Apsara File Storage NAS lets you create different types of file systems. Each type of file system has different billing standards. This topic describes the billing for Apsara File Storage NAS.
Billable items
Apsara File Storage NAS supports two storage types: General-purpose NAS and Extreme NAS. The billable items for each type are as follows:
General-purpose NAS
There are two types of General-purpose NAS file systems:
Basic fees: The storage capacity fee, which is the most common charge.
Value-added fees: Fees such as Storage Usage of IA Storage Class, Storage Usage of Archive Storage Class, and read/write traffic for the IA storage class. These fees are incurred if you enable and use features such as lifecycle management (IA storage and Archive Storage) and the recycle bin.
The following figure shows the billable items for a General-purpose NAS file system. For more information about the billable items, see Billing of General-purpose NAS.
Extreme NAS
For an Extreme NAS file system, a storage fee is charged based on the storage specifications, provisioned capacity, and usage duration. The following figure shows the billable items. For more information about the billable items, see Billing of Extreme NAS.
When you use Apsara File Storage NAS, you may also incur the following fees in addition to the billable items for the file system.
Scenarios | Fees involved | Description |
Back up data using Cloud Backup |
| Apsara File Storage NAS seamlessly integrates with Cloud Backup. You can back up NAS files at regular intervals in the NAS console and quickly recover files in case of data loss or damage. When you first use the file backup feature for a NAS file system, you receive a 30-day free trial. After the trial ends, you can choose to renew or pause the backup plan. For more information, see Cloud Backup billing. |
Migrate on-premises data to NAS | Public bandwidth fees | When you migrate data from a source outside Alibaba Cloud to NAS or download data from NAS to an on-premises machine, you must mount the NAS file system on a Windows or Linux computer that is connected to the Internet. This process uses the public bandwidth of an ECS instance, and you are charged for the ECS public bandwidth. For more information, see Public bandwidth billing. |
Access NAS from an on-premises data center using a NAT Gateway | NAT Gateway fees | NAS does not support direct access over the public network. However, you can use a NAT Gateway to access Apsara File Storage NAS from an on-premises data center. After you associate an EIP with the NAT Gateway, you can mount the NAS file system on any Windows or Linux computer connected to the Internet. If you access NAS using a NAT Gateway, you are charged for the NAT Gateway. For more information, see NAT Gateway billing and VPC NAT Gateway billing. |
Access NAS from an on-premises data center using a VPN Gateway | VPN Gateway fees | NAS does not support direct access over the public network. However, you can use a VPN Gateway to access Apsara File Storage NAS from an on-premises data center. If you access NAS using a VPN Gateway, you are charged for the VPN Gateway. For more information, see VPN Gateway billing. |
Use CEN for cross-region, cross-account, or cross-VPC access | Cloud Enterprise Network fees | When you use Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) to access a NAS file system across regions, VPCs, or accounts, you are charged for the Enterprise Edition transit router and bandwidth plan of CEN. For more information, see Cloud Enterprise Network billing. |
Use SLS to analyze NAS logs | SLS log analysis fees | After logs from Apsara File Storage NAS are shipped to Simple Log Service (SLS), you are charged by SLS for storage space, read traffic, requests, data transformation, and data shipping. For more information, see Billable items of the pay-by-feature mode. |
Billing methods
NAS supports the following billing methods.
Billing method | Description |
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A Storage Capacity Unit (SCU) is a subscription resource plan for storage capacity. It can be used to offset storage capacity fees for various cloud storage products. | |
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Product prices
For information about the prices of different types of file system instances, see Apsara File Storage NAS Pricing.
Billing cycle
NAS calculates the usage of all resources on an hourly basis and settles the fees accordingly. Bills are typically generated 3 to 4 hours after a billing cycle ends. The actual time at which a bill is generated depends on the system. For example, at 09:30, the fees incurred from 08:00 to 09:00 are settled.
Due to system latency, the bill you view at 9:30 might be for the fees incurred from 5:30 to 6:30.
Billing formula
NAS fees are settled hourly. The formula is: Fee = Actual resource usage × Hourly unit price for the resource.
The Apsara File Storage NAS Pricing page specifies that the unit price for storage capacity is provided in CNY/GiB/month. However, pay-as-you-go fees are calculated using the formula: Actual storage capacity × Unit price per hour. Therefore, to calculate the fees for your actual storage capacity, you must convert the monthly unit price to an hourly unit price in CNY/GiB/hour. For example, if the unit price of a Capacity NAS file system is CNY 0.35/GiB/month, the hourly unit price is approximately CNY 0.00048611/GiB/hour (0.35/30/24).
Billing FAQ
If you have questions about billing for Apsara File Storage NAS, see Billing FAQ.