After you upgrade to the new billing service, you can subscribe to bills generated from the month of the upgrade. For example, if you upgrade in November 2024, you can subscribe to bills from November 2024. You can subscribe to billing data for up to the last 12 months after the upgrade.
This feature requires the new billing service. Alibaba Cloud is gradually rolling out this feature to users by invitation. For more information about the new billing service, see Version guide.
Alibaba Cloud lets you subscribe to billing data that complies with the FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS™). For more information, see Export Alibaba Cloud FOCUS 1.0 (Preview).
OSS subscription
You can synchronize your billing data to a specified Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket.
In the Expenses and Costs console, choose Billing > Bill Subscription, and then click Create Bill Subscription.
On the Cloud Resource Access Authorization page, click Agree to Authorization.
NoteThis prompt does not appear if you have already granted authorization.
If you revoke the authorization, the system stops pushing files. You must grant authorization again.
Select Export File. Set Subscription Start Billing Month and Set Subscription Directory. Then, click Confirm Creation.
Supported bill type for OSS subscription
Push rule and file naming convention
File format
Subscription billing menus
Billing item details
Before 18:00 each day, the system pushes a full data file from the previous day. The system does not overwrite files but pushes them to a new directory. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_<Alibaba_Cloud_Site_ID>_BillingItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
After 14:00 on the second day of the following month, the system starts pushing an updated full data file. The push completes by 18:00 on the third day of the month, depending on the file size. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_<Alibaba_Cloud_Site_ID>_BillingItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
All files are in .zip format.
If a bill is too large, the system splits it into multiple .zip files.
Split bill details
Before 18:00 each day, the system pushes the full data from the previous day. The system does not overwrite files but pushes them to a new directory. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_SplitItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
After 14:00 on the third day of the following month, the system starts pushing an updated full data file. The push completes by 18:00 on the fourth day of the month, depending on the file size. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_SplitItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
All files are in .zip format.
If a bill is too large, the system splits it into multiple .zip files.
Cost details
Before 18:00 each day, the system pushes the full data from the previous day. The system does not overwrite files but pushes them to a new directory. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_CostItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
After 14:00 on the third day of the following month, the system starts pushing an updated full data file. The push completes by 18:00 on the fourth day of the month, depending on the file size. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_CostItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
All files are in .zip format.
If a bill is too large, the system splits it into multiple .zip files.
Standard bill FOCUS
Before 18:00 each day, the system pushes the full data from the previous day. The system does not overwrite files but pushes them to a new directory. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_FocusItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
After 14:00 on the third day of the following month, the system starts pushing an updated full data file. The push completes by 18:00 on the fourth day of the month, depending on the file size. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_FocusItemDetail_<YYYYMM>.
All files are in .zip format.
If a bill is too large, the system splits it into multiple .zip files.
None
Monthly bill PDF
The push completes by 18:00 on the third day of the following month. File naming convention: <Subscription_Account_ID>_MonthBill_<YYYYMM>.
zip
NoteWhen you store bill files in OSS, OSS charges storage fees based on the file type, size, and storage duration. For more information about billing, see Storage fees.
After the subscription is created, you can view the OSS subscription data.
Go to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Billing > Bill Subscription page, you can view the subscribed billing data.
Click Go to View to directly access the directory where the bill files are pushed.
File push directory: Subscribed files are pushed to a unified directory. The directory path follows this format: <Specified_OSS_Directory>/<Push_Month>/<Push_Timestamp>.
For example, if an OSS subscription file is pushed to the userbill directory at 14:04 on December 25, 2024, the directory path is: userbill/202412/202412251404/
MaxCompute subscription
The MaxCompute subscription feature lets you subscribe to different types of billing data and use MaxCompute and DataWorks for big data analytics. After you create a subscription, the system regularly synchronizes your billing data to MaxCompute. You can use the data analytics features of DataWorks to query and analyze your bills, create visualization charts, cards, and reports, and share your Alibaba Cloud spending analysis with other users.
In the Expenses and Costs console, choose Billing > Bill Subscription, and then click Create Bill Subscription.
Select a region, and then click Activate Now. Follow the prompts to complete the activation.
After the services are activated, the system performs a check. Click Confirm, and then click Go to Authorize to complete the authorization.
After you grant authorization, click One-click Create.
The following message indicates that the activation is successful.
NoteIf you have already activated MaxCompute and DataWorks, ensure that both products are in the same region. Select the region where you have activated the services to complete the authorization.
The big data analytics tool can be activated in only one region. For example, if the tool is activated in the China (Shanghai) region, you cannot subscribe to billing data in other regions.
Set the Subscription Start Billing Month, and then click Confirm Creation.
After you create the subscription, the billing data is synchronized to a specified MaxCompute table. The project is named: bill_<subscription_account_ID>.
Data push rule: Before 18:00 each day, the system pushes the full data from the previous day. At 18:00 on the third day of the following month, the system pushes an updated full data file for the previous month. You can distinguish files by their partition name: ds=<Push_Month>/version=<Push_Timestamp>.
MaxCompute supports the following types of bill subscriptions:
Supported bill type for MaxCompute subscription
Table naming convention
Subscription bill types and associated menus
Billing item details
billing_item_detail_for_billing_period
Split bill details
split_item_detail_for_billing_period
Cost details
bill_1529600453335198.cost_item_detail_for_billing_period
NoteSubscribing to and analyzing billing data incurs the following fees:
Storage fees (charged by MaxCompute): Billing data is written to the specified MaxCompute table, which incurs storage fees. For more information, see Billing items and methods.
Computation fees (charged by MaxCompute): Executing SQL statements for data analytics incurs computation fees. For more information, see Billing items and methods.
After the subscription is created, you can view the MaxCompute subscription data.
Go to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Billing > Bill Subscription page, you can view the subscribed billing data.
Click Go to View to analyze the subscribed bills. This action opens the Data Analysis page in DataWorks. You can use SQL statements to query and analyze the bill data. You can also generate visualization charts, cards, and reports from the analysis and share them with other users. For more information about analysis operations, see SQL Query (Legacy).
