Alibaba Cloud International Site uses a tiered settlement mechanism for pay-as-you-go products. The system automatically triggers settlement based on your cumulative consumption and upgrades your settlement tier after each successful deduction.
Scope
Dimension | Description |
Site | Alibaba Cloud International Site |
Users | Users not on credit control |
Products | Pay-as-you-go products (excluding cloud communications) |
Settlement tiers
The system provides three settlement tiers that determine the cumulative consumption amount required to trigger an automatic deduction:
Tier | Trigger amount (USD) | Upgrade condition |
Tier 1 | 100 | Default tier for new users |
Tier 2 | 500 | Automatically upgraded after a successful deduction at the USD 100 tier |
Tier 3 | 1,000 | Automatically upgraded after a successful deduction at the USD 500 tier |
Tier upgrades are permanent and require no manual action.
Settlement rules
Cumulative consumption trigger: When your cumulative pay-as-you-go consumption reaches the amount specified by your current tier, the system automatically triggers a settlement deduction.
Month-end settlement: If your monthly consumption does not reach the tier amount, the system automatically settles the outstanding amount on the first day of the following month.
Payment methods and actual settlement trigger amounts
The actual amount that triggers settlement is determined by the lower of your current tier amount and the settlement reference limit of your default payment method.
The settlement reference limits for each payment method are as follows:
Payment method | Settlement reference limit (USD) |
Credit Card | 1,000 |
PayPal | 1,000 |
Alipay CN | 1,000 |
Google Pay / Apple Pay | 1,000 |
DANA | 100 |
The settlement reference limit is a parameter used by the system to calculate the settlement trigger amount. It is not the actual payment limit of the payment method. For example, your credit card may support payments well above USD 1,000, but the system uses USD 1,000 as the maximum reference value when calculating the settlement trigger amount.
For payment methods not listed in the table above, the default limit is USD 1,000.
Examples:
Assume your current tier is USD 500 and your default payment method is Credit Card (reference limit USD 1,000). Because the tier amount is lower than the reference limit, settlement is triggered when your cumulative consumption reaches USD 500.
Assume your current tier is USD 500 and your default payment method is DANA (reference limit USD 100). Because the reference limit is lower than the tier amount, settlement is triggered when your cumulative consumption reaches USD 100.
A lower settlement reference limit for your default payment method may result in more frequent settlements. We recommend that you verify your default payment method in the console and select one with a higher reference limit.
Tier initialization for existing users
Users with a history of successful deductions: The system automatically assigns a tier based on your highest historical deduction amount (up to USD 1,000).
Users without a history of successful deductions: Initialized at the USD 100 tier.
View your settlement tier
You can view your current settlement tier, tier change history, and detailed rules on the Expenses and Costs > Billing Account page in the console.