Billing overview

Billable items

Intelligent Media Service (IMS) features fall into three main categories: intelligent media assets, intelligent media production, and media processing. The billing method for each category is described below.

• Starting August 20, 2024, intelligent media assets and intelligent media production will move to subscription-based billing. You must purchase an Enterprise Subscription Service to obtain feature access permissions before calling related APIs (such as SubmitMediaProducingJob). If you attempt to call these APIs without a subscription, the API will return a Forbidden User not authorized to operate on the specified resource error. For details on subscription pricing, usage discounts, feature availability, and renewal policies, see "Subscription-based billing".

• By default, usage of media processing, including transcoding, is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis, and no subscription is required. For example, you can transcode videos stored in OSS without purchasing an Enterprise Subscription Service or a Resource Plan. To obtain a usage discount, you can purchase an Enterprise Subscription Service, a Subscription Top-up Package, or a Resource Plan to offset media processing charges. Different prepaid package tiers offer different discount rates.

  Note

  After subscription-based billing launches, if you have not purchased an Enterprise Subscription Service, you may be unable to use the features and services of the corresponding subscription edition. Choose a subscription plan that meets your needs to ensure continued use of the features you require.

Subscription-based billing

Subscription-based billing is a prepaid billing method. After you purchase an Enterprise Subscription Service, you can use the features of your subscription edition. Charges for paid features are deducted from your subscription capacity at the applicable discount multiplier.

How to purchase

To check your current subscription status before purchasing or renewing, log in to the IMS console to view the subscription edition you have purchased, its authorization validity period, and your remaining quota. This helps you confirm your current service status and plan renewals.

To purchase a subscription, visit: Intelligent Media Service Subscription Mode

Purchase

[Enterprise Subscription Service]

The Enterprise Subscription Service offers three subscription editions: Basic Edition, Standard Edition, and Flagship Edition. Each edition differs in price, usage discount, and available features.

The Enterprise Subscription Service currently supports only monthly or annual subscriptions; custom subscription durations are not supported. If you plan to use IMS for the long term, we recommend choosing an annual subscription.

[Monthly Feature Trial Package]

The Monthly Feature Trial Package lets new users and users on lower-tier Enterprise Subscription Service plans try newly released IMS features on demand. Each account can purchase one package per month.

• Applicable scope

  The Monthly Feature Trial Package applies to all Intelligent Media Service (IMS) features, excluding dedicated customer support and the advanced video editing effects package. In addition, intelligent search is billed separately.

• Quota consumption

  The package amount is fixed at 20 CNY, and each account can purchase the package once per month. The quota is consumed based on your actual usage.

• Checking remaining quota

  Log in to the IMS console and click the Management button to view your remaining trial package quota.

• Action upon quota depletion

  The Monthly Feature Trial Package does not offer a usage discount. When the quota is depleted or the package expires, access to the associated services is suspended. To continue using IMS features, purchase the corresponding Enterprise Subscription Service.

• Renewing the Monthly Feature Trial Package

  When your current Monthly Feature Trial Package expires, you can purchase a new one without changing any of your business code. The new package takes effect seamlessly, so your API calls continue to work without interruption.

• Common error

  If your API call returns the error Forbidden.SubscriptionRequired, it is typically caused by using an AccessKey from a different account. Make sure the AccessKey used to call the API belongs to the same account that purchased the Monthly Feature Trial Package. You can verify your current AccessKey details on the RAM Access Keys page.

[Subscription Top-up Package]

After purchasing an Enterprise Subscription Service, if you deplete the included quota during the subscription validity period, you can purchase a Subscription Top-up Package to add more capacity. The Subscription Top-up Package cannot be used independently and must be paired with a valid Enterprise Subscription Service (Basic Edition, Standard Edition, or Flagship Edition) within its validity period to take effect. If you have only purchased a Monthly Feature Trial Package or have not activated a corresponding Enterprise Subscription, the Top-up Package will not work. The purchase amount must be between 200 and 100,000 CNY. Different purchase tiers offer different usage discounts, and the package can be used to cover all IMS features.

Feature comparison

FAQ

Q: Why are my voice calls shown as video calls in the AI Real-time Interaction (RTC) usage query and charged at video rates?

By default, the intelligent agent has latency statistics enabled. Voice calls are charged as real-time audio and video fees at the 480P video resolution standard, so they appear as video-related usage in the RTC usage query. If you need to disable this billing method, please contact your sales representative.

Enterprise Subscription Service: Replenishment Policy

After your subscription capacity is exhausted, you can choose from three options to continue using the service during the subscription validity period:

• Pay-as-you-go (default): Billed for usage at the official website price.

• Renew the corresponding edition to refresh your capacity and validity period. For example, if your Enterprise Standard Edition expires on May 14, 2025:

  • If you renew with a monthly plan for the Enterprise Standard Edition at 17:00 on April 27, 2025, your subscription is valid until 17:00 on May 27, 2025.

  • If you renew with an annual plan for the Enterprise Standard Edition at 17:00 on April 27, 2025, your subscription is valid until 17:00 on April 27, 2026.

    Important

    The new validity period starts from the renewal date, not from the previous expiration date.

• Purchase a Subscription Top-up Package. This package can be used during your subscription's validity period.

FAQ

Q: How do I renew my subscription using my account balance after it expires?

After your subscription expires, you can top up your account and then repurchase the same plan. The account balance can be used directly to pay for the new subscription.

Q: Can I get a refund for an unused lower-tier subscription and repurchase a higher-tier plan?

Yes. You can request a refund for an unused order (for example, if you purchased the Basic Edition and want to upgrade to the Standard Edition or Flagship Edition, which includes Video Translation). For specific refund options, go to the Alibaba Cloud console User Center > Order Management.

Q: Can unused Savings Plans or subscription services be extended?

No. Unused portions of Savings Plans or subscription services cannot be extended. They automatically expire upon expiration. Please use them in a timely manner.

Enterprise Subscription Service: Modify specifications

Enterprise Subscription Service customers cannot currently upgrade or downgrade configurations. To change your available features, subscribe to a different edition. When you renew or when multiple capacity sources coexist, deductions are applied as follows:

• The complimentary capacity of the new subscription takes effect immediately. Complimentary capacity from previous subscriptions remains available for deductions and is used first.

• When an Enterprise Subscription Service and customer-purchased Subscription Top-up Packages coexist, deductions are applied in order of expiration date.

• When an Enterprise Subscription Service, customer-purchased Subscription Top-up Packages, and legacy resource plans coexist, resource plans are deducted first, followed by the Enterprise Subscription Service or the Subscription Top-up Packages in order of expiration date.

How the discount multiplier works

Take the Enterprise Standard Edition as an example. This edition provides a 40% discount (a 0.6 discount multiplier). If a feature incurs charges of 100 CNY, the amount deducted is 100 CNY × 0.6 = 60 CNY.

Gift with Purchase

If you purchase a specified amount of Intelligent Media Service (IMS) resources within one year, you will receive a complimentary Player SDK of a specific edition. For more information, see Free Gift with Purchase.

Cost control IMS pay-as-you-go billing currently does not support setting a spending cap to automatically stop the service when a threshold is reached. If you are testing or evaluating IMS features, we recommend purchasing the 20 CNY Monthly Feature Trial Package first to control costs before scaling up usage.

Billing cycle

Intelligent Media Service (IMS) settles billable items in three billing cycles: hourly, daily, and monthly. The following table describes the deduction and bill issuance time for each cycle.

FAQ

Q: How long are temporarily added permissions valid, and what should I do for continued use?

Temporarily added permissions can be used indefinitely. In the future, this capability will be integrated into the Basic Edition. You only need to purchase the Basic Edition to continue using it.

Contact us

If you have questions or want to obtain technical support, join the DingTalk group for IMS (ID: 84650000851) to contact us.