This topic describes Application Load Balancer (ALB) billing information.
Billing methods
Application Load Balancer (ALB) supports the pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods.
Pay-as-you-go: You are charged based on actual usage of each billable item. You use resources first and then pay. This method suits scenarios where business usage changes frequently.
Resource plans (subscription): Purchase resource plans in advance. When fees are settled, the system deducts usage from your resource plans first. You buy first and then deduct. This method suits scenarios where business usage is relatively stable.
Resource plans offer discounts compared to pay-as-you-go pricing.
Usage that exceeds the deduction limit of a resource plan automatically converts to pay-as-you-go and generates a pay-as-you-go bill. Purchase resource plans that match your business usage.
Billable items
The billable items for pay-as-you-go ALB are as follows:
Billing cycle
ALB instance fees and load balancer capacity unit (LCU) fees are billed hourly. The system settles fees based on usage. Bills are typically generated one hour after the current billing cycle ends. The exact billing time is determined by the system.
Public-facing ALBs incur public network fees. A public-facing ALB provides services over the internet using an Elastic IP address (EIP). Public network fees generated by the EIP associated with an ALB instance are charged by the EIP service. Therefore, the billing cycle, fee deduction, and bill generation time for public network fees are the same as those for pay-as-you-go EIPs. For more information, see Billing overview.
Pricing
For ALB product catalog prices, see ALB billing rules and ALB resource plans. The actual purchase price is the price shown on the purchase page.
Use the ALB LCU Calculator to estimate LCU consumption.
More information
Overdue payments
Causes
You have not purchased resource plans, and your account balance is insufficient.
You have purchased resource plans, but they do not cover all fees.
Overdue payments
Status | Resource status | How to operate |
Overdue Payment Warning | The system checks if your account balance is sufficient to cover three billing cycles, based on the average payable amount over the last 7 hours. If insufficient, the system notifies you by text message or email. Warning An overdue payment may lead to service suspension. The system notifies you to renew promptly to avoid service interruption. | You can Top up your Alibaba Cloud account to immediately restore the instance to its Normal state. |
Overdue | If your Alibaba Cloud account has an overdue payment, all pay-as-you-go instances under that account enter an overdue state.
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After 15 days of overdue suspension, ALB instances are released. The instance's configurations and data are deleted and cannot be recovered. | Cannot be recovered. |
View amount due
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
On the Account Overview page, view the amount due.
View usage details
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose .
Click the View Usage Details tab. Set Product to Server Load Balancer, and Billable Item to Application Load Balancer (ALB). Configure the Usage Time and Metering Granularity for which you want to view usage details. Then, click Export CSV.
After opening the usage details file, view detailed LCU usage information by business start and end times, instance ID, and other criteria.
Query billing and spending details
Log on to the Expenses and Costs Bill Details page.
On the Billing Details page, click the Billing History, Detailed Bill, and Usage Details tabs to view corresponding consumption details and billing information. For more information, see Billing History, Detailed Bill, and Usage Details.