FAQ
SLA: definition and location
A service level agreement (SLA) is an agreement between a cloud service provider and a user that specifies service availability targets and includes compensation measures if these targets are not met.
Go to the Service Level Agreements page to view the SLA for each Alibaba Cloud cloud product. If you cannot find the SLA for a specific product on this page, click Feedback in the lower-right corner.
A pop-up titled Is this document helpful? appears in the lower-right corner and includes three buttons: Yes, No, and Feedback. Click Feedback to submit your request.
How to find products with a free trial?
You can visit the Alibaba Cloud Free Trial page to view all products available for trial.
If the product you want to try is not on the list, you can search for it on the Alibaba Cloud homepage and visit the product details page to check for any available trial promotions.
What are the eligibility requirements for a free trial?
Free trials for products such as ECS are only available to new users on their first order. A new user is defined as an account that has never placed any orders. If your account has any historical orders—even if they were subsequently refunded—the system will no longer recognize your account as a new user account, and you will not be eligible for free trials.
What is the 1 CNY domain promotion?
Eligible users (accounts with no active domain name services or unpaid domain name orders) can purchase a specified domain name once for an introductory price of 1 CNY.
Users who do not meet the eligibility criteria must purchase the domain name at the regular price displayed during registration.
For detailed rules and participation instructions, see Alibaba Cloud Domains.
When is my bill generated?
The bill generation time marks both the cutoff time for calculating service fees for a period and the time the bill is generated.
A bill is a monthly summary of your usage details for all cloud resources. It is used for cost review, reconciliation, invoicing, and payment. The Billing Overview for the current month is finalized by 12:00 on the 2nd of the following month and displayed on the Billing Overview page.
All usage details for the current month are posted by 12:00 on the 2nd of the following month. The final monthly usage details are available on the Billing Details page by 12:00 on the 3rd of the following month.
You can pay only after the bill is generated.
How to see which products have charges?
In the Billing Management console, go to the Billing Overview page and switch to the By Product tab to view which cloud products have generated bills. An amount payable greater than zero on a line item indicates a charge.
For detailed instructions, see How to query billing and overdue payment information for cloud resources.
How to understand product billing rules?
If you create or enable a cloud resource and later notice a high amount payable for it on your bill, review its billable items. Understand which billable items exist, whether they are chargeable, and how they are charged (for example, whether network traffic is billed hourly or if viewing a resource incurs charges). You can view the detailed billing rules for the corresponding product by clicking the billing rules link on the Billing Details page.
Set the statistical item filter to billable item and the billing cycle filter to By Month. The billing rules link for each product will then appear in the Billing Rules Description column.
Are coupons automatically applied to my bill?
Yes. If you have coupons in your account, Alibaba Cloud automatically applies them when generating your usage details. The deducted amount is shown as the Coupon Deduction amount.
What is in the discount amount?
The discount amount includes coupon deductions, contractual discounts, and the amount covered by Savings Plans.
What is the amount payable?
The amount payable is the final amount due after applying all discounts, coupons, and deductions from plans like Savings Plans.
Amount Payable = List Price - Savings Plan Deductions - Discounts - Coupon Deductions.
The amount payable for a single item is recorded per billable item or instance in Billing Details, while the total monthly amount payable is shown in Billing Overview.