Comparison of features and billing between standard and basic GA instances-Global Accelerator(GA)-阿里云帮助中心

Global Accelerator (GA) provides two instance types: standard and basic. A standard instance connects clients to backends through acceleration regions, listeners, and endpoint groups, which suits Layer 4 or Layer 7 application acceleration. A basic instance maps an acceleration IP address one-to-one to a private endpoint on Alibaba Cloud, which suits Layer 3 point-to-point acceleration over a fixed topology.

Choose an instance type

Standard	Basic
You need multi-region full-mesh acceleration, Layer 7 protocol acceleration, intelligent routing, rich forwarding rules, access control and access logs, or your backends run outside Alibaba Cloud. Typical scenarios: payment systems, enterprise application acceleration, live video streaming, and gaming.	You need one-to-one point-to-point acceleration from an acceleration region to a backend region, and all backends run on Alibaba Cloud. Typical scenario: acceleration for custom applications that use private protocols.

Feature comparison

Basic instances have no concept of listeners, CNAMEs, or routing types. Only standard instances support them.

Feature	Standard instance	Basic instance
Acceleration network	End-to-end acceleration A fully connected network across multiple acceleration regions and multiple origin regions Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and Layer 7 (HTTP/HTTPS) protocol acceleration	Point-to-point acceleration A one-to-one acceleration network from an acceleration region to an origin region Layer 3 (IP) protocol acceleration
Nearest access	EIP custom nearest access: Allocated separately for each acceleration region. Clients connect through the acceleration IP address or a CNAME. Anycast EIP automatic nearest access: a single global IP entry point	EIP acceleration IP addresses only (no CNAME)
IPv6 support	Supports IPv4, IPv6, and dual-stack Dual-stack requires pay-as-you-go with EIP.	IPv4 only
Access and backend scale	Multiple acceleration regions Pay-as-you-go does not limit the number of regions. For subscription, the specification determines the limit. A single listener can carry multiple endpoint groups Supports multi-region load sharing and disaster recovery	Only 1 acceleration region and 1 endpoint group per instance, in a one-to-one point-to-point topology
Forwarding	Intelligent routing: automatically selects the nearest healthy endpoint group based on latency Supports TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, and HTTP/3, rich forwarding rules, multi-region load sharing and disaster recovery, and health checks Custom routing: deterministic forwarding based on IP address and port mappings Supports TCP and UDP	Distributes traffic based on the specified mappings between acceleration IP addresses and endpoints
Backend service types	Backend services deployed on Alibaba Cloud: ECS, ALB, NLB, CLB, OSS, ENI, custom private IP addresses, Alibaba Cloud public IP addresses, and vSwitches (supported only by custom routing listeners) Backend services deployed outside Alibaba Cloud: custom public IP addresses and custom domain names	Supports only backend services deployed on Alibaba Cloud: ENI, ECS, CLB, and NLB
Security management	Access logs, access control allowlists and blocklists, TLS cipher suite selection, and basic DDoS protection	Basic DDoS protection
Operations	Origin probing, instance monitoring, and instance diagnostics	Instance monitoring

Choose a billing method

GA supports two billing methods: Pay-as-you-go and Subscription. You can select a billing method only when you purchase a GA instance. After an instance is created, you cannot switch its billing method.

Pay-as-you-go: recommended when resource usage is temporary or bursty, traffic peaks fluctuate widely, or you cannot estimate resource and traffic usage. The first time you use a pay-as-you-go GA instance, go to the Service Activation page and follow the instructions to activate the pay-as-you-go GA service.
Subscription: recommended when you can estimate the usage period, traffic peaks are stable, and you need the resources for a long term.

Instance type	Pay-as-you-go	Subscription
Standard instance	Instance fee + CU fee + traffic fee	Instance fee + specification fee + bandwidth fee
Basic instance	Instance fee + traffic fee	Instance fee + bandwidth fee

Choose an access mode

For a standard instance, the acceleration IP address type can be EIP or Anycast EIP. A basic instance supports EIP only. You cannot change the acceleration IP address type after you select it.

Item	EIP	Anycast EIP
Access model	Custom nearest access; you must configure acceleration areas Latency-based scheduling and path optimization stay under your control.	Automatic nearest access; no acceleration areas to configure GA provides 2 Anycast EIPs across multiple regions worldwide.
Supported access points	Acceleration regions supported by GA	Depends on the access points covered by Anycast EIP. Mainly supports network acceleration for regions outside the Chinese mainland. Clients in the Chinese mainland connect through China (Hong Kong).
IP protocol	IPv4, IPv6, or dual-stack Dual-stack is supported only by pay-as-you-go standard instances.	IPv4 only

Choose a line type and a bandwidth type

Pay-as-you-go

For a pay-as-you-go instance whose acceleration IP address type is EIP, you must select an Internet quality type.

BGP multi-line: the default type, available in all acceleration regions. GA connects to multiple carrier lines at the same time and automatically selects the optimal line.
BGP Pro: available only in the China (Hong Kong) and Japan (Tokyo) regions. It connects directly to the Chinese mainland over a carrier premium Internet line, which delivers lower latency when Chinese mainland end users access these two acceleration regions.

If your workloads involve cross-border acceleration (between a Chinese mainland region and Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions), a pay-as-you-go instance also requires a transmission quality type. If the area to accelerate is overseas and the service is deployed in the Chinese mainland, no transmission quality type is involved when you select China (Hong Kong) for the endpoint group.

By default, Premium Bandwidth Cross-border Acceleration is used.
If you need higher network quality, switch to China Unicom Cross-border Leased Line.

Area to accelerate	Region where the service is deployed	ICP filing required	Internet quality type	Transmission quality type
Chinese mainland	Chinese mainland	Yes	BGP multi-line	Not involved
	Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	No Only China (Hong Kong) or Japan (Tokyo) is selected as the acceleration region.	BGP Pro Select China (Hong Kong) or Japan (Tokyo) as the acceleration area.	Not involved
		Yes The acceleration regions include the Chinese mainland.	BGP multi-line	Default: Premium Bandwidth Cross-border Acceleration Can be switched to China Unicom Cross-border Leased Line
Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	No	BGP multi-line	Not involved
	Chinese mainland	Yes	BGP multi-line	Default: Premium Bandwidth Cross-border Acceleration Can be switched to China Unicom Cross-border Leased Line If you select China (Hong Kong) for the endpoint group, no transmission quality type is involved.

Subscription

A subscription instance must purchase and bind a basic bandwidth plan. Select the bandwidth type based on the area to accelerate, the region where the service is deployed, and where the backend is deployed.

Area to accelerate	Region where the service is deployed	Backend deployment	ICP filing required	Bandwidth type
Chinese mainland	Chinese mainland	Alibaba Cloud	Yes	Standard acceleration
	Chinese mainland	Outside Alibaba Cloud	Yes	Enhanced acceleration A basic instance can bind only a basic bandwidth plan whose bandwidth type is standard acceleration or premium acceleration.
	Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	Alibaba Cloud	No	Premium acceleration Select China (Hong Kong) as the access region.
		Outside Alibaba Cloud	No	Premium acceleration Select China (Hong Kong) as the access region.
Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), Taiwan (China), or other countries and regions	Alibaba Cloud or outside Alibaba Cloud	No	Premium acceleration
	Chinese mainland	Alibaba Cloud	Yes	Premium acceleration Select China (Hong Kong) for the endpoint group.
	Chinese mainland	Outside Alibaba Cloud	Yes	Premium acceleration Select China (Hong Kong) for the endpoint group.

A subscription standard instance also requires a specification tier. Each tier provides a different number of acceleration regions, maximum bandwidth capacity, and maximum concurrent connections, so the specification fee also differs.