Overview

VPN supports two billing modes: yearly/monthly and pay-per-use. You can select one according to your requirements.

Yearly/Monthly is a prepaid billing mode. You pay in advance for a subscription term, and in exchange, you get a discounted rate. The longer the subscription term, the bigger the discount. Yearly/Monthly billing is a good option for long-term, stable services.
Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing mode. You pay for the amount of time you use VPN resources or for the amount of traffic you generate. This allows you to adjust resource usage easily. You neither need to prepare for resources in advance, nor end up with excess or insufficient preset resources. This billing mode is a good option for scenarios where there are traffic bursts.

Table 1 lists the differences between the two billing modes.

**Table 1** Differences between billing modes
Billing Mode	Yearly/Monthly	Pay-per-use (billed by bandwidth)	Pay-per-use (billed by traffic)
Payment	Prepaid Settled by the subscription term you purchase	Postpaid Billed based on your specified EIP bandwidth and usage duration (there is no limit on how much traffic you can use.)	Postpaid Billed based on your specified EIP type and your total use of traffic leaving the cloud
Billed Duration	Billed by the subscription term you purchase	Billed by the second and settled every hour	Billed by the second and settled every hour
Billing Item	Enterprise Edition VPN: VPN gateway: You need to make a one-off payment for using gateway instances in a selected period of time. VPN connection: Two connections of the same customer gateway to the cloud form a connection group. By default, 10 VPN connection groups are included free of charge with the purchase of a VPN gateway. You can purchase additional VPN connection groups (sold in units of 10) as required. EIP bandwidth: You need to make a one-off payment for the EIP bandwidth you specify in a certain period of time. There is no limit on how much traffic you can use. Enterprise router: You will be charged for using an enterprise router only when you attach a VPN gateway to it. The enterprise router fee consists of the enterprise router connection fee and enterprise router traffic fee. For details, see Billing of the enterprise router service.	Enterprise Edition VPN: VPN gateway: You are charged for using gateway instances in the period of time you use them. VPN connection: You can purchase connection groups (sold in units of 1) as required. EIP bandwidth: You are charged for the outbound bandwidth, that is, bandwidth for traffic sent from a VPC on the cloud to a customer gateway in your on-premises data center. If the purchased EIP bandwidth is 10 Mbit/s or less, the inbound bandwidth is limited to 10 Mbit/s. If the purchased EIP bandwidth is greater than 10 Mbit/s, the inbound bandwidth is the same as the purchased EIP bandwidth. Enterprise router: You will be charged for using an enterprise router only when you attach a VPN gateway to it. The enterprise router fee consists of the enterprise router connection fee and enterprise router traffic fee. For details, see Billing of the enterprise router service.	Enterprise Edition VPN: VPN gateway: You are charged for using gateway instances in the period of time you use them. VPN connection: You can purchase connection groups (sold in units of 1) as required. EIP traffic: You are charged for the traffic generated in every hour, with the billing unit being 1 GB. If less than 1 GB is generated, the fee is calculated based on the actually generated traffic volume. Adjusting the bandwidth does not change the public network traffic price per GB. Only traffic in the outbound direction of the cloud is billed. Enterprise router: You will be charged for using an enterprise router only when you attach a VPN gateway to it. The enterprise router fee consists of the enterprise router connection fee and enterprise router traffic fee. For details, see Billing of the enterprise router service.
Billing Item	Classic VPN: VPN connection: You need to make a one-off payment for using VPN connections in a selected period of time. By default, 10 VPN connections are free of charge. You can purchase more VPN connections as required. Bandwidth: You are charged for the bandwidth consumed by a VPN gateway.	Classic VPN: VPN connection: You need to pay for VPN connections in a selected period of time. You can purchase connections (sold in units of 1) as required. Bandwidth: You are charged for the outbound bandwidth, that is, bandwidth for traffic sent from a VPC on the cloud to a customer gateway in your on-premises data center. If the purchased EIP bandwidth is 10 Mbit/s or less, the inbound bandwidth is limited to 10 Mbit/s. If the purchased EIP bandwidth is greater than 10 Mbit/s, the inbound bandwidth is the same as the purchased EIP bandwidth.	Classic VPN: VPN connection: You need to pay for VPN connections in a selected period of time. You can purchase connection groups (sold in units of 1) as required. Traffic: You are charged for the traffic generated in every hour, with the billing unit being 1 GB. If less than 1 GB is generated, the fee is calculated based on the actually generated traffic volume. Adjusting the bandwidth does not change the public network traffic price per GB. Only traffic in the outbound direction of the cloud is billed.
Changing the Billing Mode	The billing mode cannot be changed.	Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly. The change takes effect immediately. For details, see Changing the Billing Mode of a Pay-Per-Use VPN Gateway to Yearly/Monthly.	Pay-per-use can be changed to yearly/monthly. The change takes effect immediately. For details, see Changing the Billing Mode of a Pay-Per-Use VPN Gateway to Yearly/Monthly.
Changing the Quotas	Only Enterprise Edition VPN (not the Basic specification) supports quota changes. The EIP bandwidth can be increased or decreased. The number of VPN connection groups can be increased or decreased. The specification of a VPN gateway can be upgraded.	Enterprise Edition VPN: The EIP bandwidth can be increased or decreased. Classic VPN: The public network bandwidth can be increased or decreased.	Enterprise Edition VPN: The EIP bandwidth can be increased or decreased. Classic VPN: The public network bandwidth can be increased or decreased. NOTE: The bandwidth is used only for rate limiting, so the bandwidth setting does not affect the fee incurred.
Application Scenarios	Recommended for scenarios with predictable usage period Long-term use	Recommended for scenarios with heavy or stable traffic Fluctuating demand for resources	Recommended for scenarios with light or sharply fluctuating traffic Fluctuating demand for resources