Skip to main content
QwenCloud home page
Docs
Billing

Billing and cost management

Analyze and manage costs

Learn how to query detailed bills, view invoices, and stop billing to avoid charges. For details on billing types and pricing, see Pricing.

Pay-as-you-go billing

The Pay-as-you-go page shows your monthly spend and spending alert limit at the top. Below, you can view detailed bills in Chart or List view, and access invoices. Bills include usage from all regions. The data on this page, including the Invoices section at the bottom, does not change when you switch the region or workspace in the console. To view usage for a specific region, go to Analytics > Usage. Prices differ by region; see Model prices. On the Pay-as-you-go page, the Spending Trends section lets you analyze costs by different dimensions:
  1. Toggle between Chart and List views:
    • Chart: Visualize spending trends as a bar chart. Use the Group by selector to group by Model or API Key.
    • List: View itemized billing records with columns: Billing Month, Model, Token Type, Usage, Amount, Workspace Name, Desc/API Key, Line Item, and Action. You can export records.
  2. Use filters to narrow down records:
    • All Models: Filter by specific model
    • All API Keys: Filter by specific API key
    • By Month/By Day: Switch time granularity
    • Time range: Select billing period (such as Last 12 months)

View invoices

On the Pay-as-you-go page:
  1. Navigate to the Invoices section
  2. Select a month from the date picker to view invoices for that period
  3. View invoice details:
    • Month: Billing period
    • Amount (Incl. Tax): Total amount including tax
    • Status: Invoice status
    • Action: Download or view invoice
The invoice header (recipient name) is set when you bind a payment card. You can enter your user name during card binding to have it appear on your invoices.

Cost management

Set spending alerts

On the Pay-as-you-go page, click the settings icon next to Spending Alert Limit to open the Spending Alert dialog:
  1. Enable Monthly Spending Alert
  2. In Alert Limit Settings, enter the alert amount in the New Limit field. Current Limit shows the limit in effect
  3. In Alert Threshold Settings, drag the slider to set the Alert Threshold (for example, 80%). You're notified when spending reaches that percentage of the alert limit
  4. In Notification Methods, add the email addresses to receive alerts
  5. Click Save Settings
The spending alert limit only triggers notifications. It does not cap or stop your spending. Alerts cover pay-as-you-go charges only and exclude prepaid subscriptions such as Token Plan.
You will receive notifications when your spending reaches the alert threshold. Alerts are typically sent within 15 minutes, though the exact timing may vary.
Spending alerts help you track cost changes and get notified before charges exceed your budget. For additional cost-saving strategies, see Cost optimization.

Stop billing

To avoid charges when you no longer need QwenCloud:
  • Stop using Try AI or making API calls.
  • Delete your API key on the API Key page to prevent accidental calls.
For information about service suspension during overdue payments, see Overdue payment protection.

FAQ

Why can't I find the bill right after calling a model?

  1. Bill delay: Bills update hourly but may lag during peak hours (costs from 16:00-17:00 might appear at 19:30).
  2. Free tier: No charges or bills are generated for usage within free quota or when calling free models.

Is Pay-as-you-go billed in real time?

No. QwenCloud uses a "reserve and settle monthly" model for pay-as-you-go billing. The system reserves an estimated amount based on your usage, and then generates a final bill and charges the actual cost to your payment method at the end of the billing cycle (early in the next month).

Why do I have an overdue payment even though I have barely used the service?

Some features of QwenCloud, such as web search, are billed separately (post-paid) based on the number of calls and are invoiced separately from model inference fees. Even if you have not actively used the console recently, if the enable_search parameter is enabled in your application code, web search fees are still incurred for each call. Solution:
  1. In your bill details, check the model name and invocation channel that incurred the cost.
  2. Check whether enable_search is enabled in your application code. If you no longer need web search, set this parameter to false or remove it.
  3. If you have stopped all calls but are still being charged, check if other API keys or applications are still running. You can find and delete unused keys on the API Key page.

Where can I see model call counts and statistics?

You can query model call statistics on the Analytics page. On the console home page, available balance and recent spend are account-level figures that cover all regions. The token usage trend is based on Analytics > Usage and shows the region selected in the upper-right corner of the console.

Which data changes after I switch regions?

Billing Overview, Order Details, and Pay-as-you-go (including its invoices section) cover all regions and do not change. Analytics > Usage follows the selected region, so switch regions there to see a region's usage. See Regions and endpoints.

How do I unbind a payment card?

To unbind your current card, you must first bind another card. Once a second card is added, the first card becomes available for removal.