Billing

Billing Items

The VPC service is free of charge.

**Table 1** Billing items
Billing Item	Description
EIP	EIPs are required if your resources need to access the Internet.

The EIP service provides multiple billing modes.

EIP Billing Modes
Which Billing Option Is Right for Me?
How Will I Be Billed If I Change My Bandwidth Size?
How Do I Change the EIP Billing Mode?

EIP Billing Modes

EIPs can be billed on a pay-per-use basis.

Figure 1
Table 2
Figure 1 EIP billing

**Table 2** EIP billing description
Billing Mode	Billed By	Billing Item	Billing Item Description	Impact of EIP Operations on Billing Items
Pay-per-use	Bandwidth	Bandwidth EIP retention	If a pay-per-use EIP is billed by bandwidth: Bandwidth: You are billed based on your specified bandwidth size and usage duration. There is no limit on how much traffic you can use. After the EIP is purchased, you can change your specified bandwidth size. The bandwidth you use will not exceed the bandwidth you specified. EIP retention: If an EIP is not released, it will continue to be billed even if it is not bound to an instance.	After an EIP is purchased: If the EIP is not bound to any instance, both the EIP and its bandwidth will be billed. If the EIP is bound to an instance, only the bandwidth will be billed. The bandwidth will be billed regardless of if the instance bound to the EIP is running or not. After the EIP is unbound from an instance, the bandwidth will continue to be billed. Unless it is released, the EIP will still be billed. If the EIP is released, both the EIP and its bandwidth will not be billed.
	Traffic	Traffic EIP retention	If a pay-per-use EIP is billed by traffic: Traffic: You are billed based on your EIP type and the total amount of traffic going out of the cloud. The bandwidth size you set is only used to limit the maximum data transfer rate. To prevent high fees caused by burst traffic, specify a proper bandwidth size when you buy an EIP. If an EIP billed by traffic uses a dedicated bandwidth, only the bandwidth used in the outbound direction will be billed. EIP retention: If an EIP is not released, it will continue to be billed even if it is not bound to an instance.	After an EIP is purchased: If the EIP is not bound to an instance, you will be billed for the EIP itself, but not for traffic. If the EIP is bound to an instance, only the used traffic will be billed. If the instance bound to the EIP stops running and there is no traffic generated, there will be no traffic or EIP fees. After the EIP is unbound from an instance, the traffic will not be billed but the EIP will still be billed. If the EIP is released, the EIP will not be billed.
	Shared bandwidth	Shared bandwidth EIP retention	If a pay-per-use EIP is added to a shared bandwidth: Share bandwidth: Only the shared bandwidth will be billed. There will be no additional bandwidth or traffic costs for EIPs added to the shared bandwidth. EIP retention: If an EIP is not released, it will continue to be billed even if it is not bound to an instance.	After an EIP is purchased: Shared bandwidth No operations on the EIP will affect the billing of a shared bandwidth. For example, if you have released the EIP but have not deleted the shared bandwidth, the shared bandwidth will still be billed. After a shared bandwidth is deleted, it will no longer be billed. EIP retention If the EIP is not bound to an instance, the EIP will still be billed. If the EIP is unbound from an instance, the EIP will be billed to keep it allocated to your account unless it is released. If the EIP is released or bound to an instance, the EIP will not be billed.

To save money, you can add multiple EIPs in the same region to a shared bandwidth. A shared bandwidth can be billed on a pay-per-use basis. For details, see Table 3. Currently, only pay-per-use EIPs can be added to a shared bandwidth.

You can add an EIP to a shared bandwidth when buying the EIP.
You can also add an existing EIP to a shared bandwidth. After the EIP is added to a shared bandwidth, there will be no additional bandwidth or traffic cost. You will only be billed for the shared bandwidth.

**Table 3** Shared bandwidth billing details
Billing Mode	Billed By	Billing Item	Billing Item Description
Pay-per-use	Bandwidth	Bandwidth	You are billed based on your specified bandwidth size and usage duration. There is no limit on how much traffic you can use. After a shared bandwidth is purchased, you can change your specified bandwidth size. The bandwidth you use will not exceed the bandwidth you specified.

The price of bandwidth, traffic, and EIP depends on the region.
The EIP bandwidth is the outbound bandwidth consumed when data is transferred from the cloud to the Internet. For example, when ECSs provide services accessible from the Internet and external users download resources from the ECSs, that consumes outbound bandwidth. Only the outbound bandwidth will be billed.
- If your purchased or modified bandwidth is no more than 10 Mbit/s, the inbound bandwidth will be 10 Mbit/s, and the outbound bandwidth will be the same as the purchased or modified bandwidth.
- If your purchased or modified bandwidth is more than 10 Mbit/s, both the bandwidths in inbound and outbound directions will be the same as the purchased or modified bandwidth.

Which Billing Option Is Right for Me?

EIPs can be billed by bandwidth or traffic. Table 4 shows the application scenarios of different billing options.

Cloud Eye monitors your network metrics, such as bandwidth and traffic. Based on the bandwidth usage, you can determine which billing option (by bandwidth or by traffic) is more cost-effective. Here are some suggestions for your reference:

If you need less than 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth for a short time and the traffic is light, set your EIP to be billed by traffic.
If you need more than 5 Mbit/s of bandwidth and the bandwidth usage is greater than 20%, set your EIP to be billed by bandwidth.

**Table 4** Application scenarios of EIP billing options
Billing Mode	Billed By	Scenario
Pay-per-use	Bandwidth	Heavy or stable traffic
	Traffic	Light or sharply fluctuating traffic
	Shared bandwidth	Staggered traffic

How Will I Be Billed If I Change My Bandwidth Size?

If an EIP is not added to a shared bandwidth, the EIP uses the dedicated bandwidth regardless of it is billed by bandwidth or traffic. After an EIP is added to a shared bandwidth, only the shared bandwidth is billed.

When you change the bandwidth size, the bandwidth price and effective time depend on the billing mode, which applies to both dedicated and shared bandwidths. For details, see Table 5.

Decreasing bandwidths may cause packet loss.

**Table 5** Impact on billing after bandwidth size change
Billing Mode	Billed By	Change	Impact
Pay-per-use	Bandwidth	Increase or decrease the bandwidth	The change will take effect immediately.
Pay-per-use	Traffic	Increase or decrease the bandwidth	The change will take effect immediately. The bandwidth size you set is only used to limit the maximum data transfer rate.

How Do I Change the EIP Billing Mode?

The EIP service has multiple billing modes you can choose from. You can change your EIP billing mode during the EIP usage period if necessary.

Table 6

Changing the billing mode does not change EIPs or interrupt their use.

**Table 6** EIP billing mode change description
Change	Description
From billing by traffic (pay-per-use) to billing by bandwidth (pay-per-use) From billing by bandwidth (pay-per-use) to billing by traffic (pay-per-use)	An EIP billed by traffic on a pay-per-use basis can be directly changed to be billed by bandwidth on a pay-per-use basis. An EIP billed by bandwidth on a pay-per-use basis can be directly changed to be billed by traffic on a pay-per-use basis. The new billing mode takes effect immediately.