Billing overview

This section describes billing for Alibaba Cloud Document Mind.

Billing methods

You can use the service by calling API operations or through the visual lightweight application in the console. Usage from both methods counts toward your bill.

For any billing questions, join the DingTalk group: 155680013413 to contact support staff.

Billing logic

• Document parsing (Large Language Model (LLM) version):

  • Image-text documents are billed by page count:

    • PDF, Word, and PPT files are counted by actual pages.

    • Images are counted as one page per image.

    • Excel, HTML, EPUB, MOBI, and similar formats are converted to pages based on word count (2,000 Chinese characters or 2,000 English words = 1 page).

  • Audio and video files (such as MP4, MKV, AVI, MP3, WAV) are billed by seconds.

• Electronic document parsing:

  • PDF files are counted by actual pages.

  • Other formats (Word, PPT, Excel, EPUB, MOBI, etc.) are converted to pages based on word count (2,000 Chinese characters or 2,000 English words = 1 page).

• Document Mind parsing:

  • PDF, Word, and PPT files are counted by actual pages.

  • Images are counted as one page per image.

Free quota

When you activate Document Understanding – Document Parsing (LLM version) or Electronic Document Parsing, you receive a monthly free quota of 3,000 pages for image-text documents, valid until exhausted each calendar month.

When you activate Document Understanding – Document Parsing (LLM version), you also receive a one-time free quota of 100 hours each for audio-type and video-type documents, valid until exhausted.

After activating Document Understanding – Document Mind Parsing or Intelligent Table Parsing, your account receives a one-time free quota of 100 pages, valid until exhausted.

After activating Document Format Conversion, your account receives a one-time free quota of 1,000 pages, valid until exhausted.

After activating OCR Document Self-Learning application services, your account receives a one-time free quota of 500 calls, valid until exhausted. You can use this quota to call API operations or use the lightweight application at no cost. After the free quota is used up, billing switches to pay-as-you-go or resource plan. To view free quotas for each service, see free quota.

Resource plans

Document Format Conversion resource plans come in different sizes based on usage volume. Pay once to purchase. They are valid for one year from the purchase date. Unused quota expires after one year. See resource plans for pricing. Go to “Purchase resource plans” to buy.

Document Understanding resource plans come in different sizes based on usage volume. Pay once to purchase. They are valid for one year from the purchase date. Unused quota expires after one year. See resource plans for pricing. Go to “Purchase resource plans” to buy.

OCR Document Self-Learning – Custom KV template resource plans come in different sizes based on usage volume. Pay once to purchase. They are valid for one year from the purchase date. Unused quota expires after one year. See resource plans for pricing. Go to “Purchase resource plans” to buy.

OCR Document Self-Learning – Reference field and recognition field custom table template resource plans come in different sizes based on usage volume. Pay once to purchase. They are valid for one year from the purchase date. Unused quota expires after one year. See resource plans for pricing. Go to “Purchase resource plans” to buy.

Pay-as-you-go (post-payment)

After activating a service, if your free quota or resource plan is exhausted, the system defaults to pay-as-you-go billing. This method bills based on actual usage with no upper limit. Billing uses calendar-month tiered pricing: as your usage reaches higher tiers, the corresponding unit price applies. The system deducts payment monthly from your account (bills are issued on the 1st of the following month). See pay-as-you-go.

Billing and payment rules

Charges are deducted in this order: free quota → resource plan → pay-as-you-go (post-payment). After free quota and resource plans are used up, the system automatically switches to pay-as-you-go to avoid service interruption.

Billing components

Alibaba Cloud Document Mind usage includes API operations and the visual lightweight application for activated services.

Fees from API calls and lightweight application usage for the same service are combined. A resource plan for a product covers both its API calls and lightweight application usage.

Resource plans cannot be shared across products. Fees for different products are billed separately.

Billing cycle

Alibaba Cloud Document Mind uses monthly billing. Bills are generated per product per service dimension. Usage is tracked from 00:00:00 on the 1st to 23:59:59 on the last day of each calendar month. Charges are deducted and bills issued on the 1st of the following month.

Overdue payment handling

Service suspension due to overdue payment

If your account balance is insufficient and payment fails, services are suspended and a suspension notice is sent. You will receive reminders 12 hours and 23 hours after the overdue status begins. Note that API calls for affected products will stop working immediately. Monitor your Alibaba Cloud account balance closely to prevent service outages.

Service restoration after payment

Services resume immediately after you clear your overdue balance.

View billing details

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud official website.

2. Hover over your profile picture or username in the top-right corner. In the menu that appears, click Expenses and Costs.

3. Go to the “My Orders” page under Expenses and Costs to review your spending.

View usage details

1. Log on to the Document Mind console.

2. In the navigation pane on the left, click Monitoring Statistics . Select a service and time range to view usage details.

3. OCR Document Self-Learning usage details can only be viewed within its own module.