically cover these common issue types. This process can consume a large number of tokens. If an issue is found, the response can be thousands of characters long. If no issues are found, the response might be as short as "This instance has no exceptions in its current state." To provide a more intuitive understanding of usage, we bill by the number of characters in the Q&A. A typical Q&A session for SQL optimization or CPU utilization anomaly diagnosis consumes about 1,000 to 5,000 characters. An O&M report consumes about 5,000 characters. The Basic Edition monthly fee covers approximately 15 to 50 diagnoses or reports, depending on Q&A complexity. You can view the character usage of each historical conversation or O&M report on the DAS Agent details page.
-
O&M service (formerly Economy Edition)
Pricing: USD 45/month/instance
Promotional price: USD 15/month/instance
Security services
|
Billable item |
Billing object |
Specification |
Pricing |
Description |
|
Security management (SecurityManagement_Amount) |
Number of instances |
Unlimited |
USD 20/instance/month |
The security management feature provides a comprehensive database security solution. It unifies management of SSL certificates and allow lists and uses automated security baseline checks to continuously detect configuration risks, such as weak passwords and insecure backup or audit settings. This improves the security posture of your databases. Each instance consumes one security management quota. |
|
Sensitive data detection (DCG_Amount) |
Number of database tables (X) |
0 to 50,000 |
USD 80 per 10,000 tables/month |
Note
You receive a complimentary quota for 100 table scans to help you get started. |
|
60,000 to 100,000 |
USD 60 per 10,000 tables/month |
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|
110,000 to 500,000 |
USD 40 per 10,000 tables/month |
|||
|
510,000 or more |
USD 20 per 10,000 tables/month |
|||
|
Column encryption (CLE_Amount) |
Number of database columns (Y) |
5 |
USD 498/month |
|
|
10 |
USD 598/month |
|||
|
15 |
USD 699/month |
|||
|
20 |
USD 798/month |
|||
|
25 |
USD 898/month |
|||
|
30 |
USD 996/month |
|||
|
35 |
USD 1,092/month |
|||
|
40 |
USD 1,198/month |
|||
|
45 |
USD 1,287/month |
|||
|
50 |
USD 1,398/month |
|||
|
51 to 100 |
USD 25/column/month |
|||
|
101 to 200 |
USD 20/column/month |
|||
|
201 to 300 |
USD 15/column/month |
|||
|
301 to 400 |
USD 12/column/month |
|||
|
401 to 500 |
USD 11/column/month |
|||
|
501 to 600 |
USD 10/column/month |
|||
|
601 to 700 |
USD 9/column/month |
|||
|
701 to 800 |
USD 8/column/month |
|||
|
801 to 900 |
USD 7/column/month |
|||
|
901 to 1,000 |
USD 6/column/month |
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|
More than 1,000 |
USD 5/column/month |
Audit log (NoSQL compatible)
|
Billable item |
Billing method |
Daily unit price |
Description |
|
log traffic |
pay-as-you-go |
USD 0.04/GB |
Default fee. This pay-as-you-go fee applies when logs are ingested into storage and covers basic processes like collection, transmission, and writing. |
|
cold storage |
USD 0.001042/GB/hour |
Default fee. Cold storage fees are based on log volume and storage duration.
|
|
|
log indexing |
USD 0.04/GB |
|
|
|
hot storage |
USD 0.00133/GB/hour |
|
Billing example
Audit Log (NoSQL Compatible) provides features such as log queries, online analysis, and data exports. It helps security auditors quickly detect unusual data operations and identify who made changes and when. It also helps business systems meet security and compliance requirements and assists developers and O&M engineers in troubleshooting performance issues.
Suppose your instance ingests 10 GB of log data daily. You set the Select the storage duration of SQL logs. to 180 days, enable log indexing, and configure a hot storage period of 7 days for performance troubleshooting.
-
The SQL Log Storage Duration is the total retention period for your SQL logs, which are stored in cold storage by default.
-
To meet compliance regulations in the Chinese mainland, the cold storage period must be at least 180 days.
|
Feature |
Billable item |
Daily unit price |
Daily usage |
Daily fee |
|
SQL logs |
log traffic |
USD 0.04/GB |
10 GB |
USD 0.4 |
|
cold storage |
USD 0.001042/GB/hour |
Day 1: 10 GB Day 2: 20 GB ... Day 173: 1,730 GB |
10 * (180 - 7) * 0.001042 * 24 = USD 43.25 |
|
|
log indexing |
log indexing |
USD 0.04/GB |
10 GB |
USD 0.4 |
|
hot storage |
USD 0.00133/GB/hour |
After enabling the feature: Day 1: 10 GB Day 2: 20 GB ... Day 7: 70 GB (After 7 days, data in hot storage expires and is moved to cold storage.) |
Daily fee from Day 7 onward: 10 * 7 * 0.00133 * 24 = USD 2.23 |
The type of audit log records affects the volume of stored logs and their associated fees. You can customize the configuration after you enable this feature.
Enterprise Edition V3
To meet the backup and recovery requirements for database audit logs required by regulations such as GDPR and China's Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS), Enterprise Edition V3 enhances long-term storage (180 days or more) with multi-AZ backup, accidental deletion recovery, and long-term retention features.
Billing
|
Billable item |
Billing method |
Pricing in the Chinese mainland |
Pricing in Hong Kong (China) and other regions |
Description |
|
Log traffic (DataIngestion) |
pay-as-you-go |
USD 0.04/GB |
USD 0.06/GB |
Default fee. This fee is for the volume of data ingested, covering collection, transmission, and writing to storage. |
|
Log indexing (RealTimeSearchAnalytics) |
USD 0.04/GB |
USD 0.06/GB |
|
|
|
SQL Explorer (InsightAnalysis) |
USD 0.0134/GB |
USD 0.02/GB |
This fee is charged based on the amount of log data processed by SQL Explorer for automatic aggregation and analysis. |
|
|
Hot storage (SqlInsightHotDataSize) |
USD 0.00167/GB/day |
USD 0.0025/GB/day |
|
|
|
Cold storage (SqlInsightColdDataSize) |
USD 0.0005/GB/day |
USD 0.00075/GB/day |
Default fee. The fee for cold storage is charged based on log volume and storage duration.
|
|
|
Cold query (SqlScanDataSize) |
USD 0.0025/GB |
USD 0.00375/GB |
This fee is based on the volume of data scanned during offline queries on logs in cold storage. |
|
|
Download |
USD 0.067/GB |
USD 0.1/GB |
The fee for exporting or dumping data is waived while this feature is in public preview. |
|
|
Security audit (SecurityAudit) |
USD 0.08/GB |
USD 0.12/GB |
When you use the new version of security audit, you are billed based on either a minimum charge (USD 0.1042/hour/instance) or the volume of logs processed, whichever is higher. Note
If the fee calculated based on your actual log volume exceeds the minimum charge, you are billed for the log volume. Otherwise, the minimum charge applies. To view security audit bills, select AI-Native Database Service for Product Name and select Database Security Agent for Commodity Name. |
|
|
Redacted log delivery (PSQLDelivery) |
USD 0.1333/GB |
USD 0.2/GB |
When you use redacted log delivery, you are billed based on either a minimum charge (USD 2.5/day) or the volume of logs processed, whichever is higher. Note
If the fee calculated based on your actual log volume exceeds the minimum charge, you are billed for the log volume. Otherwise, the minimum charge applies. |
|
|
Insights delivery (InsightDelivery) |
USD 0.06/hour |
USD 0.09/hour |
This fee is charged per hour when you use insights delivery. |
Enterprise Edition V2
|
Billable item |
Billing method |
Chinese mainland, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and Indonesia (Jakarta) pricing |
Hong Kong (China) and Singapore pricing |
Description |
|
Hot storage (SqlInsightHotDataSize) |
Pay-as-you-go |
USD 0.00145/GB/hour |
USD 0.002175/GB/hour |
Data is stored on high-performance devices for query acceleration and SQL aggregation. |
|
Cold storage (SqlInsightColdDataSize) |
USD 0.00018/GB/hour |
USD 0.00027/GB/hour |
Data is stored on low-cost devices to reduce usage costs. The system automatically moves |
|
|
Data query fee (SqlScanDataSize) |
USD 0.029/GB |
USD 0.0435/GB |
A pay-as-you-go |
|
|
Security audit (SecurityAudit) |
USD 0.08/GB |
USD 0.12/GB |
|
Enterprise Edition V1 and V0
Only Enterprise Edition V1 is billed on a subscription basis.
|
Billable item |
Billing method |
Pricing |
Description |
|
Subscription fee |
subscription |
USD 6.2/instance/month |
The number of billable instances is your Enterprise Edition V1 quota, which is the total number of database instances eligible for DAS Professional Edition V1. For example, if your Enterprise Edition V1 quota is 3 and you have enabled DAS Professional Edition for 1 database instance, your subscription fee for DAS Professional Edition is Important
Only Enterprise Edition V1 is billed on a subscription basis. |
|
Storage fee for SQL Explorer (sql_storage_used) |
pay-as-you-go |
|
Pricing for the Chinese mainland, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and Indonesia (Jakarta). |
|
Pricing for Hong Kong (China) and Singapore. |
||
|
Security audit (SecurityAudit) |
|
|