For Alibaba Cloud ECS, should I choose fixed bandwidth or pay-by-traffic?
The short answer
For an ECS static public IPv4 address, fixed bandwidth is worth comparing when demand is steady. Pay-by-traffic charges for actual outbound data and can suit more variable use. Compare both using your expected traffic in the same region.
In more detail
Estimate the data sent out in a normal month and a busy month, not just the number of visits. A download site and a small API can produce very different bills with the same request count. Under these static-IPv4 rules, inbound traffic is free; EIP, IPv6 and NAT Gateway use their own billing rules.
With pay-by-traffic, the peak-bandwidth setting limits rate. It does not guarantee that speed or cap the monthly bill. Keep a separate network budget and usage alerts when comparing g8i configurations, and check what the quote includes alongside compute and storage.