Billing (new version)
The new billing model for Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) bills you based on the volume of ingested observability data and the observability features you use. This topic explains the billing model, billable items, and billing cycle for each sub-service.
New users of Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) are charged based on observable data volume. Existing ARMS users can upgrade their billing mode in the ARMS console. For questions, join the DingTalk group (ID: 37120013838).
Billing
The ARMS pay-as-you-go billing method uses two models: billing by ingested data volume and billing by feature usage.
Billing by ingested data volume
Sub-service | Type | Billing item code | Monthly free tier | Storage retention (days) | Unit price | Unit price (Finance Cloud) | Unit price (Government Cloud) | Details |
Application Monitoring | metric | AMetricsGB | metric: 25 GB, trace: 25 GB | 90 |
| CNY 0.76/GB | CNY 0.8/GB | |
trace | ATracesGB | 30 | ||||||
profiling | AProfilingGB | 7 | ||||||
Managed Service for OpenTelemetry | metric① | metric: 25 GB, trace: 25 GB | 90 |
| CNY 0.76/GB | CNY 0.8/GB | ||
trace | 30 | |||||||
profiling | 7 | |||||||
Managed Service for Prometheus | Standard Edition metric② | 50 GB | 90 |
| CNY 0.76/GB | CNY 0.8/GB | ||
Ultimate Edition metric② | 180 |
| CNY 1.14/GB | CNY 1.2/GB |
You can view the actual billing item code for each ARMS billable item on the bill details page in the Expenses and Costs console by enabling the Billing item code custom column.
The ingested data volume is the amount of data stored on the ARMS observability platform after processing (cleaning, aggregation, transformation, and analysis). This volume is distinct from the raw traffic reported by ARMS-proprietary or open-source agents and SDKs.
When billed by ingested data volume, each data type includes a free storage period. This period varies by data type and is fixed.
After you activate a paid plan, your Alibaba Cloud account receives a free tier. This free tier is shared by all applications and instances of the relevant sub-services under your account.
The monthly free tier for Managed Service for Prometheus is region-specific. For example, if you first use the service in the China (Hangzhou) region, the free tier is automatically allocated to that region.
The monthly free tier for Application Monitoring and Managed Service for OpenTelemetry is shared across regions. The free tier is applied to your usage on a first-billed, first-deducted basis, determined by the billing order of regions or applications.
① Starting from 00:00 on July 1, 2024, default performance statistics metrics generated by Managed Service for OpenTelemetry will become billable. Custom metrics are billed based on ingested data volume. All metrics share the 25 GB monthly free quota provided for Managed Service for OpenTelemetry.
The free tiers for metrics and traces in Application Monitoring and Managed Service for OpenTelemetry are separate and non-cumulative. For example, if you ingest 40 GB of trace data and 5 GB of metric data in a single month, you are billed for 15 GB of trace data, and you forfeit the remaining free tier for metrics.
② Managed Service for Prometheus offers two types of metrics: basic and custom.
Basic metrics are generated for Container Service monitoring. They are stored for 7 days by default, free of charge. This storage period cannot be changed. For details, see Metric Details.
All other metrics are considered custom metrics and are billed by ingested data volume.
Profiling data consists of files generated by the Continuous Profiling and Application Diagnosis features in Application Monitoring. This data includes memory snapshots, performance analysis flame graphs, and thread status and call stack information from thread analysis.
For Application Monitoring and Managed Service for OpenTelemetry, the minimum daily usage for each billable data type per application is 0.1 GB. For example, if an application uses 20 MB of metrics, 10 MB of traces, and 0 MB of profiling data in one day, it is billed for 0.1 GB of metrics, 0.1 GB of traces, and 0 GB of profiling data.
For Managed Service for Prometheus, the minimum daily usage per instance is 0.1 GB. For example, if a Prometheus instance uses 20 MB of metric data in one day, it is billed for 0.1 GB of metric data.
Billing by feature usage
Sub-service | Billable item | Monthly free tier | Unit price (Chinese mainland) | Details |
Cloud Synthetic Monitoring | Number of tests | 3,000 tests |
| |
Application Security | Agent | None | CNY 2.4/agent/day | |
Managed Service for Grafana | Number of managed workspaces |
| From CNY 9.9/month per dedicated workspace | |
Alert Management | SMS notifications | 15 per day | CNY 0.05/notification | |
Voice notifications | 3 per day | CNY 0.15/call |
The free tier for pay-as-you-go features is automatically applied to your account.
Billing cycle
ARMS uses a daily billing cycle. Each day at 00:00, ARMS calculates the resource consumption from the previous day. The system generates a bill by 08:00 the same day. If your account balance is sufficient, the system automatically deducts the charge. You can view your bills on the Billing Management page and check your resource usage in the ARMS console.
Query usage
You can view your data usage on the Usage Statistics tab of the Overview page in the ARMS console. The Usage Statistics page includes a filter panel on the left to filter by product, data type, and region. The top of the page displays summary metrics, such as total write volume, write volume for the current month, and the forecasted total write volume for the month. The middle section shows a bar chart of write volume trends, stacked by product. At the bottom, a detailed table lists Product Name, Metric Write Volume, Trace Write Volume, Profiling Write Volume, Detail Write Volume, Total Write Volume, Percentage, Region, and Actions (including View Details and Set Quota).
Set usage limit
You can set a usage limit for Application Monitoring and Tracing Analysis (OpenTelemetry Edition) if you use the billing method based on the volume of observability data written.
On the Usage Statistics page, click Set Quota in the Actions column for the corresponding product and region. In the dialog box that appears, set the write limit, and configure the notification contact and notification period for alerts when the limit is reached.
Parameter | Description |
Write limit | The maximum daily volume of data, in GB, that you can write to ARMS. |
Action after reaching limit |
|
Alert threshold | The percentage of the write limit at which an alert notification is sent. |
Notification contact | The contact who receives alert notifications. For instructions on how to create a contact, see Alert Notification Contacts. |
Notification period | The time period during which alert notifications are sent. |
Estimate costs for data ingestion
Estimate based on actual usage
New to ARMS? Integrate a test application, then go to the page to view your data and estimate future costs.
If you already use ARMS, go to the page to view your data and estimate future costs.
Take application monitoring as an example. If you write 1,000 GB of data in China (Hangzhou) and 800 GB in China (Beijing) in a calendar month, your total monthly cost, after deducting the 50 GB monthly free quota, is: 0.4 * (1000 + 800 - 50) = CNY 700.
Estimate based on business scale
Use the following data models to estimate your costs. These estimates are for reference only and do not guarantee your actual bill.
Application monitoring
Based on historical data, one agent generates approximately 2 GB/day under standard usage: QPS = 100, sampling rate = 10%, API-level metric aggregation enabled, online profiling disabled. The following table compares costs between the current and previous billing models:
|
Application scale |
Estimated monthly data volume |
New pay-as-you-go pricing |
Previous pay-as-you-go pricing |
Previous resource plan (These examples are for reference. You can purchase larger resource plans for greater discounts.) |
|
Small (50 nodes = 50 agents) |
3,000 GB |
CNY 1,200/month |
CNY 10,080/month 88% savings with the new model |
CNY 5,250/month, 77% savings with the new model You must purchase two 28,800 Agent*Hour resource plans for CNY 8,400. |
|
Medium (200 nodes = 200 agents) |
12,000 GB |
CNY 4,800/month |
CNY 40,320/month 88% savings with the new model |
CNY 11,140/month, 57% savings with the new model You must purchase one 230,400 Agent*Hour resource plan for CNY 25,200. |
|
Large (500 nodes = 500 agents) |
30,000 GB |
CNY 12,000/month |
CNY 100,800/month 88% savings with the new model |
CNY 19,892.5/month, 40% savings with the new model You must purchase two 230,400 Agent*Hour resource plans for CNY 50,400. |
Minimum usage rule: Each application is billed for at least 0.1 GB per day for each billable data type (metrics or traces). The following example shows how to estimate costs for small-scale deployments.
Example: approximately 11 servers (low-load scenario)
11 servers × (0.1 GB metrics + 0.1 GB traces) × 30 days = 66 GB per month
After deducting the free tier (25 GB for metrics and 25 GB for traces, which cannot be transferred between types), 8 GB of metrics and 8 GB of traces are billed at 0.4 CNY/GB (Chinese mainland). Estimated monthly cost ≈ 6.4 CNY.
Actual costs depend on request volume and the number of monitored API endpoints. To verify your estimated usage, go to in the ARMS console.
Managed service for OpenTelemetry
The following table compares the new and previous billing models (assuming 1.27 KB average span size, 100 million spans/day, 30-day storage):
Business scale | Estimated daily data volume | New pay-as-you-go pricing | Previous pay-as-you-go pricing | Savings |
100 million spans, stored for 30 days | 121 GB | CNY 48/day | CNY 72/day | 33% |
The new model no longer bills separately for data reporting, trace storage, or metric storage.
Managed service for Prometheus
Assume that the average size of a metric entry is 0.5 KB. The following table lists the differences between previous and current prices of Managed Service for Prometheus.
Number of reported metric entries per day | Estimated daily data volume | Previous price (pay-as-you-go) | Current price (pay-as-you-go) | Cost saved |
0-50 (million) | 0-25 (GB) | 0-10 CNY/day | 0-40 CNY/day | 75% |
50-150 (million) | 25-75 (GB) | 10-30 CNY/day | 40-105 CNY/day | 71%-75% |
150-300 (million) | 75-150 (GB) | 30-60 CNY/day | 105-187.5 CNY/day | 68%-71% |
300-600 (million) | 150-300 (GB) | 60-120 CNY/day | 187.5-322.5 CNY/day | 63%-76% |
600-1,200 (million) | 300-600 (GB) | 120-240 CNY/day | 322.5-532.5 CNY/day | 55%-63% |
1,200+ (million) | 600+ (GB) | 240+ CNY/day | 532.5+ CNY/day | 55% |