Elastic IP addresses (EIPs) are one of those small line items that rarely make it into cost reviews — until someone looks closely and finds dozens of idle IPs silently accumulating retention fees. On September 1, 2026 (UTC+8), Alibaba Cloud adjusted EIP public network IP retention fees in a number of regions. The headline is friendly: most regions now converge on a unified $0.005/hour (traffic billing) and $0.12/day (fixed bandwidth). But the adjustment is not uniformly downward — a few regions actually went up. Here is the breakdown, and how to turn it into a region-saving plan.
What changed, region by region
The adjustment applies to BGP line types (including BGP multi-line and premium variants) in the affected regions. Prices below are per EIP, per hour (traffic billing) or per day (fixed bandwidth), before tax.
Traffic billing — retention fee per hour
| Region | Before (USD/h) | After (USD/h) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| China (Hong Kong) | 0.009 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Singapore | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Philippines (Manila) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Malaysia (Johor) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | 0.003 | 0.005 | ↑ up |
| South Korea (Seoul) | 0.003 | 0.005 | ↑ up |
| Germany (Frankfurt) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| France (Paris) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| UK (London) | 0.006 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| UAE (Dubai) | 0.009 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
| Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | 0.008 | 0.005 | ↓ down |
Fixed bandwidth — retention fee per day
| Region | Before (USD/day) | After (USD/day) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| China (Hong Kong) | 0.211 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Singapore | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Philippines (Manila) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Indonesia (Jakarta) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Thailand (Bangkok) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Malaysia (Johor) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | 0.074 | 0.12 | ↑ up |
| South Korea (Seoul) | 0.074 | 0.12 | ↑ up |
| Germany (Frankfurt) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| France (Paris) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| UK (London) | 0.151 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
| Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | 0.181 | 0.12 | ↓ down |
Two takeaways jump out. First, the market is standardizing: nearly every listed region lands on the same $0.005/hour and $0.12/day, which makes cross-region budgeting dramatically simpler. Second, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur bucked the trend — their retention fees rose to match the common level. If you hold EIPs in those two regions, this adjustment is a real cost increase, not a rounding error.
Why this matters beyond the small print
An EIP retention fee is charged per hour, regardless of whether the IP is actively used. That is the trap: an EIP attached to a stopped instance, or reserved "just in case", keeps billing. For a team running a handful of public endpoints the numbers look tiny. For a fleet with dozens of IPs across staging, production and legacy services, the total is easy to underestimate — and the new pricing changes the economics of where you keep them.
The standardization also matters for planning. When retention fees converge, region choice shifts toward other cost levers — instance pricing, bandwidth unit price, data transfer and latency to your users — instead of being skewed by retention outliers. That is a healthier way to choose a region anyway.
How to pick regions and actually save
- Treat EIP retention as part of total cost, not a rounding error. For each region you use, add up: EIP retention + bandwidth cost + instance cost + data transfer. The retention fee is now the easiest variable to compare — most regions are identical, so the differentiators are elsewhere.
- Release idle EIPs immediately. Post-September 1, an unused EIP at $0.005/hour costs about $3.60 a month; under fixed bandwidth it is $3.60 a month too ($0.12/day × 30). That is real money multiplied by however many idle IPs you hold. Audit, detach, release.
- Right-size your billing mode. Traffic billing (low retention + pay per GB) suits spiky or low-average workloads. Fixed bandwidth (flat daily fee + predictable bandwidth) suits steady, always-on services. With both now standardized, the decision is purely about your traffic profile.
- Question whether you need a public IP at all. For outbound-only access or multi-instance architectures, a NAT Gateway or a load balancer with a public IP can replace a pile of individual EIPs — and you only pay for one public entry point instead of many.
- Choose the region for your users, not for the fee. Retention fees are now flat, so pick regions that minimize latency and egress to your actual audience. For APAC audiences, Hong Kong and Singapore remain the default entry points — and both got cheaper to hold. For MEA coverage, Dubai and Riyadh both dropped to $0.005/hour, making them more attractive for regional presence.
- Watch the exceptions. If you are in Seoul or Kuala Lumpur, re-evaluate: either budget for the higher retention fee, or consider whether another region with comparable latency to your users is now cheaper overall. Do not forget EIPs are regional — moving to another region means a new EIP and a data migration, so factor that in.
- Re-baseline after the change. Prices shifted on September 1; your cost review should shift with it. Pull the console, list every EIP, and rebuild your monthly projection with the new rates before the next bill surprises you.
A quick worked example
Take a small API service with three production EIPs and two idle ones, currently in Hong Kong with traffic billing. Before the change: 5 × $0.009/h × 720 h ≈ $32.40/month in retention. After: release the two idle IPs, keep three at $0.005/h → 3 × $0.005 × 720 ≈ $10.80/month — an ~67% drop from the old total, before even counting bandwidth savings. If the same workload sat in Seoul with the increase, the advice is the opposite: consolidate, or relocate if latency allows.
The bottom line
The September 2026 EIP adjustment is a small-bill story with a clear message: retention pricing is converging, most regions got cheaper, and the remaining savings live in how many EIPs you hold and which billing mode matches your traffic. Audit your IPs, release what you do not use, and let region choice be driven by users and latency — now that the fees have stopped distorting it.
If comparing regions and re-planning your network spend sounds like a chore, you are not alone — it is exactly the kind of optimization CloudPeak handles for customers every week. As an official Alibaba Cloud International channel partner, we help you map the right region, the right billing mode and the right price for your workload, with flexible USDT payment, no real-name verification and independent ready-to-use accounts. Message @pixiu258zc for a region-cost check tailored to your setup, and follow @Alibabacloud_Intl for the latest pricing announcements.