Billing overview
Alibaba Cloud Voice Messaging Service (VMS) supports pay-as-you-go billing and resource plans. Learn about billing methods, billing rules, overdue payments, and refund policies.
Billing methods
VMS supports pay-as-you-go billing and resource plans. For more information about pricing, see Pricing of VMS on China site (aliyun.com).
Billing rules
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Bills are updated in real time. On the first day of each month, the bill for the previous month is generated. Alibaba Cloud automatically offsets the quota from a resource plan or your account balance. You can then apply for an invoice. For more information, see Billing Management.
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If an enterprise purchases a resource plan, usage fees are first offset from the resource plan. After the resource plan is exhausted, the enterprise is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.
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Dedicated number resource plans and shared resource plans cannot be used interchangeably. The system automatically offsets usage fees from the appropriate resource plan.
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With pay-as-you-go billing, enterprises are charged based on call duration using tiered pricing. When usage reaches the upper limit of a tier, the next tier automatically applies to all calls in the current month.
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No fee is charged if a call is made from a landline, is not connected, or is rejected.
Bill generation takes about 5 minutes. Overdue payments may occur during this period.
Overdue payments
If an enterprise uses pay-by-data-transfer, fees are automatically deducted from its Alibaba Cloud account. If the account balance is insufficient, Alibaba Cloud sends text messages or emails to notify the enterprise to add funds or purchase a new VMS resource plan. For more information, see Overdue payments.
Top-up
Enterprises can check overdue payments in Expenses and top up their account balance to settle the payments. VMS resumes after overdue payments are settled.
Refund policy
Resource plan refunds are returned based on the original payment method. For more information about refund rules, methods, and process, see Refund policy.
Resource usage and bills
View your bills
Log on to the VMS console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose to view your bills.
View resource usage
Log on to the VMS console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Business Statistics to query the resource usage, resource plan usage, and voice call records.