Billing items for vector buckets-Object Storage Service(OSS)-阿里云帮助中心

This topic describes the billable items, billing rules, and pricing examples for OSS Vectors.

Important

OSS Vectors officially started commercial billing on June 10, 2026 (UTC+8). Be sure to monitor your bills. For more information, see the official announcement.

Billing overview

OSS Vectors is designed for storing and querying vector data, commonly used in scenarios like AI-powered search and recommendation systems. It uses a pay-as-you-go model with four billable components:

Vector storage fees (VectorStorage): Charges are based on the volume of stored vector data and metadata.
Vector query fees (QueryVectorData): Charges are based on the amount of data scanned from the index during a query.
Vector data ingestion fees (PutVectorData): Charges are based on the volume of data written with the PutVectors API.
API request fees: Charges are based on the number of PUT and GET requests, similar to standard OSS.

Billable items

Billable item	Billing code	Billing rule	Billing cycle	Billing method
Vector storage fees	VectorStorage	Charges are based on the total volume of data you write, which includes both vector data and metadata.	Billed hourly	Pay-as-you-go
Vector query fees	QueryVectorData	Fees are based on the total index size scanned per `QueryVectors` call. For a single query, the billable data volume is the entire size of the index at that time.	Billed hourly	Pay-as-you-go
Vector data ingestion fees	PutVectorData	Fees are based on the volume of data written per `PutVectors` call. This volume includes both vector data and metadata.	Billed hourly	Pay-as-you-go

API request fees apply to the following API calls:

PUT requests: PutVectorBucket, PutVectorIndex, PutVectors, DeleteVectorBucket, DeleteVectorIndex, DeleteVectors, ListVectorBuckets, ListVectorIndexes, and ListVectors.
GET requests: GetVectorBucket, GetVectorIndex, GetVectors, and QueryVectors.

Pricing

Billable item	Billing code	Price
Vector storage fees	VectorStorage	CNY 0.35 per GB/month
Vector query fees	QueryVectorData	CNY 0.012 per TB
Vector data ingestion fees	PutVectorData	CNY 0.50 per GB (with a 20 GB monthly free quota per UID per region)

Billing examples

Example 1: Vector storage fees

OSS Vectors stores vectors using the float32 data type, where each dimension occupies 4 bytes. For a vector with 1,024 dimensions, the size of a single vector is 1024 × 4 bytes = 4 KB.

Assume a vector bucket stores 10,000,000 vectors, each with 1,024 dimensions. The estimated storage size is: 10,000,000 × 4 KB = 38.14 GB.
- If data is stored for a full month (30 days), the monthly storage fee is: 38.14 GB × 0.35 CNY/GB/month = 13.35 CNY
- If data is stored for only 10 days (240 hours), the fee is: 38.14 GB × (0.35 / 30 / 24) CNY/GB/hour × 240 hours = 4.45 CNY
Assume a vector bucket stores 10,000,000 vectors, each with 2,048 dimensions. The estimated storage size is: 10,000,000 × 4 KB × 2 = 76.29 GB.
- If data is stored for a full month (30 days), the monthly storage fee is: 76.29 GB × 0.35 CNY/GB/month = 26.70 CNY
- If data is stored for only 10 days (240 hours), the fee is: 76.29 GB × (0.35 / 30 / 24) CNY/GB/hour × 240 hours = 8.90 CNY
Assume a vector bucket stores 10,000,000 vectors with 1,024 dimensions, and each vector is associated with 8 KB of metadata. The estimated storage size is: 10,000,000 × (4 KB + 8 KB) = 114.44 GB.
- If data is stored for a full month (30 days), the monthly storage fee is: 114.44 GB × 0.35 CNY/GB/month = 40.05 CNY
- If data is stored for only 10 days (240 hours), the fee is: 114.44 GB × (0.35 / 30 / 24) CNY/GB/hour × 240 hours = 13.35 CNY

Example 2: Vector query fees

OSS Vectors calculates query fees based on the total size of the index scanned for each QueryVectors call. For example, if your index contains 20 million vectors and has a total size of 100 GB, a query that returns the top 300 results is billed based on the full 100 GB scanned, not on the size of the 300 returned vectors.

If a query scans 100 GB of data, the fee for that single query is:
(100 / 1024) TB × 0.012 CNY/TB = 0.00117 CNY/query
If this query is called 10,000 times in a month, the total monthly vector query fees are:
10,000 queries × 0.00117 CNY/query = 11.72 CNY

Example 3: Vector data ingestion fees

If you write 100 GB of vector data in a region within one month using the PutVectors API, your fee is calculated after applying the 20 GB monthly free quota for that region:
(100 - 20) GB × 0.50 CNY/GB = 40 CNY
If you write 10 GB of data in a region during the month, this usage is within the 20 GB free quota, so you will not be charged for data ingestion. The cost is CNY 0.

FAQ

Q: If my index is large but a query returns only a few results, how are the query fees calculated?

A: Vector query fees are based on the total size of the scanned index, not the number of results returned. To optimize costs, we recommend structuring your data into multiple, smaller indexes. For best practices on building a multi-index architecture, see Large-scale vector queries with a multi-index architecture.

Q: Is the free ingestion quota shared across all regions?

A: No. The free quota is provided per UID and region, which means that each UID is granted a 20 GB free quota in each region per month.

Q: Why do vector buckets also have regular API request fees?

A: Vector buckets are built on the OSS infrastructure. Because all API calls consume system resources, they are billed at the same rates as standard OSS API requests.