Cloud Connector (CC) supports the pay-as-you-go billing method. The pay-as-you-go billing method lets you pay for resources after they are consumed. This topic describes the billing rules for CC.
Billing rules
Total fees = Data transfer fee + Connection fee.
The data processing and connection fees are calculated as follows:
Data processing fee = Unit price for data processing (CNY/GB) × Data processed (GB)
Bills for data processing are generated hourly.
NoteData processing fees are accurate to three decimal places.
Connection fee = Unit price (CNY/connection/month) × Number of connections
Bills for connections are generated on a monthly basis.
The number of CC connections per month refers to the number of activated Internet of Things (IoT) cards within a month. If the number of activated IoT cards within a month is less than 100, it is rounded up to 100. For more information about how to purchase and activate IoT cards, see Purchase an IoT card.
Cloud Connector provides a dedicated private network to connect IoT devices to Alibaba Cloud. The fee includes the connection from the carrier's core network to Alibaba Cloud. If your business requires Internet access, you must attach NAT Gateway and elastic IP addresses (EIPs). For more information about billing for these services, see NAT Gateway billing and EIP billing overview.
The following table lists the unit prices for data processing and connections for pay-as-you-go cloud connectors.
If the prices in the following table are different from the prices on the purchase page, the prices on the purchase page prevail.
Region | Unit Price for Traffic (CNY/GB) | Connection unit price (CNY/connection/month) |
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Guangzhou), China (Chengdu) | 1 | 1 |
Billing example
Assume that you purchase and activate 1,000 IoT cards and create a cloud connector instance at 12:00:00 on October 1, 2021. You set the destination in the access rule to an OSS address on Alibaba Cloud. By 12:00:00 on November 1, 2021, the instance has consumed 1 GB of traffic per hour. The total traffic is 1 GB × 24 × 31 = 744 GB.
The fees are as follows:
Data processing fee: CNY 1/GB × 744 GB = CNY 744.
Connection fee: CNY 1/connection/month × 1,000 connections = CNY 1,000.
The total fee for this period is CNY 744 + CNY 1,000 = CNY 1,744.
Data processing fees are billed hourly. A bill is generated for the previous hour at the start of each hour.
Connection fees are billed monthly. A bill is generated for the previous month on the first day of each month.
Overdue payments
The system calculates the average bill within the last 24 hours and compares the average bill with your account balance. If your account balance is insufficient to pay for the next two bills, you are notified by text message or email.
If you enable the low balance alert feature, you receive a notification by text message or email when your account balance falls below the specified threshold.
If your account has an overdue payment but you are still within your service suspension protection quota, your cloud connector instances are not suspended.
NoteAlibaba Cloud provides the extended suspension-free benefit. When a pay-as-you-go resource is overdue, you can continue to use cloud services for a certain amount or duration. Normal fees apply during the extended period. For more information, see Extended Suspension-Free Benefit.
If your overdue payment exceeds the service suspension protection quota, your cloud connector instances are locked. The service is stopped, and billing is also suspended.
If you top up your account and pay the overdue amount within seven days after the service is stopped, the service automatically resumes.
If you do not pay the overdue amount within seven days after the service is stopped, the instances are deleted. You receive a text message or email notification one day before the instances are deleted. After an instance is deleted, its configuration and data are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Top up your account balance
Pay-as-you-go CC instances are billed based on the usage duration. You do not need to renew CC instances. You only need to top up your account balance in the console.
For more information, see How do I top up my account balance?