When your queries per second (QPS) surge due to unexpected events such as CC attacks, traffic billing protection prevents the resulting high bills. This feature is available only for pay-as-you-go instances. This topic describes traffic billing protection and explains how to configure its threshold.
What is traffic billing protection
Traffic billing protection sets a default QPS threshold for pay-as-you-go instances. If the peak QPS within an hour exceeds this threshold, the WAF instance enters a sandbox. For that hour, you are not billed (though traffic and feature fees are still recorded), and your total fee for that hour is zero.
After an instance enters a sandbox, the product Service Level Agreement (SLA) does not apply. Protected traffic may experience service exceptions, including but not limited to packet loss, rate limiting, connection limits, protection failures, abnormal log or report data, access timeouts, and traffic diversion to DDoS scrubbing or black holes. If the instance remains in a sandbox state, promptly adjust the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold to avoid business impact. For more information, see sandbox feature.
When you activate a pay-as-you-go WAF instance, you must set the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold based on your actual QPS traffic.
The maximum and default thresholds for pay-as-you-go instances are:
Chinese Mainland: 30,000 QPS.
Outside Chinese Mainland: 3,000 QPS.
If you need a higher limit, contact your account manager or solution architect.
This feature does not incur additional fees.
After you set the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold:
If the peak QPS within an hour is less than or equal to the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, the instance does not enter the sandbox and is billed normally.
If the peak QPS within an hour is greater than the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, the instance enters the sandbox. You are not billed for that hour, and the total fee is zero. Traffic and feature usage are still recorded.
If the peak QPS in the next hour drops to or below the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, the instance automatically exits the sandbox, and normal billing resumes.
If the peak QPS in the next hour remains above the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, the instance stays in the sandbox. You are not billed for that hour, and the total fee is zero. Traffic and feature usage are still recorded.
If the sandbox state persists, you can adjust the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold based on your actual QPS traffic.
Set the traffic billing protection threshold
For a new instance
Go to the WAF 3.0 (Pay-as-you-go) buy page, set the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, and complete the purchase.
NoteAfter the purchase, you can modify the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold twice per calendar month. Each change takes effect at the start of the next hour.
For an existing instance
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Log on to the Web Application Firewall 3.0 console. From the top menu bar, select the resource group and region (Chinese Mainland or Outside Chinese Mainland) for the WAF instance.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Overview.
In the instance information area, click Modify Traffic Protection Threshold.
In the Modify Traffic Protection Threshold panel, change the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold and complete the order.
NoteYou can review your recent QPS traffic on the Traffic tab of the Overview page before you adjust the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold.
After you adjust the Traffic Billing Protection Threshold, you can click View Traffic Protection Details in the basic information section of the Overview page to view the instance's Traffic Protection Threshold and Maximum QPS When Traffic Protection Is Triggered in Last 30 Days.
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Related operations
View hourly bills
Go to the Billing Management page, find the bill for the desired date, and in the Actions column, click View Details.
In the Hourly Bill and Details of Hourly Bill sections, view the hourly bills for the instance.
Hourly Bill: View the costs saved by traffic billing protection when the instance was in a sandbox. The total hourly fee is zero during this period.
Details of Hourly Bill: View the total hourly fee and the costs saved by traffic billing protection, including traffic processing and feature fees.
CloudMonitor alerts
When the peak QPS within an hour exceeds the traffic billing protection threshold, CloudMonitor automatically sends an alert by email or SMS to the specified contacts. View and handle these alerts promptly. For more information, see Configure CloudMonitor notifications.