How do I set up cost alerts on the Alibaba Cloud International Site? Available credit alerts, high-usage alerts, and budget management (2026)
One-sentence conclusion
There are three main types of cost alerts on Alibaba Cloud's international site:
Available Credit Alert
(Alert when account balance falls below threshold),
High-Value Product Spending Alert
(Alert when a product’s daily bill exceeds the threshold) and
Budget Management
(Set budgets on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis; receive alerts when actual or projected spending reaches a threshold.) All three types of early warnings
It only sends notifications; it will neither automatically shut down nor stop billing.
Moreover, none of them are triggered in real time; there is a delay of one to two days. We recommend enabling the available credit alert on the first day after opening your account. For accounts with many pay-as-you-go products, also enable the high‑spending alert. If you manage multiple projects and teams, use budget management to control spending separately.
This article is compiled based on the relevant “Fees and Costs” documentation from the Alibaba Cloud International Site Help Center (updated August–September 2026) and is intended for individuals and enterprises using the international site via prepaid accounts who are concerned that a sudden depletion of their balance could disrupt their operations.
Comparison of Alerts for Three Types of Fees
Comparison item
Available Credit Alert
High-Value Product Spending Alert
Budget Management (Budget Alerts)
Monitored Object
The total available credit for the account
Daily bill amount for the specified product
Fees aggregated by account, product, region, and other dimensions, or the utilization and coverage rates of savings plans and reserved instance coupons.
Trigger condition
Available credit is below the threshold you set
The daily bill for a certain product exceeds the threshold.
The actual or cumulative value for this period, or the forecast value, exceeds the threshold.
Reminder Frequency
Once daily, for a maximum of 5 consecutive days
Once per day; for resources billed monthly, a reminder is sent only after the bill is issued at the beginning of the following month.
Send once after T 1 day when the threshold is exceeded
Effective Time
After setting, the check will begin upon the next change in available credit.
The new rule takes effect on the 2nd.
New alerts take effect after 12:00 (UTC+8) on Day T+1; actual and forecast values are available from Day T+2.
Configure Entry Point
Fees and Costs> Accounts> Funding Account
Expenses and Costs> Cost Monitoring> Cost Alerts
Expenses and Costs> Budget Management (Free activation required for the first time)
Who is it suitable for?
All pre-charged accounts, must open
Businesses with highly volatile costs, such as CDN, public network traffic, and function computing
Teams with a fixed monthly budget that need to allocate costs by project or department
Source:
Monitor account balance
,
Set high spending alerts
,
Budget Management
.
First, understand how “available credit” is calculated.
The available credit alert shows not “how much was topped up,” but rather the available credit. The official formula is:
Available credit = Cash balance + Credit limit + Credit refunds − Outstanding amounts for the current month − Outstanding amounts from previous periods
Cash balance
: The remaining funds in the account.
Credit control quota, credit control refund
:Only those who have been granted a credit line
Alibaba Cloud International Site Credit Control Account
Only then will the ordinary prepaid account have these two items set to 0.
Outstanding for the month
: The amount you have spent this month that has not yet been officially billed.
History not
Settle
:Amounts that have already been billed but not yet paid.
There are two points that are easily misunderstood: first, voucher and stored-value card balances are not counted toward available credit; second, the monthly invoice on Alibaba.com shows pre-tax amounts only before the official billing date, with taxes added when the invoice is issued the following month. If the threshold is set too tightly, the account may go into arrears immediately after the bill is settled and taxes are paid, so the threshold should allow for a buffer to cover taxes.
Setting 1: Enable Available Credit Alert (Required)
Log in to the International Site console and go to
Fees and Costs> Accounts> Funding Account
, select the corresponding account.
In
Account Settings
Region, Open
Available Credit Alert
Switch.
In the pop-up window, enter the alert threshold and click.
Confirm
. You can later adjust it using “Modify Threshold,” and if you no longer need it, you can also disable it from the same location.
Please note:
During the initial setup, if the threshold exceeds the current available credit, the system will not issue an immediate alert; a notification will be sent only after the next change in the available credit.
After the available credit falls below the threshold, you will receive one reminder per day for up to five consecutive days; if the balance remains below the threshold until an overdue payment occurs, reminders will continue at this frequency.
The notification is sent to the account contact. The official documentation describes notification channels as including email and in-site messages; some documents also mention SMS. The actual options provided in the console shall prevail.
Administrators who have enabled the Enterprise Account Center can
Fees and Costs> Accounts> Account Sharing> Unified Account Management
In the tab, you can enable alerts and modify thresholds for multiple accounts at once (this tab only displays accounts with a paid balance greater than 0).
Setting 2: High-Value Product Spending Alert
The available credit alert simply notifies you that “funds are running low,” while the high‑spending alert tells you “which product you’ve overspent on today.” These alerts are ideal for detecting anomalies such as bandwidth being maxed out or resources left unreleased.
Enter
Expenses and Costs> Cost Monitoring> Cost Alerts
, in
High-Value Spending Alert
Region click
Details
Activated.
Select the product for which you want to set an alert, enter the alert threshold, and click.
Increase
. Each rule can be edited or deleted.
Key points of the rules:
Configurable product quantities: The “Set High-Value Spending Alert” document states a maximum of 20, while the “Cost Alert” document states a maximum of 10; the actual number that can be added in the console shall prevail.
The alert is based on a daily bill summary and is not triggered immediately when spending occurs. The system generates the previous day’s bill at approximately 9:00 a.m. each day.
The newly created rule takes effect on day T+2 (where T is the day of creation). For products billed by the hour, consumption on day T is reported on day T+1; for products billed daily, reporting occurs on day T+2.
The high‑spending alert configured for the enterprise MA account applies only to the currently logged‑in account; member accounts must log in separately to set their own alerts.
Setting Three: Use budget management to control monthly spending
For first-time use, locate it on the left side of the Expenses and Costs console.
Budget Management
, click
Free activation
. After activation, you must wait 24 hours, and there must be spending data in the account for it to take effect.
Commonly used.
On the budget management page, click
Create Budget
, Budget Type Selection
Expense Budget
(If you want to monitor whether the deducted resources have been fully used, select
Usage and Coverage Budget
).
Enter the budget name, select the budget scope (by financial unit, owner account, region, product, product details, consumption type, etc.), set the rolling period (year, quarter, month), and specify the start and end dates. It is recommended that the time span not exceed 24 rolling periods.
Fill in the budget plan: Select “Fixed Value” to have the same amount each period; select “Different Values” to set amounts for each period, with a maximum of 12 monthly periods, 4 quarterly periods, or 3 annual periods. The budget amount corresponds to the “Amount Payable” in the bill.
Click
Add a set of alerts
,Each budget can have up to 5 groups. The alert target can be the actual value for the current period, the forecast value for the current period, the cumulative actual value, or the cumulative forecast value; the threshold can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the budget.
After confirming the information, click
Submit
.
If you bought it
Savings Plans or Reserved Instance Coupons
, you can create another “Utilization and Coverage Budget”: set alerts to trigger when utilization or coverage falls below a specified threshold, making it easier to identify underutilized committed resources and uncovered pay-as-you-go usage.
The approach outlined by the authorities in “How to Create an Effective Budget” is worth considering: first, review bills from the past 3–6 months to establish a baseline for fixed expenses; then, set tiered thresholds at 50% (reminder), 80% (warning), and 100% (critical); and prioritize using “projected values” for alerts. This way, mid-month you can determine whether, at the current spending rate, you’ll exceed your budget by month’s end.
Why did I still get disconnected despite having an alert set up?
Reason
Description
How to avoid it
Reminder frequency is lower than deduction frequency
The available credit alert sends only one notification per day; for high-frequency billing products, the balance may be depleted between alerts.
The threshold must cover at least the spending incurred between receiving the reminder and the recharge being credited.
The early warning is delayed.
High‑spending alerts take effect T+2 and are checked around 9:00 AM daily for the previous day’s bill; budget alerts are sent T+1 day.
Configure it before you start using the resources; don’t try to fix it after problems arise.
Accounting and back taxes
When the official bill is issued next month, taxes will be added, and your available credit will decrease further.
Threshold Reserved Tax Portion
The recipient is not properly configured.
Notifications are sent to the contacts configured in the Message Center; if the email address is not verified, you will not receive them.
Configure and verify recipients for account fee-related messages in the Message Center.
I thought the early warning would automatically trigger a stop-loss.
All three types of alerts are for notification only; resources will continue to be billed.
After receiving the reminder, verify the source of expenses and release or downgrade unnecessary resources.
Once the available credit falls below 0, the account enters an overdue status, and thereafter...
Rules for Suspension Due to Overdue Payments and Instance Release on Alibaba Cloud International Site
(The timeline and recovery steps) can be reviewed in advance; if you need to stop further charges as soon as possible when your account is overdue, the official recommendation is to disable the grace period service or manually release pay-as-you-go resources that are still being billed (such as Elastic IP addresses and snapshots).
Order of processing after receiving an alert
Open the Fees and Costs homepage and confirm that the available credit is
Approaching the threshold or already below zero.
In the cost analysis or bill details, find out the source of the cost increase by product and instance, and focus on the idle flexible public network IP, automatic snapshot, and public network traffic.
After confirming the need to continue to use, recharge in time to avoid the balance running out within the reminder interval.
After processing, turn back and adjust the threshold: too low will ring every day, too high will lose the advance.
If you do not have a suitable international credit card or want to be reminded to recharge by a special person, you can learn about the account opening and recharging service of Aliyun International Station of Zero Cloud.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: Will I be notified in advance if my Alibaba Cloud International account balance is insufficient?
Yes. After the available quota alert is enabled, you will be reminded once a day for up to 5 consecutive days when the available quota is lower than the threshold. In addition, the system will also send consumption alerts and overdue notifications according to consumption trends, subject to the configuration of the message center.
Q2: Will it stop automatically if the budget exceeds?
No. Officially, only message notifications are sent when the warning threshold is triggered, and actual resource usage is not limited.
Q3: Why did the high consumption warning just set not respond?
The new rule does not take effect until T 2 and is based on the daily bill summary and is not triggered in real time.
Q4: Does the voucher balance count toward the available credit?
It doesn’t count. The available quota does not include the balance of vouchers and stored-value cards, and the threshold should be set according to the cash balance.
Q5: Can multiple enterprise accounts be set up uniformly?
Available quota alert can be set in batch in unified account management. High consumption alert only takes effect for the current login account, and member accounts need to be set separately.
Related Services
Alibaba Cloud International Account Opening and Recharge Plan
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the differences between Alibaba Cloud’s international site and its domestic site?
Will Aliyun International Station stop due to arrears?
Why is the price of Aliyun International Station more tax?
Can Aliyun International Station settle monthly?