How are VPC NAT gateways billed - NAT Gateway - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

You are charged for using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) NAT gateways. This topic describes the billing method and billable items of VPC NAT gateways.

Billable items

The following figure shows the billable items of VPC NAT gateways. 计费组成

Billing overview

Billing of VPC NAT gateways

Item	Rule
Billing methods	VPC NAT gateways support thepay-as-you-gobilling method. The pay-as-you-go billing method allows you to use resources before you pay for them. Bills are generated and fees are deducted after each billing cycle.
Billing cycles and bill generation time	VPC NAT gateways are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. You are charged on an hourly basis. Bills are generated on the hour (UTC+8). After a billing cycle ends, a new one begins. If the usage duration is less than 1 hour within a billing cycle, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour. A bill is generated after the current billing cycle ends. The actual time when bills are generated is determined by the system. Note For example, an instance that you purchased at 09:10:00 is released at 10:50:00 on the same day. In this example, the usage duration is 2 hours. 09:10:00 to 10:00:00 is a billing cycle. The bill within this billing cycle is generated after 10:00:00 and the fee is deducted from your account. 10:00:00-10:50:00 is another billing cycle. The bill within this billing cycle is generated after 11:00:00 and the fee is deducted from your account.
Billable items and billing formula	The billable items of VPC NAT gateways consist of instances and Capacity Units (CUs). `VPC NAT gateway fee = Instance fee + CU fee`

Note

After you delete a VPC NAT gateway, the billing is immediately stopped. For more information about how to delete a VPC NAT gateway, see Create and manage VPC NAT gateways.

Instance fees

You are charged instance fees for VPC NAT gateways on an hourly basis. Fees are calculated and bills are generated on an hourly basis. If you use a VPC NAT gateway for less than 1 hour, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour. The usage duration refers to the period of time from when an Internet NAT gateway is created to when the Internet NAT gateway is released.

Instance fee = Instance unit price (USD per hour) × Usage duration (hours)

The following table lists the unit prices of VPC NAT gateways.

Note

The prices listed in the following table are for reference only. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.

Region	Instance unit price (USD/hour)
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), and China (Chengdu)	0.034
China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), and UAE (Dubai)	0.043
SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) Important The SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) region is operated by a partner.	0.052

CU fees

You are charged CU fees for VPC NAT gateways on an hourly basis. Fees are calculated and bills are generated on an hourly basis. If you use a VPC NAT gateway for less than 1 hour, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour.

CU fee per hour = CU unit price (USD per CU) × Number of CUs
Number of CUs consumed per hour = Max {Number of CUs based on new connections per hour, Number of CUs based on concurrent connections per hour, Number of CUs based on data transfer per hour}

CUs are used to measure the performance of VPC NAT gateways when VPC NAT gateways process traffic. The following table describes the metrics.

Metric	Unit	Default specification	CU coefficient	How the number of CUs per hour is calculated
Connections per second (CPS)	Seconds	100,000	1,000	The system collects all CPS values within a billing cycle and then divides the highest CPS value by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs. The number of CUs based on CPS is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of CUs based on CPS = Highest CPS value/CU coefficient`
Concurrent connections (CONNS)	Minutes	2,000,000	10,000	The system collects all CONNS values within a billing cycle and then divides the highest CONNS value by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs. The number of CUs based on CONNS is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of CUs based on CONNS = Highest CONNS value/CU coefficient`
Data transfer (bytes)	Hours	5 Gbit/s to 15 Gbit/s (automatic scaling)	1 GB	The system collects the total amount of data transfer including the inbound and outbound traffic within a billing cycle. Then, the system divides the total amount by the CU coefficient to calculate the number of CUs. Note The amount of outbound and inbound network traffic collected by the system is equal to the amount of network traffic to be processed by a NAT gateway. The number of CUs based on data transfer is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of CUs based on data transfer = Total amount of data transfer/CU coefficient`

The following table describes the unit prices of CUs for VPC NAT gateways.

Note

The prices listed in the following table are for reference only. The prices on the buy page shall prevail.

Region	CU unit price(USD/CU/hour)
China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Ulanqab), China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou), and China (Chengdu)	0.034
China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London), US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), and UAE (Dubai)	0.043
SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) Important The SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) region is operated by a partner.	0.052

Example of CU billing

You created three VPC NAT gateways in the Germany (Frankfurt) region at 08:10:00 (UTC+8) on November 8, 2021. Then, you released them at 08:50:00 (UTC+8) on November 8, 2021. The following table describes the highest CPS value, the highest CONNS value, and the total amount of data transfer of the three VPC NAT gateways from 08:10:00 (UTC+8) to 08:50:00 (UTC+8).

Table 1. Highest metric values

Metric	NAT gateway 1	NAT gateway 2	NAT gateway 3
Highest CPS value (connections/second)	1100	32	0
Highest CONNS value (connections/minute)	20000	8	0
Total amount of data transfer (GB/hour)	3.5	0.0056	0

The following table describes the numbers of CUs based on new connections, concurrent connections, and data transfer, and the CU fees of the NAT gateways.

Table 2. Number of CUs and CU fees

Number of consumed CUs	NAT gateway 1	NAT gateway 2	NAT gateway 3
Number of CUs based on CPS	1100÷1000=1.1	32÷1000=0.032	0
Number of CUs based on CONNS	20000÷10000=2	8÷10000=0.0008	0
Number of CUs based on data transfer	3.5÷1=3.5	0.0056÷1=0.0056	0
CU fee (USD)	*3.5*×0.043=0.1505	*0.032*×0.043=0.001376	0