Billing FAQ, troubleshooting bill charges-Expenses and Costs-阿里云帮助中心

Category	Specific questions
Bill query and cost verification	How do I query billing and overdue payment information for cloud resources? How do I query costs for subscription and pay-as-you-go resources separately? How do I query annual spending? How do I view the amount payable? How do I query usage details? How do I find out which resources incurred charges within a specific time frame, such as the last 7 days? How do I reconcile the amount payable in the Bill Overview with the amount payable in the detailed bill? How do I verify the accuracy of a bill? How do I query the rounding adjustment amount and its related detailed bills? How do I view unsettled consumption amounts for the current month by product? How do I view OSS storage usage in a bill?
Bill export management	How do I export a monthly bill with the official Alibaba Cloud seal (finance seal)? How do I export a detailed bill? How do I export historical bill data from more than 18 months ago? How do I export a split bill? How do I download a monthly bill? How do I download a monthly bill summarized by product?
Discount and deduction rules	Deduction order for subscription orders Deduction order for pay-as-you-go bills How do I check if a discount was applied to a bill? Why are the discount ID and discount details empty even though there is a discount amount on the bill?
Investigating cost discrepancies	Summary of common billing cost questions Why are there pay-as-you-go bills after I purchased subscription cloud resources? Why was my bill not covered by the resource plan I purchased? Why was I charged after deleting or releasing a cloud resource? Why does my account show an overdue payment even though I have a positive balance? Why is the total service duration in the monthly billable item details different from the number of days in the instance subscription? Why can't I find the bill for a resource instance when filtering by resource group or tag in Bill Details or Split Bill Details? Why is the "Amount Payable" for some billable items shown as a negative value? Will a negative amount be generated when a voucher and a resource plan are used together?
Bill structure and rules	Can I export a bill to get a complete list of all products I am using? Why is the "Amount Payable" in a detailed bill greater than the "List Price"? How are rounding adjustment amounts split? What is the difference between an order and a bill? Why is the bill status always "In Progress"? What is the relationship between Bill Overview and Bill Details (Consumption Details)? How is the rounding adjustment amount in a bill generated, and what is the rounding rule? What does the Order/Bill Number field mean in the bill details? What is the difference between "By Billable Item + Day" and "By Billable Item + Details"? When are Alibaba Cloud monthly bills generated? How do I change the customer name on a bill?
Cost management configuration	How do I set a spending limit? How do I view product cost growth? What should I do after a bill is generated?

Bill query and cost verification

How do I query billing and overdue payment information for cloud resources?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to query billing and overdue payment information for your cloud resources. Follow these steps:

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bills > Bill Overview page. On the Bill Overview page, filter by billing cycle and account scope to find the total Amount to be Repaid. You can also view the amount to be repaid for each cloud resource in the summary report, which is grouped by product.
To view more details about resource consumption, go to the Bills > Bill Details page. Set Statistic Item to Billable Item and Statistic Period to Details. Then, filter by product name and item name to view the billing details for each cloud resource.

How do I query costs for subscription and pay-as-you-go resources separately?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to query and analyze your spending data using various filters.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Cost Analysis page.
Use different filters to view spending data for subscription and pay-as-you-go resources. To view costs for subscription resources, set Billing Method to Subscription. To view costs for pay-as-you-go resources, set Billing Method to Pay-As-You-Go.

How do I query annual spending?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to query and analyze your annual spending data using various filters.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Cost Analysis page.
Use different filters to view annual spending data. To view data for an entire year, set Time Granularity to Month and select a full year for the Time Range.

Example: Time Granularity: Month. Time Range: 2022-01 to 2022-12.

How do I view the amount payable?

The amount payable is the final amount you need to pay after all discounts, subscriptions (such as savings plans), and coupons have been applied.

Amount Payable = Total List Price - Savings Plan Deduction from List Price - Discount Amount - Coupon Deduction Amount.

The amount payable for a single transaction is recorded in the bill details at the billable item or instance level. The total monthly amount payable is recorded in the Bill Overview.

Bill Overview: In the Bill Overview, you can see the monthly amount payable, which is the sum of all your bills for that month. You can also view the monthly amount payable for each product. You can view the monthly amount payable by Resource Account, Product, Service Entity, or Discount Applied.
Bill Details: On the Bill Details page, you can see the amount payable for each bill entry. Each pay-as-you-go bill is generated based on the billable items and billing rules for the cloud resources you used.

How do I query usage details?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to get usage details.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bills > Bill Details page. On the Bill Details page, click View Usage Details in the upper-right corner.

On the View Usage Details page, use the filters to query and export usage details for different cloud products.

How do I find out which resources incurred charges within a specific time frame, such as the last 7 days?

To see which cloud products incurred costs within a specific time frame, go to the Expenses and Costs console, then navigate to Bills > Bill Details. Set Statistic Item to Instance and Statistic Period to Day. Select the desired Billing Cycle and click Search.

Note

The amount payable is the final amount you need to pay after all discounts, subscriptions (such as savings plans), and coupons have been applied.

In the bill details, you can view the resources that incurred costs on a specific date.

You can also export the current selection to download it for local filtering.

How do I reconcile the amount payable in the Bill Overview with the amount payable in the detailed bill?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Bill Overview. Filter by billing cycle and account to view the amount payable and rounding adjustment amount for the corresponding month and account.
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Bill Details. Filter by billing cycle and account to view the rounding adjustment amount and amount payable for that month.

Reconcile the amounts. See the example below:

Bill Overview

Detailed Bill

Reconciling the rounding adjustment amount

Method: The rounding adjustment amount in the Bill Overview is equal to the negative of the sum of the amounts payable for the rounding adjustment instances in the detailed bill.

For example, if the rounding adjustment amount in the Bill Overview is 0.2453770049, the sum of the amounts payable for the rounding adjustment instances in the detailed bill should be -0.2453770049.

1. Filter settings:

Billing Cycle equals "2024-01"

Account equals "test"

2. Data:

Select the statistical report by resource purchasing account and find the "Rounding Adjustment Amount".

1. Filter settings:

Statistic Item equals "Billable Item"

Statistic Period equals "Billing Cycle"

Billing Cycle equals "2024-01"

Account equals "test"

Cost Type equals "Rounding Adjustment Cost"

2. Data:

Find the "Amount Payable" and calculate its negative value.

Reconciling the amount payable

Method: The amount payable in the Bill Overview is the amount after rounding and is equal to the amount payable in the detailed bill.

1. Filter settings:

The billing month is "2024-01".

Account equals "test"

2. Data:

Select the statistical report by resource purchasing account and find the "Amount Payable".

1. Filter settings:

Statistic Item equals "Billable Item"

The statistical period is "Billing Month".

Billing Cycle equals "2024-01"

Account equals "test"

2. Data:

Calculating the total amount due

How do I verify the accuracy of a bill?

Verifying the costs on a cloud resource bill mainly involves checking the Total List Price, Discounts, Coupon Deductions, Amount Payable, and Subscription - Resource Plan/Savings Plan Deductions.

On the Bill Details page, you can check the total list price.

The total list price is the total amount based on the standard, publicly listed prices for the configurations you selected when purchasing Alibaba Cloud resources. It does not include any discounts, promotions, or other offers.

You can verify the calculation of the total list price in the consumption details by checking the usage, duration, list price (unit price), and billing formula.

How do I query the rounding adjustment amount and its related detailed bills?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to query bills generated from rounding adjustment costs. Follow these steps:

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to Bills > Bill Overview. Filter by month and account to view the bill summarized by product and the total rounding adjustment amount for that billing cycle and account.
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to Bills > Bill Details. Filter by item name and look for the cost type "Rounding Adjustment Cost".

Note

You can query zero-amount entries in the bill details for a given month only after its complete bill is generated at 12:00 on the second day of the following month.

How do I view unsettled consumption amounts for the current month by product?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Bills > Bill Overview page, set the billing cycle to the current month. Then, select the By Product summary view. The Amount to be Repaid for each product represents the unsettled costs for the current month.

Click Details to view the specific consumption details bill.

How do I view OSS storage usage in a bill?

Object Storage Service (OSS) is billed by the hour. The storage usage shown in a bill is the sum of the usage within the corresponding billing cycle. For example, the total storage in a monthly bill is the sum of the usage for that month, so you can calculate the average storage volume as: usage / number of days in the month / 24. Note that the usage field in the bill is the billable usage after resource plan deductions. To view the original usage, add the portion covered by the resource plan.

To view cost data at the bucket level, view the statistics in the split bill (cost allocation details).

What should I do if the transaction details page shows a blank screen, search errors, or fails to load?

Check whether the selected time range filter is correct. Avoid spans that are excessively large or have an incorrect format.
Try refreshing the page or switching to a different browser.
If the issue persists, provide a full-screen screenshot that includes the filter conditions and any error messages for further troubleshooting.

Bill export management

How do I export a monthly bill with the official Alibaba Cloud seal (finance seal)?

Monthly bills in PDF format are stamped with the Alibaba Cloud finance seal and are typically used by finance teams to review bills. To obtain a stamped Alibaba Cloud bill, perform the following steps:

Note

The stamped PDF bill for the current month can be exported only after the bill is fully generated at 12:00 on the 2nd day of the following month. Exporting before this time results in an empty bill file.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bills > Bill Overview page. Click Export Bill, set the export type to Monthly Bill PDF, and click OK. After the export, go to the Export Records page to download the monthly bill.

The new console supports a maximum time span of 36 months, and the exported PDF includes the finance seal.

How do I export a detailed bill?

A detailed bill is used to view costs at the instance and billable-item levels, including the usage and cost changes of each billable item down to the hourly level. Fully generated historical bills can be used for reconciliation.

Note

The detailed bill data for the current month is fully generated after 12:00 on the 3rd day of the following month. Data exported before this time may be incomplete due to billing delays.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Bills > Bill Details page. Set Statistic Period to Details, and click the export button in the upper-right corner of the bill details report. In the Export Bill CSV dialog box, export by the currently selected dimension, or select all content to export the full cross-month bill for all products, and then click OK.

How do I export historical bill data from more than 18 months ago?

On the Bill Details page, set Statistic Item to Billable Item and Statistic Period to Details. Then, click the button on the right to export historical consumption details from more than 18 months ago.

Note

If you are using the upgraded bill version, click Return to Classic Version in the upper-right corner. After returning to the classic version, follow the method above to get historical consumption details from more than 18 months ago.

How do I export a split bill?

A split bill (cost allocation details) is used for more granular cost allocation needs, such as splitting costs to the OSS bucket level or the CDN domain level. Some splittable products support viewing usage at the split-item granularity in the split bill. Common examples include the OSS bucket dimension, the CDN domain dimension, and the SMS template dimension. For details about splittable products, see Splittable Alibaba Cloud products.

In addition, data aggregated at the granularity of split fields (tags, resource groups, and finance units) is more accurate than that in Bill Details (detailed bills).

Note

The split bill data for the current month is fully generated after 12:00 on the 4th day of the following month. Data exported before this time may be incomplete due to billing delays.

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Cost Allocation > Split Bill Details page. Click the export button in the upper-right corner of the split bill details report, select the export range, and click OK.

You can export bills for the last 12 months, with up to 6 months per export. Some accounts that have been upgraded to the enhanced split bill details can export data for the last 18 months.

How do I download a monthly bill?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Bills > Bill Overview page, click Export Bill. In the dialog box, set Export Type to Monthly Bill PDF. Select other conditions as needed and click OK.

After exporting, go to the Export Details page to download the monthly bill. The downloaded monthly bill will have the Alibaba Cloud seal.

How do I download a monthly bill summarized by product?

Method 1: Download a Product Consumption Summary bill that includes account information

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Bills > Bill Overview page, click Export Bill. In the dialog box, set Export Type to Product Consumption Summary CSV and click OK.

Method 1 lets you select the account range for export, and the exported monthly bill report will include account information.

Method 2: Download a monthly bill summarized by product (without account information)

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console. On the Bills > Bill Overview page, select the By Product summary view and click the button in the upper-right corner of the summary table.

The product bill summary table downloaded using Method 2 is based on the Enterprise/Organization/Account scope set at the top of the Bill Overview page. The exported report will not include account information.

After exporting, go to the Export Details page to download the product consumption summary or the monthly bill summarized by product.

What should I do if the resource instance name is empty or incomplete in the cost allocation details?

This occurs because no resource name has been set in the console, or the instance itself has no name attribute. Use the following methods to identify and distinguish resources:

Check the bill details or My Orders to locate the resource.
Add tags to the resource to help with identification and reconciliation when the instance name is missing.

Why doesn't the exported bill details include a finance unit field? How do I export bills that include finance unit data?

The new version of the billing center's bill details does not include the cost center field. Use the following alternatives to access cost center data:

Go to Billing and Cost Management > Cost Allocation > Cost Allocation Details to view and export data that includes cost center information.
Alternatively, view statistics by cost center dimension on the Cost Analysis page.

Note

Cost allocation detail data is updated with a 48-hour delay after the bill is generated, and only data from the past 12 months is supported.

What should I do if the cost allocation details download fails?

Try switching to a different browser (Chrome is recommended) or clearing your browser cache, and then retry the download.

Discount and deduction rules

Deduction order for subscription orders

The rules for using and deducting funds vary slightly depending on the ordering method and order type:

Manual payment from the console (deductions are applied in the following order):
1. Contract/Promotional discounts: Automatically applied by the system.
2. Coupon deductions: You select a coupon during checkout (the coupon must meet the usage conditions).
3. Prepaid card deductions: You select a prepaid card during payment (the prepaid card must meet the usage conditions).
4. Account balance deduction: You manually select to pay with your account balance.
5. Credit limit deduction: You manually select to pay with your credit limit (the credit limit must meet the usage conditions).
6. Third-party payment: You manually select a payment method, such as Alipay, personal/corporate online banking, or UnionPay.
Auto-renewal (deductions are applied in the following order):
1. Contract/Promotional discounts: Automatically applied by the system.
2. Coupon deductions: The system automatically applies a matching coupon (the coupon must meet the usage conditions).
3. Prepaid card deductions: The system automatically applies a matching prepaid card (the prepaid card must meet the usage conditions).
4. Account balance deduction: Automatically deducted by the system.
5. Credit limit deduction: The system automatically deducts from the credit limit (the credit limit must meet the usage conditions).
Ordering via OpenAPI (deductions are applied in the following order):
1. Contract/Promotional discounts: Automatically applied by the system.
2. Coupon deductions: The system automatically applies a matching coupon (the coupon must meet the usage conditions).
3. Prepaid card deductions: The system automatically applies a matching prepaid card (the prepaid card must meet the usage conditions).
4. Account balance deduction: Automatically deducted by the system.
5. Credit limit deduction: The system automatically deducts from the credit limit (the credit limit must meet the usage conditions).

Deduction order for pay-as-you-go bills

After you use pay-as-you-go resources, deductions are applied in the following order during billing and payment:

Resource plan/Reserved instance deduction: Covers resource usage. Any remaining usage will be billed (resource plans/reserved instances must be supported by the product).
Contract/Promotional discounts: Automatically applied by the system.
Savings plan deduction: After billing, the system automatically applies a matching savings plan (the savings plan must be supported by the product).
Coupon deductions: The system automatically applies a matching coupon (the coupon must meet the usage conditions).
Prepaid card deductions: The system automatically applies a matching prepaid card (the prepaid card must meet the usage conditions).
Account balance and credit limit deduction: The system automatically deducts at the time of payment. If your account has both cash balance and credit limit simultaneously, the total available amount equals the sum of both, and they are used together as the final deduction step. Cash balance and credit limit are applied in parallel, not in a fixed sequence relative to each other.

How do I check if a discount was applied to a bill?

Log on to the Expenses and Costs console to check if a discount was applied.

On the Bill Overview page, select the By Discount Applied tab to view bills with and without discounts. Click Details on the right to see the details of bills with discounts, along with the details and reasons for bills without discounts.

Why are the discount ID and discount details empty even though there is a discount amount on the bill?

When viewing the details of a bill with a discount, the discount amount may be greater than 0, but the discount ID, discount content, and discount conditions may be empty. This can happen for the following reasons:

The bill did not qualify for a key account discount or an official website promotion, but it was covered by a savings plan. The amount covered by the savings plan is currently included in the discount amount.
For cloud products such as Cloud Web Hosting, Short Message Service, Voice Service, Phone Number Protection, Phone Number Verification Service, Cell Phone Number Service, Artificial Intelligence Cloud Call Service, and 5G Interconnection Platform, information such as discount ID and discount content is not currently available for query.

Why can't I select or use a voucher when paying for an order?

Check the following troubleshooting directions:

An unpaid order is occupying the voucher: Check whether there is an unpaid order in your account that is occupying the voucher. If so, go to the billing console to void that order to release the voucher.
Applicable product or scenario mismatch: Confirm whether the voucher's applicable products and applicable scenarios include the current order. For example, domain name renewals generally do not support general-purpose vouchers. Refer to the voucher details page or the auto-matching result on the payment page for the authoritative information.
Validity period mismatch: Confirm that the time when the fees were incurred falls within the voucher's validity period. For pay-as-you-go bills, the fees must have been incurred after the voucher was issued.
Incorrect account: Confirm that the voucher is in the currently logged-in account. Some promotional vouchers may be issued to other associated accounts.

Why does my voucher balance show a decimal value?

Voucher balances are precise to 6 decimal places. If the voucher was previously used to offset pay-as-you-go resource bills, the system deducts the exact amount of the actual consumption, which can result in a decimal balance. This is normal behavior. Log in to the Billing and Cost Management console > Vouchers page to view the specific deduction details.

Investigating cost discrepancies

Why are there pay-as-you-go bills after I purchased subscription cloud resources?

You may continue to receive bills after purchasing subscription cloud resources for the following reasons. You can investigate the issue based on these possibilities.

Some billable items for subscription cloud resources are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis. For example, after you purchase a subscription ECS instance, if you continue to use pay-as-you-go services such as snapshot storage or public bandwidth based on traffic usage, you will still receive pay-as-you-go bills for snapshots and traffic. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Bills > Bill Details. Set Statistic Item to Billable Item and Statistic Period to Details to query the cloud resources and their billable items that are generating bills.

The subscription cloud resource has auto-renewal enabled, and a renewal bill is generated after auto-renewal. You can log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Orders > Renewals to view the cloud resources with auto-renewal enabled.

Why was my bill not covered by the resource plan I purchased?

If your bill was not covered by a resource plan you purchased, it may be for the following reasons. You can investigate the issue based on these possibilities.

The purchased resource plan cannot cover the costs generated by pay-as-you-go services. You can find the resource plan you purchased on the Alibaba Cloud official website to learn more about its deduction rules.
The usage of the pay-as-you-go cloud service exceeded the amount that can be covered by the resource plan. You can log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Account > Resource Plans to view the usage details of the resource plan.

Why was I charged after deleting or releasing a cloud resource?

If you were charged after deleting or releasing a cloud resource, it may be for the following reasons. You can investigate the issue based on these possibilities.

When some cloud resources are deleted or released, their associated cloud resources may not be deleted or released at the same time. For example, if you delete an ECS instance but do not delete its snapshots, the snapshots will continue to incur charges. You can check the current status of the corresponding cloud resource in the product console.
The cloud resource was not successfully deleted or released. You can check the current status of the corresponding cloud resource in the product console.
In pay-as-you-go mode, Alibaba Cloud first provides the cloud service and then calculates the usage and generates a bill according to the resource's billing cycle. There is a time lag between resource consumption and bill generation. Therefore, you may delete or release a cloud resource, but the bill for consumption that occurred before the deletion or release is generated after that point. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Bills > Bill Details. Set Statistic Item to Billable Item and Statistic Period to Details. Find the cloud resource that was charged and check the consumption time in the query results to determine if the consumption occurred before the resource was released.

Although you have deleted or released your cloud resource, you may have purchased an equity asset (such as a savings plan or reserved instance) with a partial or zero upfront payment. After the equity asset takes effect, it will generate hourly bills and charges. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console > Costs > Bills > Bill Overview page. In the summary report on the Bill Overview page, which is grouped by product, check the amount to be repaid for each cloud resource to determine if the overdue payment is for an equity asset.

Why does my account show an overdue payment even though I have a positive balance?

The overdue amount includes both "unsettled for the current month" and "unsettled from previous months". Unsettled for the current month refers to the amount consumed in the current month that has not yet been billed and is pending settlement. Unsettled from previous months refers to the total of all unpaid bills accumulated from previous months up to the present.

An account may show an overdue payment even with a positive balance for the following reasons:

Insufficient available credit: Available credit is the available balance in your current account. The formula is: Available Credit = Cash Balance + Credit Limit + Credit Refund - Unsettled Amount for Current Month - Unsettled Amount from Previous Months. If your available credit is less than 0, your account will show an overdue payment.
Credit control scenarios: For credit control customers who settle on a monthly basis, some bills generated mid-month will be delayed until the next month when all bills are generated for unified monthly settlement. Even if the account has a balance mid-month, it will still show as "unsettled".
Auto-payment is disabled: When the "auto-payment" feature for a user's bills is disabled, the system will not automatically settle payments even if the account has a balance.
Note
The automatic write-off feature is disabled in the following scenarios:
- A credit control user has disabled the Auto-payment button in the Expenses and Costs console (for non-credit control users, auto-payment is enabled by default and cannot be disabled).
- A service manager or other representative has disabled auto-payment through the backend.
- Enabling unified settlement automatically disables automatic write-off.
After auto-payment is disabled, you need to create a custom bill settlement to specify payments. For more information, see Unified settlement.

Why is the total service duration in the monthly billable item details different from the number of days in the instance subscription?

Bills with a statistic period of billing cycle or day are summaries of the detailed billable item bills. During the summarization process, some fields are simply summed up, which can lead to double-counting of the service duration. To verify the service duration, use the detailed billable item bill, which has a statistic item of billable item and a statistic period of details. The data in this bill is accurate.

Example:

For the December 2021 billing cycle, a subscription ECS instance was purchased for one month. The service duration should be less than or equal to 31 days. However, the summary report shows a service duration of 270 days, which is significantly different from the expected 31 days. Upon careful review, it was found that the instance was upgraded or downgraded in December 2021, which generated multiple bill entries. The service duration for each entry ranged from 4 to 34 days. The monthly total service duration was calculated by summing all these values: 4 + 34 + 31 + 33 + 34 + 34 + 33 + 34 + 33 = 270 days.

Why can't I find the bill for a resource instance when filtering by resource group or tag in Bill Details or Split Bill Details?

You have configured a resource group or tag for a resource instance, but you cannot find the corresponding bill when filtering by that resource group or tag in Bill Details or Split Bill Details. This may be because the resource group or tag was configured after the detailed bill or split bill was generated.

For example, if the resource group or tag was configured on November 25, 2024, but the detailed bill or split bill for the resource was generated on November 20, 2024, the bill was generated before the resource group or tag was configured. This will prevent you from finding the bill when filtering by that resource group or tag in Bill Details or Split Bill Details.

Why does the traffic volume in ECS pay-by-traffic billing not match the server monitoring bandwidth?

ECS pay-by-traffic billing is based on actual traffic usage. Because monitoring traffic destinations involves user data privacy and security, Alibaba Cloud does not monitor traffic on its side by default. As a result, the traffic statistics recorded in bills may differ from the bandwidth statistics visible in server monitoring due to differences in perspective or statistical dimensions. This is expected behavior.

Why does RDS cross-region backup network traffic or ECS pay-by-traffic billing appear as monthly subscription fees in my bill?

RDS cross-region backup network traffic and ECS pay-by-traffic billing are both pay-as-you-go (postpaid) services, not subscription (prepaid) services. If you see a display resembling monthly subscription fees in the bill overview or summary view, this is typically caused by differences in the statistical dimension or view aggregation. The actual billing still follows the pay-as-you-go model.

Why am I still being charged or receiving overdue payment notifications after releasing or shutting down my resources?

The possible reasons are as follows:

Billing delay: Pay-as-you-go products (such as ECS, OSS, Model Studio, and Security Center) generate bills with a delay of 1–3 hours. Some products (such as SLS and DBS) generate bills daily. After deleting or shutting down a resource, a bill for the previous day's usage is still generated the next day. Wait for the next billing cycle to confirm that billing has stopped.
Residual resources: Releasing a primary resource (such as an ECS instance) does not automatically release associated independently billed resources. Manually check and delete snapshots, cloud disks, Elastic IP addresses (EIPs), backup data, and other residual resources. If these resources are not deleted, they continue to generate fees.
Verification method: After performing the release or shutdown operation, wait 24 hours and check the Bill Details page, filtering by the corresponding product and time range, to confirm whether new bills are still being generated.

Why am I still being charged or incurring overdue fees after disabling auto-renewal or deleting resources?

Difference between pay-as-you-go and auto-renewal: Pay-as-you-go services such as OSS do not support subscription (prepaid) billing. Charges for these services are based on actual usage (such as storage and traffic) and have nothing to do with the auto-renewal setting. To stop billing, you must delete the resources or clear the stored data.
Final bill after resource release: After deleting an API key or releasing resources, a final bill for the last billing cycle is still generated due to the billing delay in pay-as-you-go products. No further fees are incurred after this final bill is settled.
Impact of overdue balance on operations: If there are unsettled pay-as-you-go bills, operations such as bandwidth changes may be restricted. You need to clear the outstanding balance before performing these operations.

I have a balance or credit in my account, but why can't I use it for repayment, or why does my available credit differ from the bill amount?

Credit limit cannot be used for manual repayment: The amount displayed in your account may include the credit limit (credit line). The credit limit only supports automatic system write-off and cannot be used for manual repayment. Manual repayment requires cash balance. If your cash balance is 0, you need to top up first.
Unpaid bills freeze your available credit: After a pay-as-you-go bill is issued, the corresponding amount is frozen and reduces your available credit, causing the displayed account balance and available credit to differ. The actual usable amount is based on the available credit.
Voucher and stored-value card restrictions: During automatic write-off, stored-value cards can only be used within the same month and cannot offset bills from previous months. Vouchers take priority over the credit limit and cash balance.

How do I handle a small overdue amount or abnormal fees in a pay-as-you-go bill?

Direct refunds are not supported: Pay-as-you-go bills do not support direct refunds or cancellation of historical traffic fees.
Adjustment processing time: If you apply for an adjustment to waive overdue fees for special reasons, the processing cycle may be long (for example, until mid-next month). During this period, your account still shows as overdue, which may cause resources to be released or prevent new purchases. Evaluate this carefully before applying.
Compensation voucher restrictions: Compensation vouchers can only be used to offset future new orders or pay-as-you-go bills. They cannot be used to offset historical overdue fees that have already been incurred.

Why do I still incur overdue fees after my free quota is exhausted? How can I prevent this?

Root cause: Pay-as-you-go products have a billing delay. If the Stop when free quota is exhausted feature is not enabled, calls continue after the quota is depleted and are automatically converted to pay-as-you-go billing. This may exceed your balance and result in overdue fees.
Special billing items: Some fees—such as model deployment fees, context cache, and internet search call volume—are not covered by the free quota and are billed separately, even if you still have remaining free quota.
Resolution and prevention: Log in to the Model Studio console and enable the Stop when free quota is exhausted switch. Delete unused API keys to prevent unauthorized or accidental calls, and configure high-consumption alerts.

Why do I still receive overdue SMS notifications after clearing my overdue balance?

SMS notifications may have a time lag. The reminder you received may have been triggered before your top-up. Check the real-time Available Credit status in the console to confirm the current state of your account.
Pay-as-you-go products have a billing delay of several hours. After releasing resources or stopping a service, you may still receive new bills for usage that occurred before you stopped but was delayed in billing. This is normal behavior.
If you have confirmed that the current available credit is greater than or equal to 0 and no new usage has occurred, you can disregard the historical SMS notifications.

Why does my account show as overdue even though my account balance or cash balance is positive?

Overdue status is determined by available credit < 0, not by cash balance < 0.
Available credit = Cash balance + Credit limit + Refunds − Current month's unsettled amount − Historical unsettled amount. If the unsettled bill amount exceeds your cash balance, the available credit can still be negative even if your cash balance is positive.
Pay-as-you-go bills continuously accrue fees throughout the month and freeze the corresponding amount (shown as a frozen amount) in your account. The actual deduction occurs after the bill is issued the following month. This freezing may temporarily reduce your available credit during the month.

Why is the "Amount Payable" for some billable items shown as a negative value in an instance's billing data?

A negative amount can be caused by the following reasons:

Rounding adjustment: When the Amount Payable for a billable item is less than CNY 0.01, Alibaba Cloud performs a rounding operation during settlement. After the amounts are aggregated according to certain rules, the digits from the 3rd to the 10th decimal place are discarded, so the billable item may show a negative amount.
Subscription (prepaid) instances: Refunds generated after an unsubscription or a downgrade are reflected as negative amounts in the corresponding billable items.
Pay-as-you-go (postpaid) instances: A negative amount may be caused by a billing adjustment or a rounding operation.

To confirm the cause, we recommend that you submit a ticket to contact technical support for assistance.

Will a negative amount be generated when a voucher and a resource plan are used for deduction at the same time?

No. Vouchers and resource plans support only full deduction, not over-deduction. That is:

If the deduction amount is equal to or greater than the bill amount, the Amount Payable is displayed as CNY 0.
The deduction amount never exceeds the actual bill amount, so no negative amount is generated.

Bill structure and rules

Can I export a bill to get a complete list of all products I am using?

No. Using the bill in the Expenses and Costs console to obtain a complete list of the products you use is not accurate. If some instances are not renewed or do not incur any charges in certain months, the resource information for those instances does not appear in the bill for those months, which results in omissions.

To view the list of product resources in use under your account, export the full list of products currently in use from Resource Center.

Why is the "Amount Payable" in a detailed bill greater than the "List Price"?

Alibaba Cloud's product pricing policy uses a precision of 6 to 12 decimal places. However, the settlement policy aggregates and bills at the product level according to a series of billing rules. During settlement, the amount is rounded to 2 decimal places by truncating the 3rd to 12th decimal places before settling with the customer.
After settlement, to meet the customer's need for detailed reconciliation, the 2-decimal-place settlement amount at the product level is allocated back to the resource instance and billable item level. During this allocation, because of non-terminating decimals in division, the remaining fraction is randomly assigned to a resource instance or billable item. This can cause the Amount Payable for some resource instances or billable items in the detailed bill to be greater than the List Price before discounts.
This phenomenon occurs when the entire bill is settled and then split into finer-grained data. It does not affect the actual settlement amount between the customer and Alibaba Cloud.

How are rounding adjustment amounts split?

The logic for splitting rounding adjustment costs is the same as for regular consumption bills. If you have already configured cost center rules, you do not need to handle rounding adjustment amounts separately. The system automatically splits the costs based on the resource's original ownership, which can be set automatically or manually.

Because rounding adjustment costs are generated according to the rounding rules during the bill settlement process, they include information about the resource purchasing account, product code, and item code. The system also defaults the instance and billable item in the rounding adjustment cost to the instance and billable item that actually incurred costs in that month. The system automatically assigns it to the cost center you have pre-configured. There are two scenarios:

Automatic allocation via cost center rules

If you have already set up automatic allocation rules on the Cost Centers page (for example, splitting by account, product, resource group, or tag), the rounding adjustment cost will automatically match the rules. The system will directly assign the rounding adjustment cost to the corresponding cost center based on the associated information in the rule (such as account or product).
Manual allocation to the instance ID's corresponding cost center

If you have manually attached a cost center to an instance, the rounding adjustment cost will follow the instance. The system will associate the rounding adjustment cost bill with that instance's cost center.

What is the difference between an order and a bill?

Alibaba Cloud orders and bills have different functions and purposes. The main differences are as follows:

Order: An order is a record generated when you purchase or renew an Alibaba Cloud product. It contains specific information about the purchased item (such as product type and configuration parameters), price, quantity, and payment method.

An order typically only involves the information of a single purchase transaction. A new order is generated each time you place an order, showing the details of that single purchase.
Bill: A bill is a summary report of all consumption activities over a certain period, including but not limited to costs generated from orders. A bill not only covers the settled part of an order but may also include usage fees for pay-as-you-go cloud resources, information on applied discounts, and more.

A bill contains all billable items and their details for a period of time, providing users with a more comprehensive view of their costs.

Why is the bill status always "In Progress"?

The Monthly Bill Overview page displays a summary of the monthly bill. The final monthly bill is generated after 12:00 PM on the 2nd day of the following month. If you view the monthly bill mid-month, the bill is in a state of monthly cumulative summary. Therefore, when you view the bill mid-month, the status is always In Progress.

What is the relationship between Bill Overview and Bill Details (Consumption Details)?

Bills reflect your monthly consumption on Alibaba Cloud and the corresponding usage details of your cloud resources. They mainly consist of the Bill Overview and Bill Details:

Bill Overview: This is the monthly bill summary. It is the summary data of the bill issued on a monthly basis (this is the bill data that needs to be actually settled with Alibaba Cloud), including the monthly amount payable, the monthly amount to be repaid, and statistical data of bills generated under different accounts.

You can make payments or issue invoices based on the Bill Overview data. The exported PDF version of the monthly bill contains the Alibaba Cloud finance seal and can be used as a basis for internal reimbursement.
Bill Details: These are the consumption details generated based on the billing cycle of the cloud resources. They also provide the ability to view bills summarized by billable item/instance dimension and by monthly/daily time periods.

You can use the bill details to verify the consumption amount and applied discounts for your cloud resources, which helps you accurately reconstruct the cost calculation process.

How is the rounding adjustment amount in a bill generated, and what is the rounding rule?

Alibaba Cloud product pricing has a precision of up to 10 decimal places. Therefore, pay-as-you-go fees with up to 10 decimal places are generated during the billing process. In the actual settlement process with customers, Alibaba Cloud aggregates the amounts according to certain rules and discards the amount from the 3rd to the 10th decimal place. This discarded amount is called the "rounding adjustment amount".
The rounding rule is to aggregate and round the data by resource purchasing account, item code, and billing cycle.
Example: Assume the hourly price of a system disk is CNY 0.00021000000/GB and the usage is 40 GB. The amount payable for the hourly bill would be CNY 0.0084000000. The monthly amount payable (assuming a 30-day month) would be 0.0084000000 × 24 × 30 = CNY 6.0480000000. After subtracting the rounding adjustment amount of CNY 0.0080000000, the final amount payable to be settled with Alibaba Cloud is CNY 6.04.

What does the Order/Bill Number field mean in the bill details?

In the bill details, the Order/Bill Number field has different meanings in different scenarios:

In subscription scenarios, the Order/Bill Number is the same as the order number in My Orders.
In pay-as-you-go scenarios, the Order/Bill Number represents the monthly settlement bill number.

What is the difference between "By Billable Item + Day" and "By Billable Item + Details"?

The Billable Item + Day bill is summarized daily by account, billing cycle, bill date, product name, item name, instance ID, and billable item dimension. It helps you quickly understand your overall daily consumption.

The Billable Item + Details bill shows the consumption record for each billable item in each billing cycle. It includes all the fields from the Billable Item + Day bill, along with information such as when the consumption occurred and whether discounts were applied to the bill.

For an introduction to different bill view aggregations, see Bill Details.

Bill fields included when filtering by Billable Item + Day:

Bill fields included when filtering by Billable Item + Details:

When are Alibaba Cloud monthly bills generated?

The generation time for bill data varies depending on the dimension:

Monthly Bill Overview: This is a monthly summary of the consumption details of the cloud resources you use. It is used for viewing costs, reconciliation, and issuing invoices, and serves as the main basis for settlement and payment. The bill for the current month is generated no later than 12:00 PM on the 2nd day of the following month and is displayed on the Bill Overview page.
Bill Details: This is the detailed bill data generated for the cloud resources you use, based on their billing cycle. The consumption details for the current month are fully recorded no later than 12:00 PM on the 2nd day of the following month. The final, complete consumption details for the current month are displayed in the bill details no later than 12:00 PM on the 3rd day of the following month.

How do I change the customer name on a bill?

The customer name on the bill is associated with your Alibaba Cloud account information. To change the customer name displayed on the bill, you need to update your account's verification information. For individual accounts, see Change the verified individual for an individual account. For enterprise accounts, see Change the enterprise entity or update the enterprise name.

How do I understand the consumption amount, outstanding repayment amount, unsettled amount, and invoiceable amount in my bill?

Amount definitions:

Unsettled amount: The amount for pay-as-you-go bills that have been issued but not yet settled. The funds are in a frozen state and are released after settlement on the 3rd of the following month.
Outstanding repayment amount: The payable amount minus the repaid amount. This includes the current month's outstanding balance and any historical overdue amounts.
Consumption amount and actual consumption amount: Consumption amount = Actual consumption amount + Withdrawal amount + Refund to other channel amount. Actual consumption amount = Invoiceable amount + Invoiced amount + Current month's outstanding balance.

Reconciliation method: Use "Invoiced amount + Uninvoiced amount + Current month's outstanding balance" to verify whether the actual consumption amount is consistent.

Invoice issuance timeline: For pay-as-you-go bills that remain unsettled in the current month, you need to wait until the official bill is issued on the 3rd of the following month before applying for an invoice.

Multi-month bill inquiry: The console only supports querying unpaid details by month. To view consolidated data for multiple months, export the monthly bill overview (CSV/PDF).

Cost management configuration

How do I set a spending limit?

Alibaba Cloud does not support setting a spending limit. However, you can use the Budget Management feature to monitor the costs of your cloud resources. Set budgets and alert notifications. When your actual spending approaches or exceeds the budget, the system can notify the account owner or other specified contacts via email, text message, or internal message. For specific operations, see Set budgets to control spending.

How do I view product cost growth?

Method 1: On the Monthly Bill Overview page, select a specific billing cycle and view the monthly amount payable for each product in the by-product view.
Method 2: On the Cost Analysis page, filter the analysis dimension by product and view the amount payable for each product in the report on the page.

What should I do after a bill is generated?

The final monthly bill from Alibaba Cloud is generated no later than 12:00 PM on the 2nd day of the following month (this is the latest generation time; not all users' bills are generated at this exact time, and some may be generated earlier). You can view the monthly bill information on the Monthly Bill Overview page in the Expenses and Costs console, including the monthly amount payable and the consumption breakdown by product for the month.

For credit control users: After the bill is generated, you need to settle the bill before the payment due date. For the rules on calculating the payment due date, see What is the payment due date.
For non-credit control users, the bill generation date is the payment due date. After the bill is generated, the system will automatically deduct the previous month's bill amount from your account balance:
- For products that require an upfront payment, you must pay when you place the order.
- For pay-as-you-go products, the bill amount for the previous month is actually deducted from your account balance starting on the 1st day of the following month.

How do I completely stop billing for pay-as-you-go products?

When a pay-as-you-go resource is only in the Stopped state or enters the Overdue Shutdown state, some resources—such as cloud disks and public IP addresses—may still incur fees. You must manually release or delete the resources to completely stop billing.
After topping up to clear overdue fees, if you have not released the resources, the system automatically restores the service and continues billing.
Before releasing resources, make sure to back up your data. Data cannot be recovered after release.
For services such as Model Studio, delete the API key or disable the service switch. Simply stopping calls is sufficient to avoid billing.

How do I grant a RAM user permission to view only the monthly bill?

The approach differs depending on the account type:

For a standard RAM user, grant the bss:DescribeBillMonth permission.
For a linked account that needs to view consumption information, the primary account must go to the Billing and Cost Management console, use Financial Management to invite the sub-account and establish a financial association, and select the Request to view associated account consumption information permission.

I've added tags to my resources, but why do they still show as "Unallocated" in Cost Analysis or Finance Units?

Root cause: The actual tag values or resource names of the resources do not exactly match the cost center allocation rules. For example, the rule is set to "equals" but the actual tag has extra spaces, case differences, or the rule logic does not cover that resource.
Troubleshooting: Go to the cost center rule management page, verify the actual tag key-value pairs and resource names of the unallocated resources, and ensure they exactly match the conditions in the allocation rules—for example, "resource tag equals xxx" or "resource name contains xxx".
Additional note: If you have modified the rules, wait 48 hours (72 hours for split-type products) for the data to refresh before re-confirming.

How do I use the API to obtain the total amount for a finance unit?

Current limitation: The Finance Unit Overview page and the Cost Analysis feature do not currently support obtaining the total amount for a cost center directly via OpenAPI.
Alternatives:
- View the total directly on the Finance Unit Overview page in the console.
- Use the bill subscription feature to export cost allocation detail data, and then calculate the total amount manually.

What should I do if the Finance Units page shows a blank screen or fails to load when accessed by a sub-account?

Root cause: A numeric range configuration error exists in the cost center rules—for example, the max value is less than the min value—causing the frontend to fail to render.
Resolution: Log in with the primary account or an account that has the required permissions. Go to Cost > Finance Units > Edit Rules, check and correct the numeric range configuration in all rules to ensure that the max value is greater than or equal to the min value.
Temporary workaround: If the issue cannot be resolved immediately, try switching to the legacy Finance Units interface (if supported by the system), or contact technical support to report the issue and request a backend rollback.

How do I troubleshoot discrepancies between resource attribution and allocation policies in exported finance unit details?

Troubleshooting steps:
- First, confirm that the billing period in the exported details matches the effective period of the allocation rules.
- Then, check whether the resource was manually allocated at the time of export. Manual allocation takes priority over automatic allocation.
- Finally, verify whether the resource matches multiple rules. Rules take effect in directory tree order, with higher-level rules taking priority.
Self-service verification: In Finance Unit Rule Management > Resource List, search for the resource ID and check the Rule Source and Rule Version fields to confirm whether the effective rule matches your expectations.