FAQ about general issues
FAQ about the usage rules of data transfer plans
Can I increase the quota on the total number of data transfer plans that I can purchase?
No, you cannot increase the quota on the total number of data transfer plans.
Each Alibaba Cloud account can own up to 200 valid data transfer plans and the quota on the total number of data transfer plans cannot be increased. We recommend that you choose the specifications of data transfer plans based on your business requirements.
Do I need to configure a data transfer plan after I purchase it?
No, you do not need to configure a data transfer plan after you purchase it.
After you purchase a data transfer plan, it automatically offsets data transfer costs generated by multiple cloud services. These cloud services are billed on a pay-by-data-transfer basis. For more information, see the Supported services and data transfer types section of the What is a data transfer plan topic.
Do data transfer plans affect the peak bandwidth of cloud services?
No, data transfer plans do not affect the peak bandwidth of cloud services.
Can I receive a notification when a data transfer plan is about to expire?
Yes, you can receive a notification when a data transfer plan is about to expire.
The system sends you notifications by email 168 hours (7 days), 72 hours (3 days), and 24 hours (1 day) before a data transfer plan expires.
Are data transfer plans applied based on the purchase date?
No, data transfer plans are applied based on the expiration date.
The data transfer plan with the earliest expiration date is first used to offset data transfer costs. For example, you purchased two data transfer plans. One of the data transfer plans expires on June 1, 2023. The other one expires on February 1, 2023. The data transfer plan that expires on February 1, 2023 is first used to offset data transfer costs.
However, if the expiration dates of the two data transfer plans are the same, the data transfer plan that was purchased earlier is first used to offset data transfer costs.
Can I use a data transfer plan to offset data transfer costs for cloud services in an area that is not displayed on the buy page?
No, you can use a data transfer plan to offset data transfer costs for cloud services only in an area that is displayed on the buy page.
The buy page displays only the areas that support data transfer plans.
Can I use a data transfer plan to offset data transfer costs for cloud services that are billed on a pay-by-bandwidth basis?
No, you cannot use a data transfer plan to offset data transfer costs for cloud services that are billed on a pay-by-bandwidth basis.
Data transfer plans apply only to pay-by-data-transfer cloud service instances, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, elastic IP addresses (EIPs), Classic Load Balancer (CLB) instances, and Internet Shared Bandwidth instances.
Can I export the usage details of a data transfer plan?
Yes, you can export the usage details of a data transfer plan on the Manage Reserved Instances page in the Expenses and Costs console. For more information about how to query bills and resource usage, see Query bills and resource usage.
How do I calculate the usage of a data transfer plan?
After you purchase a data transfer plan, it automatically offsets data transfer costs that are generated by multiple cloud services until the data transfer plan is used up or expires. The cloud services are billed on a pay-by-data-transfer basis. The usage of a data transfer plan is calculated based on the data transfer generated by the services that you use. For example, if you are using a pay-by-data-transfer ECS instance, you are charged only for the outbound data transfer from the ECS instance to the Internet. In this scenario, the data transfer plan is used to offset the costs of the outbound data transfer.
Why are data transfer fees still deducted from my account after I have purchased a data transfer plan?
Possible cause 1: The cloud service that generates data transfer fees is not supported by the data transfer plan
After you purchase a data transfer plan, it automatically offsets data transfer costs that are generated by various cloud service instances such as ECS instances, EIPs, CLB instances, and Internet Shared Bandwidth instances. The instances are billed on a pay-by-data-transfer basis. For more information, see the Supported services and data transfer types section of the What is a data transfer plan topic.
Possible cause 2: The data transfer plan that you purchased does not apply to the area in which the cloud services whose data transfer costs you want to offset are located
A data transfer plan applies to one area that consists of one or more regions. You must specify an area when you purchase a data transfer plan. The plan can offset data transfer costs for cloud services only in the regions of the specified area. For example, if you purchase a data transfer plan applicable to the Chinese mainland, the plan cannot offset the data transfer costs that are generated by cloud services in the regions outside the Chinese mainland. For more information about areas that are supported by data transfer plans, see the Supported areas section of the What is a data transfer plan topic.
Possible cause 3: Bills are delayed
After you purchase a data transfer plan, it automatically offsets data transfer costs and you do not need to configure it. However, it takes about 1 hour to generate the bill for a pay-by-data-transfer Alibaba Cloud service. For example, if you purchased a data transfer plan at 17:10:00 on December 1, 2022, the data transfer bill that was generated at 17:30:00 on December 1 may only include the fees incurred during the period from 16:00:00 on December 1 to 17:00:00 on December 1. The bills for the data transfer after 17:00:00 on December 1 are not generated. We recommend that you check the time when the fees are incurred.