Serverless pricing
Alibaba Cloud discontinued the sale of serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances starting November 3, 2025. Technical support, including new feature iterations and fixes for technical issues, ends on June 1, 2026. To avoid service interruption, migrate your instance to pay-as-you-go before that date.
Serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances are billed hourly based on two components: RDS Capacity Unit (RCU) usage and storage space.
Cost at a glance:
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RCU fees and storage costs are billed separately and summed.
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Storage is billed at the maximum capacity provisioned, not actual usage.
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When an instance is Paused, RCU fees stop. Storage costs continue.
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Optional items such as basic backup storage are billed on top, based on actual usage.
Billable items
Unit prices
|
Billable item |
Region |
Unit price |
|
RCU (RDS Capacity Unit) |
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Beijing), China (Chengdu), China (Shenzhen) |
CNY 0.896 per RCU-hour |
|
China (Zhangjiakou) |
CNY 0.672 per RCU-hour |
|
|
Storage costs |
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Beijing), China (Chengdu), China (Shenzhen), China (Zhangjiakou) |
ESSD PL1 disk: CNY 0.0034 per GB-hour |
Fee formula
Total fees = RCU fees + Storage costs + (Optional) Other fees
RCU fees = Σ (RCUs used × unit price × hours)
Storage costs = storage capacity × USD 0.0008 × hoursThe number of billable RCUs ranges from 2 to 16.
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Other fees are optional. For example, you are billed for basic backup storage costs for the serverless instance based on actual usage. For more information, see Billing.
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You can purchase RDS Elastic (Special Offer) savings plans to offset the RCU fees and storage costs for your serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. For more information, see Savings plan purchase recommendations.
Storage billing rules
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You are billed for the maximum storage capacity selected at purchase, even if actual usage is lower.
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Storage can be scaled out manually but cannot be scaled in after scale-out. Fees are based on the post-scale-out capacity.
Billing example
For example, you purchase a serverless ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance in the China (Hangzhou) region. The instance has a compute specification of 2 to 8 RCUs and 200 GB of storage space. Over one day, the instance runs at 8 RCUs for 1 peak hour and at 2 RCUs for the remaining 23 hours. If the unit price is CNY 0.896 per RCU-hour and the storage price is CNY 0.0034 per GB-hour, the fees for that day are calculated as follows:
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RCU fees: (0.896 × 1 × 8) + (0.896 × 23 × 2) = CNY 48.384
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Storage costs: 0.0034 × 24 × 200 = CNY 16.32
Total fees = CNY 48.384 + CNY 16.32 = CNY 64.704.
The preceding example shows only the fees for an instance under normal billing. Your actual fees are calculated based on this amount and any applicable discounts for serverless instances.
Billing based on instance status
| Instance status | RCU fees | Storage costs |
|---|---|---|
| Running | Billed | Billed |
| Pausing | Billed | Billed |
| Paused | Not billed | Billed |
| Starting | Not billed | Billed |