Direct Mail charges based on the number of emails sent. Two billing methods are available: resource plans and pay-as-you-go.
Email volume refers to the total number of emails sent by Direct Mail on your behalf.
One email is defined as a single message sent to one email address. Sending one message to multiple recipients counts as one email per recipient.
Billing applies to all emails successfully accepted by our system, regardless of whether final delivery to the recipient's mail system succeeds or fails. Emails that fail due to system errors on our side are not billed.
For special billing rules related to emails hitting the invalid address database, see Invalid Address Help Guide.
If your Alibaba Cloud account has an overdue payment, all email-sending features become unavailable. Resource plans cannot be used during the overdue period. After payment is restored, historical email usage will be deducted normally from your resource plan balance.
Resource plans
Resource plans use a prepaid model and take effect immediately after purchase.
Subscription duration (validity period): 6 months. Each resource plan’s validity period is calculated independently. Validity periods do not stack across multiple plans.
Deduction order: While valid, resource plans are used first to cover email volume. Among multiple active plans, the one expiring soonest is used first. Once all resource plans are exhausted, billing automatically switches to pay-as-you-go.
After a resource plan is used or expires, the remaining traffic cannot be opted out of or refunded.
Purchase a new resource plan or fully use an expiring plan at least one hour before it expires to avoid deduction failures.
Billing occurs hourly, not at fixed times.
Email volume is not locked during sending. Email volume sent in the final minutes of an hour is billed in the next hour, and so on. The console strictly reports daily email volume, which may cause minor discrepancies with hourly billing records. However, total billed usage matches actual usage once sending completes.
Resource plan specifications
Resource plan specification (pack) | Price (CNY) | Duration | Savings vs. pay-as-you-go (CNY) |
10,000 | ￥19.98 | 6 months | ￥0.02 |
50,000 | ￥90 | 6 months | ￥10 |
500,000 emails | ￥840 | 6 months | ￥160 |
1,000,000 | ￥1,590 | 6 months | ￥410 |
5,000,000 | ￥7,750 | 6 months | ￥2,250 |
Current promotional pricing is shown on the purchase page.
Pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go is a postpaid model billed based on actual usage at a rate of CNY 2.00 per 1,000 emails. This method requires no manual activation. After you enable Direct Mail, pay-as-you-go is enabled by default. If you have purchased a resource plan, billing automatically switches to pay-as-you-go once the plan’s quota is exhausted.
Billing formula: Pay-as-you-go cost = (Email volume / 1,000) × CNY 2.00
Cost is rounded to two decimal places. The minimum billable amount is CNY 0.01.Free quota
Each Alibaba Cloud account receives a free quota of 2,000 emails total, with a daily limit of 200 free emails.
If you have a free quota, it is applied before any resource plan or pay-as-you-go billing. Emails exceeding the free quota incur charges.