The live stream transcoding feature provides Narrowband HD™ transcoding and audio-only transcoding. When you use the live stream transcoding feature, you are charged based on the transcoding standard, transcoding resolution, and total length of transcoded streams. This topic describes the billing rules of live stream transcoding.
You can purchase resource plans for this billable item to offset transcoding fees based on the transcoding length. Compared with the pay-as-you-go billing method, resource plans are more cost-effective. For more information, see Resource plan overview.
The transcoding resolution is determined by the width and height of the output video. For example, if the width of a video is no greater than 1,280 pixels and the height is no greater than 720 pixels, the transcoding resolution is considered 720p (1280 × 720). If the width of a video is greater than 1,280 pixels or the height is greater than 720 pixels, the transcoding resolution is considered higher than 720p, which is 1080p.
Pricing
To view the final prices, visit the ApsaraVideo Live pricing page.
Pricing of Narrowband HD™ transcoding
Narrowband HD™ transcoding uses advanced transcoding clusters and complex encoding algorithms to provide a better compression capability without compromising video quality. This can help reduce traffic by 20% to 30% compared with regular transcoding. Narrowband HD™ transcoding supports H.264.
Pricing of audio-only transcoding
Billing rules
Item | Description |
Billing policy | You are charged based on the transcoding standard, transcoding resolution, and total length of transcoded streams. Each transcoded stream is billed separately based on the resolution, regardless of the number of concurrent viewers who are playing the stream.
Note Unit of stream length: minutes. If the stream length is a decimal, the decimal is rounded up to the nearest integer. |
Billing cycle | You are charged on a daily basis. The bills of a day are generated within 1 hour after 00:00 on the following day. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system. Fees are automatically deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account after bills are generated. If a deductible resource plan is available, the system preferentially uses the resource plan to offset fees. |
Billing method | You are charged based on the pay-as-you-go or subscription billing method. |
Billing example
Scenario: On June 17, you perform 2K Narrowband HD™ transcoding on three streams in the live center of the Singapore region. The length of each stream is 30 minutes.
Pricing: As shown in the Narrowband HD™ transcoding pricing table, the unit price of Narrowband HD™ transcoding for a 2K stream is USD 0.0792 per minute in the Singapore region.
Fees of Narrowband HD™ transcoding: USD 0.0792 × 30 minutes × 3 streams = USD 7.128.
The transcoding fees on June 17 are USD 7.128. The bill is generated after 00:00 on June 18. After the bill is generated, the fees are automatically deducted from your Alibaba Cloud account.
Each stream is transcoded once. You are charged based on the total length of the streams.