Learn about billing methods, billable items, billing cycles, and pricing for Classic Load Balancer (CLB).
Adjustments are made to the billable items of CLB. Beginning 00:00:00 (UTC+8), December 1, 2024, the following new billable items are used by pay-as-you-go CLB instances:
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Instance fee is renamed public IP retention fee.
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A billable item instance fee is added.
For more information, see CLB billing adjustments.
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The sale of pay-by-specification CLB instances has been discontinued since 00:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 1, 2025. For details, see End of sale for pay-by-specification CLB instances.
Metering methods
Pay-as-you-go CLB instances support two instance metering methods: pay-by-LCU and pay-by-specification (sale discontinued).
Internet data transfer metering methods: pay-by-bandwidth and pay-by-data-transfer.
Billing method | Instance metering method | Instance network type | Internet data transfer metering method | Use cases |
Pay-by-LCU | Internet-facing | Pay-by-data-transfer |
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Internal | N/A | |||
Pay-by-specification (sale discontinued) | Internet-facing | Pay-by-data-transfer |
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Pay-by-bandwidth | ||||
Internal | N/A |
Billable items
Billable items for a pay-as-you-go CLB instance:
Billable items
Billable items for pay-as-you-go CLB instances. Applicable items depend on network type and metering method.
Billable item | Description | Applies to |
Public IP retention fee | Configuration fee for a public IP address, charged regardless of usage. | Internet-facing instances only |
Instance fee | Fee charged for ownership over unreleased CLB instances. | All instances |
LCU fee | Hourly fee based on actual Load Balancer Capacity Unit (LCU) consumption. | Pay-by-LCU instances only |
Specification fee | Charged at a fixed rate regardless of your actual usage. | Pay-by-specification instances only |
Internet data transfer fees | Fee for outbound Internet data transfers based on actual usage. Inbound Internet data transfers are free. | Only Internet-facing instances using the pay-by-data-transfer Internet data transfer metering method |
Bandwidth fee | Fixed rate based on maximum bandwidth, regardless of actual usage. | Only Internet-facing instances using the pay-by-bandwidth Internet data transfer metering method |
Internal pay-as-you-go CLB instances do not incur public IP retention fees, Internet data transfer fees, or bandwidth fees. If you associate a separately purchased Elastic IP Address (EIP), fees are charged by EIP, not CLB.
Intra-region traffic between CLB and backend ECS instances incurs no data transfer fees.
Billing cycles
Billing cycles for CLB:
Billing cycle | Fee deduction time and bill generation time | Billable item |
Hourly | Charged hourly. Bills generate approximately 1 hour after each cycle. Exact timing is system-determined. | Pay-as-you-go CLB billable items:
For more information, see Pay-as-you-go. |
Daily | Charged daily. Bills typically generate the following morning. Exact timing is system-determined. | Bandwidth fees (pay-as-you-go) For more information, see Pay-as-you-go. |
Pricing
For more information about the pricing of each CLB billable item, see Pay-as-you-go. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.
You can use the LCU calculator to estimate LCU consumption for a CLB instance.
References
Billing method: Pay-as-you-go
Specification changes: Modify pay-as-you-go instances
FAQ: CLB Billing FAQ
Learn more
Overdue payments
Payment status | Resource status | Solution |
Overdue | Overdue payments affect all pay-as-you-go instances in your account.
| After you top up the account balance, your service is resumed. |
If the overdue payment remains unsettled 15 days after CLB instance suspension, the instance is released. You are notified one day before release. All configurations and data are permanently deleted. | Configuration and data cannot be recovered. |
View amount due
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
On the Billing Account page, view overdue payments.
Expired instances
CLB instances that have overdue payments are moved to the Expired Instances list.
Background information
CLB instances continue running for 15 days after a payment becomes overdue.
After 15 days, the instance is suspended and moved to the Expired Instances list.
If you top up your account and complete the overdue payment within 15 days of suspension, the CLB instance is removed from the Expired Instances page and listed on the Instances page.
If the payment remains unsettled 15 days after suspension, the instance is released.
Renew an expired CLB instance
Log on to the CLB console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Expired Instances.
View the details of CLB instances that have overdue payments.
Find the target CLB instance and click Renew in the Actions column. The renewed instance moves from the Expired Instances page to the Instances page.
View resource usage
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Billing > Billing > Bill Details. On the Bill Details page, click View Usage Details in the upper-right corner.
On the View Usage Details page, select the Time Period for which you want to view usage details. Set Commodity Name to CLB (Pay-As-You-Go) International Site, select the desired Billable Item, and set Billable Item to Classic Load Balancer. Select a Time Unit, and then click Export CSV.
On the Export Record page, wait until the file is generated, and then click Download to download the file.
After you open the usage details file, you can view the usage details by instance ID, region, or service address.
Query billing and spending details
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bill Details page.
On the Bill Details page, set the filter conditions to view the required information. For more information, see Bill details.