GWLB billing rules - Server Load Balancer - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Gateway Load Balancer (GWLB) supports the pay-as-you-go billing method. This topic describes the billable items and billing rules of GWLB.

Important

GWLB has been in public preview since October 16, 2024. During the public preview, you are not charged an instance fee or a Load Balancer Capacity Unit (LCU) fee. For more information about the end date, pay attention to announcements on the Alibaba Cloud site.
For billing rules and events for GWLB endpoints, see Billing.

Billing rules

Item

Description

Billing rules

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

GWLB instances and Load Balancer Capacity Units (LCUs) are billed at the top of every hour. An entire hour is a billing cycle. You are charged based on resource usage.

During a billing cycle, if you use the service for less than 1 hour, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour for billing. For example, if you create a pay-as-you-go GWLB instance at 09:30:00 and release it at 12:30:00, the billing of the GWLB instance starts from 09:00:00 and stops at 13:00:00, which lasts 4 hours.

In most cases, bills are generated 1 hour after a billing cycle ends. The time when bills are generated is determined by the system.

Billable items of GWLB

GWLB charges the following:

Instance fee
LCU fee

Important

GWLB must work with GWLB endpoints. GWLB endpoints are separately priced and billed by the PrivateLink service. For more information, see Billing.

Instance fee

You are charged GWLB instance fees based on the largest number of zones you use during a billing cycle, which is 1 hour. If the usage duration in a billing cycle is 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 GWLB instance is created to when the GWLB instance is released.

For a billing cycle:
Instance fee = Instance unit price (USD per zone) × Largest number of zones you use

The prices in the following table are for reference only. The actual prices on the Bill Details page in the Expenses and Costs console shall prevail. For more information about viewing your bills, see Query billing and spending details.

Billable item	Instance unit price (USD per zone)
Instance fee	0.014

Example: You create a GWLB instance and deploy it in a single zone at 09:05:00, deploy it in another zone at 10:30:00, and release it at 10:50:00. Then:

First billing cycle (09:05:00~10:00:00): The maximum number of zones you use is 1, and the instance fee is 0.014×1=0.014 USD.
Second billing cycle (10:00:00~10:50:00): The maximum number of zones you use is 2, and the instance fee is 0.014×2=0.028 USD.

Total instance fee: 0.014+0.028=0.042 USD.

LCU fee

An LCU is the smallest measurement for the resources consumed by GWLB instances.

LCU usage calculation

GWLB charges LCU fees on an hourly basis. The billing cycle is 1 hour. If the usage duration in a billing cycle is less than 1 hour, the usage duration is rounded up to 1 hour.

LCU fee per hour = LCU unit price (USD/LCU) × Number of LCUs consumed per hour

Number of LCUs consumed per hour = max {Number of LCUs for new connections (or flows), Number of LCUs for concurrent connections (or flows), Number of LCUs for data transfer}

The following table describes the performance metrics of a single LCU.

Metric	Description	Unit	LCU coefficient	How the number of LCUs consumed per hour is calculated
New connections (or flows)	The number of new connections (or flows) per second.	Seconds	600	The system collects all numbers of new connections (or flows) per second within a billing cycle and divides the largest number by the LCU coefficient to calculate the number of LCUs. The number of LCUs is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of LCUs = Largest number of new connections (or flows)/LCU coefficient`
Concurrent connections (or flows)	The number of concurrent connections (or flows) per minute.	Minutes	60,000	The system collects all numbers of concurrent connections (or flows) per minute within a billing cycle and divides the largest number by the LCU coefficient to calculate the number of LCUs. The number of LCUs is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of LCUs = Largest number of concurrent connections (or flows)/LCU coefficient`
Data transfer	The amount of data transfer processed by GWLB. Unit: GB.	Hours	1 GB	The system divides the total amount of data transfer within a billing cycle by the LCU coefficient to calculate the number of LCUs. The number of LCUs is calculated by using the following formula: `Number of LCUs = Total amount of data transfer/LCU coefficient`

The number of LCUs that are consumed by a GWLB listener per hour is calculated based on the dominant metric.

LCU unit price

After the hourly metrics of a GWLB instance are converted into LCUs, the hourly LCU consumption is calculated based on the actual usage. The LCU consumption is accurate to 0.000001 LCUs.

The prices in the following table are for reference only. The actual prices on the buy page shall prevail. For information about viewing your bills, see Query billing and spending details.

Billable item	LCU unit price (USD per hour)
LCU	0.004

Billing examples

Example 1: Deploying a GWLB instance in a single zone and associating it with a single GWLB endpoint

Assume that a GWLB instance is deployed in one zone and is associated with one GWLB endpoint. The GWLB endpoint, or the GWLB instance, receives 3,000 new connections per second, each lasting 2 minutes, and processes 1,000 KB of data tranfer per second.

Metric	Calculation	LCU consumption
New connections (or flows) (in seconds)	In this example, the largest number of new connections per second for the GWLB instance is 3,000. Every 600 new connections consume an LCU per second. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated by using the following formula: `3,000÷600=5.0`	5.0
Concurrent connections (or flows) (in minutes)	In this example, the largest number of concurrent connections per minute for the GWLB instance is calculated by using the following formula: `3,000×60×2=360,000` Every 60,000 concurrent connections consume an LCU per minute. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated by using the following formula: `360,000÷60,000=6.0`	6.0
Data transfer (in hours)	In this example, 1,000 KB of data transfer is processed per second. The data transfer processed per hour is calculated using the following formula: `1,000KB×60×60=3,600,000KB=3.6GB` Every 1 GB of data transfer consumes an LCU per hour. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated by using the following formula: `3.6÷1=3.6`	3.6

In this example, the calculation of the fees for each billable item involved and the total fee is as described in the following table.

Note

The prices of billable items in this example are for reference only. The actual prices on the Bill Details page in the Expenses and Costs console shall prevail. For actual prices of GWLB endpoints, see Billing.

Billable item	Calculation
GWLB billing	Instance fee: 0.014 USD per hour. LCU fee: The dominant metric for LCU consumption is the concurrent connections (or flows), which is 6.0 LCUs. The LCU fee is calculated based on this metric using the following formulas: `LCU fee per hour = 0.004 USD/LCU × 6.0 LCUs = 0.024 USD LCU fee per month = 0.024 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 17.28 USD` Total GWLB fee (sum of GWLB instance fee and LCU fee): `GWLB fee per hour = 0.014 + 0.024 = 0.038 USD GWLB fee per month = 0.038 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 27.36 USD`
GWLB endpoint billing	GWLB endpoint instance fee: 0.013 USD per hour. Data transfer fee: `Data transfer fee = 0.0035 USD × 3.6 GB = 0.0126 USD` Total GWLB endpoint fee (sum of GWLB endpoint instance fee and data transfer fee): `GWLB endpoint fee per hour = 0.013 + 0.0126 = 0.0256 USD GWLB endpoint fee per month = 0.0256 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 18.432 USD`
Total fee	Total fee (sum of total GWLB fee and total GWLB endpoint fee): `Total fee per hour = 0.038 + 0.0256 = 0.0636 USD Total fee per month = 0.0636 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 45.792 USD`

Example 2: Deploying a GWLB instance in multiple zones and associating it with multiple GWLB endpoints

Assume that a GWLB instance is deployed in two zones and is associated with four GWLB endpoints. A GWLB endpoint receives 300 new connections per second, each lasting 4 minutes, and processes 500 KB of data transfer per second.

Metric	Calculation	LCU consumption
New connections (or flows) (in seconds)	In this example, the largest number of new connections per second for the GWLB instance is calculated using the following formula: `300×4=1,200` Every 600 new connections consume an LCU per second. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated using the following formula: `1,200÷600=2.0`	2.0
Concurrent connections (or flows) (in minutes)	In this example, the largest number of concurrent connections per minute for the GWLB instance is calculated using the following formula: `1,200×60×4=288,000` Every 60,000 concurrent connections consume an LCU per minute. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated using the following formula: `288,000÷60,000=4.8`	4.8
Data transfer (in hours)	500 KB of data transfer is processed per second. The data transfer processed per hour is calculated using the following formula: `500KB×60×60=1,080,000KB=1.8GB` Every 1 GB of data transfer consumes an LCU per hour. The number of LCUs that are consumed is calculated using the following formula: `1.8÷1=1.8`	1.8

In this example, the calculation of the fees for each billable item involved and the total fee is as described in the following table.

Note

The prices of each billable item in this example are for reference only. The actual prices on the Bill Details page in the Expenses and Costs console shall prevail. For actual prices of GWLB endpoints, see Billing.

Billable item	Calculation
GWLB billing	Instance fee: `GWLB instance fee per hour = 0.014 USD per zone × 2 zones = 0.028 USD` LCU fee: In this example, the dominant metric for LCU consumption is the concurrent connections (or flows), which is 4.8 LCUs. The LCU fee is calculated based on this metric using the following formula: `LCU fee per hour = 0.004 USD/LCU × 4.8 LCUs = 0.0192 USD LCU fee per month = 0.0192 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 13.824 USD` Total GWLB fee (sum of GWLB instance fee and LCU fee): `GWLB fee per hour = 0.028 + 0.0192 = 0.0472 USD GWLB fee per month = 0.0472 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 33.984 USD`
GWLB endpoint billing	GWLB endpoint instance fee: `GWLB endpoint instance fee per hour = 0.013 USD × 4 = 0.052 USD` Data transfer fee: `Data transfer fee per hour = 0.0035 USD × 1.8GB = 0.0063 USD` Total GWLB endpoint fee (sum of GWLB endpoint instance fee and data transfer fee): `GWLB endpoint fee per hour = 0.052 + 0.0063 = 0.0583 USD GWLB endpoint fee per month = 0.0583 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 41.976 USD`
Total fee	Total fee (sum of total GWLB fee and total GWLB endpoint fee): `Total fee per hour = 0.0472 + 0.0583 = 0.1055 USD Total fee per month = 0.1055 USD × 24 hours × 30 days = 75.96 USD`