How Tablestore is billed-Tablestore(Tablestore)-阿里云帮助中心

Tablestore offers two billing modes: VCU mode (formerly reserved mode) and CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode). Choose a billing mode and method based on your workload pattern.

Video introduction

Billing modes

Tablestore offers the following billing modes:

Important

SQL statements incur no extra fees. However, SQL query operations such as table scans and index queries consume VCU compute resources in VCU mode (formerly reserved mode) and generate read throughput in CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode).
Cross-region replication traffic fees apply only when you use Global Tables. Global Tables Metering and Billing.

Billing mode

Description

VCU mode (formerly reserved mode)

Purchase reserved VCUs based on resource estimates, or enable elastic capacity to pay for consumed compute on a pay-as-you-go basis. Combine both to optimize costs.

Reserved VCUs require upfront payment. Tablestore provides fixed computing power based on purchased VCUs.
With elastic capacity enabled, the instance enters Serverless mode and you pay for actual compute usage without upfront purchases.

VCU mode reduces compute costs and lets you control resource usage by capping or disabling elastic capacity, preventing unexpected charges from traffic spikes. Best for cost-controlled scenarios.

Note

For more information, see Resource assessment and selection.

Billable items: computing power, data storage (high-performance, Capacity, and search index), cross-region replication traffic, and outbound public traffic. VCU mode (formerly Reserved mode).

CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode)

Charges are based on real-time read/write throughput and storage. No upfront resource planning is required.

Best for unpredictable workloads with traffic bursts, where high service stability is required.

Important

CU mode does not cap overall resource usage. Manage consumption at the application layer to avoid unexpected costs from traffic spikes.

Billable items: read throughput, write throughput, data storage, cross-region replication traffic, and outbound public traffic. CU mode (formerly Pay-As-You-Go mode).

Billing methods

Tablestore supports the following billing methods:

Billing method	Description
Subscription	Prepaid. Tablestore provides fixed computing power based on purchased compute resources. Reserved VCUs: charged by VCU count. Each VCU provides 4-core, 16 GB computing power. Elastic capacity: resources scale in 0.1 VCU increments, billed hourly on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Pay-as-you-go	Postpaid. Billing starts after you create a table. You are charged on an hourly basis.
Resource plan	Prepaid. Purchase resource plans for data storage, pay-as-you-go read throughput, and pay-as-you-go write throughput. Fees are first deducted from resource plans of the same specifications in the same region under your Alibaba Cloud account. Excess usage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. Note Resource plans cannot be used to offset fees for Internet traffic.

Recommended use cases

Choose a solution based on your workload pattern.

Business scenario	Description	Recommended solution	References
Stable and predictable workloads	Consistent workloads without traffic spikes, such as monitoring and IoT.	VCU mode (formerly reserved mode)	VCU mode (formerly Reserved mode)
Workloads with traffic bursts	Unpredictable traffic bursts, such as media and news workloads.	VCU mode (formerly reserved mode) CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode) and resource plans	VCU mode (formerly reserved mode) VCU mode (formerly Reserved mode) CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode) and resource plans CU mode (formerly Pay-As-You-Go mode)
Batch offline tasks	Scheduled large-scale offline reads and writes at low frequency.	CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode) and resource plans	CU mode (formerly Pay-As-You-Go mode) Resource plan
Business testing	Early-stage product testing in a staging environment.	CU mode (formerly pay-as-you-go mode)	CU mode (formerly Pay-As-You-Go mode)

fig_20220902_case