This topic describes the billing methods, billable items, and billing cycles of Global Accelerator (GA).
First-time users whose Alibaba Cloud accounts complete enterprise real-name verification within the period from 00:00:00 on April 1, 2021 to 00:00:00 on April 1, 2025 can apply for a one-month free trial of Global Accelerator. To participate in a free trial, submit an application. Free trials are available only for subscription standard GA instances. For more information about free trials and the supported instance specifications, see Time-limited one-month free trials of GA.
Overview of billing methods
Global Accelerator instances support the pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods.
The bandwidth that is used to connect to the global transmission network of Alibaba Cloud supports the pay-by-data-transfer and pay-by-bandwidth metering methods.
Pay-by-data-transfer: Data transfer fees are managed by Cloud Data Transfer (CDT). CDT supports the pay-as-you-go billing method.
You do not need to associate a basic bandwidth plan with your Global Accelerator instance. The system calculates the fees based on where your service is deployed. The fees include Internet data transfer fees and inter-region data transfer fees. For more information, see Pay-by-data-transfer.
Pay-by-bandwidth: You are charged for bandwidth plans. Bandwidth plans support the subscription billing method.
In this case, you must associate a basic bandwidth plan with your Global Accelerator instance. For more information about how to select a basic bandwidth plan, see the "Bandwidth plan type" section of the Select and purchase GA resources topic.
Instance billing method | Bandwidth metering method | Scenario |
Pay-by-data-transfer |
If you cannot estimate resource usage and the amount of data transfer, we recommend that you use pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances. | |
Pay-by-bandwidth |
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The first time you use a pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instance, go to the pay-as-you-go GA activation page and activate Global Accelerator as prompted.
You can purchase GA resource plans to offset the Capacity Unit (CU) fees and instance fees of pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances. Resource plans are more cost-effective than the pay-as-you-go billing method. For more information, see GA resource plans.
You can select the billing method only when you purchase a Global Accelerator instance. The billing method cannot be changed after a GA instance is created.
Billable items
Billable items of standard Global Accelerator instances
Billable items of basic Global Accelerator instances
Billing cycles
The following table describes the billing cycles of Global Accelerator.
Billing cycle | Bill release time | Billable item |
Hour | A bill is generated within 1 hour after the current billing cycle ends. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system. |
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Month | A bill is generated on the first day of the next calendar month after the end of a billing cycle. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system. |
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Pricing
Standard GA instances
The following tables show the pricing of billable items of standard Global Accelerator instances in different billing methods.
Pay-as-you-go
Billable item | Unit price |
Instance fee and CU fee | You can use the GA (Pay-as-you-go) CU Calculator to estimate the instance fee and CU fee of a pay-as-you-go standard GA instance. |
Data transfer fee | The bills for data transfer fees are generated by CDT. For more information about CDT pricing, see Internet data transfers and Cross-region data transfers. |
GA resource plans | You can use GA resource plans to offset instance fees and CU fees. You can view the actual price on the buy page in the GA console. |
Subscription
Billable item | Unit price |
Instance fee and specification fee | You can view the actual prices on the Create Standard Instance (Subscription) page of the GA console or on your bills. |
Bandwidth fee | Bandwidth plans are used to offset bandwidth fees. You can view the actual price of a basic bandwidth plan on the Global Accelerator Bandwidth Plan buy page in the GA console. |
Basic GA instances
The following tables show the pricing of billable items of pay-as-you-go and subscription basic Global Accelerator instances in different billing methods.
Pay-as-you-go
Billable item | Unit price |
Instance fee | You can view the actual instance fee on the Create Basic GA Instance page of the GA console or on your bills. |
Data transfer fee | The bills for data transfer fees are generated by CDT. For more information about CDT pricing, see Internet data transfers and Cross-region data transfers. |
GA resource plans | Instance fees can be offset by GA resource plans. You can view the actual price of the GA resource plan on the GA Resource Plans (International Site) buy page in the GA console. |
Subscription
Billable item | Unit price |
Instance fee | You can view the actual instance fee on the Create Basic GA Instance page of the GA console or on your bills. |
Bandwidth fee | Bandwidth plans are used to offset bandwidth fees. You can view the actual price of a basic bandwidth plan on the Global Accelerator Bandwidth Plan buy page in the GA console. |
References
Billing methods and rules
Pay-as-you-go GA instances
Subscription GA instances