Outbound data transfer refers to data that flows from Alibaba Cloud networks to the ports or virtual border routers (VBRs) that are associated with your data center. This topic describes the billing rules for outbound data transfer.
Billing overview
Item | Rule |
Billing cycle and bill generation time | If you use the service for less than 1 hour in a billing cycle, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour. In most cases, bills are generated within 1 hour after a billing cycle ends. The actual time when bills are generated is determined by the system. |
Billable item and billing formula | You are charged for outbound data transfer in all regions within your Alibaba Cloud account. The outbound data transfer fee for a region is calculated by using the following formula:
|
Deduction rule for outbound data transfer fee | If you deploy Express Connect circuits in multiple regions within an Alibaba Cloud account, the outbound data transfer in the region in which you create connections over Express Connect circuits first is offset by the free quota. |
Usage notes
In addition to the billing for outbound data transfer, the billing for Express Connect is adjusted in the following aspects:
You are no longer charged an initial installation fee of USD 1,500 for an Express Connect circuit. This reduces the costs of connecting your data center to Alibaba Cloud.
You can create additional VBRs free of charge to meet the requirements of complex networking.
You are not charged for data transfer from your data center to Alibaba Cloud. You are charged only for data transfer from Alibaba Cloud to your data center. This reduces the costs of data transfer when you use an Express Connect circuit to connect your data center to Alibaba Cloud.
Alibaba Cloud provides a free quota of outbound data transfer for each Alibaba Cloud account. After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can use 50 TB of outbound data transfer free of charge each month until the end of December 31, 2024. From January 1, 2025, no free quota is provided and you are charged for all outbound data transfer in your service based on the billing rules. For more information, see the Enable billing for outbound data transfer section of this topic.
Unit price of outbound data transfer
The unit price of outbound data transfer varies based on the region. The following table describes the unit prices.
The unit prices are provided for reference only. The unit prices in your bills prevail.
Area | Region | Unit price (USD per GB) |
Chinese mainland | China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu), China (Nanjing - Local Region), China (Wuhan-Local Region), China (Xi'an-Local Region), and China (Fuzhou - Local Region) | 0.0125 |
Asia Pacific | China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Philippines (Manila), and Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.0390 |
Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.0780 | |
Australia (Sydney) | 0.0399 | |
India (Mumbai) | 0.0428 | |
Europe and Americas | US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Germany (Frankfurt), and UK (London) | 0.0190 |
Middle East | UAE (Dubai) | 0.0855 |
SAU (Riyadh) | 0.0468 |
Enable billing for outbound data transfer
Before you enable billing for outbound data transfer, make sure that you complete real-name registration for your Alibaba Cloud account. For more information about real-name registration, see FAQ about real-name registration on the Alibaba Cloud international site (alibabacloud.com).
If you enable billing for outbound data transfer as a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, make sure that the RAM user is granted the
AliyunExpressConnectFullAccessorvpc:OpenPhysicalConnectionServicepermission.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Physical Connection.
In the Enable Outbound Data Transfer Billing section, click Enable Now.
On the page that appears, read and agree to Terms of Service and click Activate.
Example of outbound data transfer fee
You have two data centers. One data center is located in the China (Beijing) region and the other is located in the US (Virginia) region. You want to use an Express Connect circuit to connect the data center in the China (Beijing) region to an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance in a virtual private cloud (VPC) that is deployed in the same region. You also want to connect the data center in the US (Virginia) region to an ECS instance in a VPC that is deployed in the same region. After you use the same Alibaba Cloud account to establish connections over Express Connect circuits in the preceding regions, data is transferred from Alibaba Cloud to the data centers. 100 TB of outbound data is transferred in the China (Beijing) region and 80 TB of outbound data is transferred in the US (Virginia) region per month.
Before the free quota of outbound data transfer expires, the outbound data transfer fee that you must pay each month is calculated by using the following formulas:
China (Beijing): USD 0.0125 per GB × (100 - 50) × 1,024 GB = USD 640
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190 per GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total fee = USD 640 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,196.48
After the free quota of outbound data transfer expires, the outbound data transfer fee that you must pay each month is calculated by using the following formulas:
China (Beijing): USD 0.0125 per GB × 100 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,280
US (Virginia): USD 0.0190 per GB × 80 × 1,024 GB = USD 1,556.48
Total fee = USD 1,280 + USD 1,556.48 = USD 2,836.48
What to do next
View the details of outbound data transfer
You can view the details of outbound data transfer of an Express Connect circuit in the Express Connect console.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Physical Connection.
On the Physical Connection page, find the Express Connect circuit that you want to manage and click the
icon in the Metering column. By default, the system displays the monitoring data of the previous day. You can set the time granularity to Daily or Hourly and select a predefined time period or specify a custom time period.
Predefined time periods:
To query monitoring data by day, select 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, or 30 days.
To query monitoring data by hour, select 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 24 hours.
Custom time period: If you set the time granularity to Hourly, you can specify a time period in the previous 24 hours. If you set the time granularity to Daily, you can specify a time period in the previous 30 days.
Apply for a quota increase for VBRs
After you enable billing for outbound data transfer, you can create up to 10 VBRs for each Express Connect circuit within an Alibaba Cloud account free of charge. You can apply for a quota increase for your account based on your business requirements.
For more information about the quota for VBRs, see Limits.
Log on to the Express Connect console.
In the top navigation bar, select a region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Physical Connection.
In the Increase VBR Quota for Current Account section, click Upgrade Now.
On the General Quotas page, find the ec_quota_same_acount_vbr_per_pconn quota and click Apply in the Actions column.
In the Apply for Quotas dialog box, configure the Applied Quotas and Reason parameters and then click OK.
References
OpenPhysicalConnectionService: enables billing for outbound data transfer.
GetPhysicalConnectionServiceStatus: checks whether billing for outbound data transfer is enabled for the current account.