Billable items and billing methods

MaxCompute charges fees for a project when you store data and run computing jobs in MaxCompute and download data from MaxCompute over the Internet. This topic describes the billable items and billing methods of MaxCompute and how to select a suitable billing method.

The following table describes the billable items and billing methods of MaxCompute.

Billable item	Description
Storage pricing (pay-as-you-go)	Storage fees: the fees that are charged when you store data in MaxCompute. The fees are calculated by using a tiered pricing structure based on the size of data. Backup storage fees: the fees that are charged when you store backup data. By default, MaxCompute automatically backs up data in your project in a day and retains the backup data for one day free of charge. The project administrator can specify a longer retention period for backup data. The backup data that is retained for more than one day is charged based on the size of data.
Computing pricing	Computing fees: the fees that are charged when you use computing resources. MaxCompute supports the pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods. The resource usage and payment of the two billing methods are independent of each other. Before you use a computing resource, you must associate the computing resource with a project. Subscription: a billing method for SQL, MapReduce, Spark, and Mars jobs. You can use the resources only after you pay for computing resources. Pay-as-you-go: a billing method for SQL, MapReduce, Spark, and Mars jobs.
Download pricing (pay-as-you-go).	For data that you download over the Internet or across regions, you are charged based on the amount of data that is downloaded. Note You are not charged when you import data to MaxCompute.
Storage disaster recovery fee (pay-as-you-go)	MaxCompute storage fees include both storage billing and backup storage billing. If you use zone-disaster recovery for storage disaster recovery, the storage fees for the project are based on the storage disaster recovery billing rules, while the billing method for backup storage remains unchanged.

Billable items

The following figure shows the billable items of MaxCompute. 计费项组成

Billing method selection

If you use MaxCompute for the first time, we recommend that you select the pay-as-you-go billing method. To learn how to use MaxCompute, you may require only a small amount of resources. If you select the subscription billing method, the remaining CUs of the quota may be unused. In this case, the pay-as-you-go billing method is more cost-effective.

Description of data transfer fees

Fees for Internet downloads
When you use a public endpoint to read data, you are charged for the amount of data that you download. For more information about public endpoints, see Endpoints.
Shared resource group
- Each project provides a specific number of free Data Transmission Service (DTS) slots that can be used at the same time. If the number of DTS slots that are used at the same time exceeds the upper limit, an error message appears. For more information about the upper limit of the number of DTS slots that can be used at the same time, see Limits.
- MaxCompute does not ensure the available capacity of the shared resource group and the expected throughput.
- The shared resource group of the DTS service does not support queuing policies. If resources are insufficient, an error is returned.

Note

Exclusive resource groups can be used in the following regions: China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Beijing), and China (Shenzhen).