Skip to content
inetGeek

Alibaba Cloud pricing and limits

iScore50–65 · ≈#5/16
www.alibabacloud.com · VPS and cloud
SEPT 2026 audit

Alibaba Group's public cloud: Elastic Compute Service VMs, fixed-price Simple Application Server plans, block and object storage, networking, containers and managed databases worldwide.

Visit Alibaba Cloud documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

Entry paid plan$4/month for SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB (2 vCPUs, 0.5 GiB memory, 20 GiB system disk, up to 200 Mbit/s), the cheapest Simple Application Server card on the product page; its Buy Now link opens the China (Hong Kong) region. The same page shows a one-time $9.9/year offer on SAS 2vCPU 1GiB in Singapore (resellers excluded, no coupons) and states no renewal price for it.
Regions33 regions in the ECS regions-and-zones tables on 2026-09-27: 16 in China, including Hong Kong, and 17 outside it (Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, the US, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico and Brazil). Two China local regions, Nanjing and Fuzhou, are marked Closing Down, leaving 31. Other products may support fewer.
Free tierNo — Compute is offered as a time-limited USD 90 ECS credit, not an ongoing free plan.
CategoryVPS and cloud

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 31 criteria comparedSources last checked

Alibaba Cloud pricing at a glance

Entry paid plan
$4/month for SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB (2 vCPUs, 0.5 GiB memory, 20 GiB system disk, up to 200 Mbit/s), the cheapest Simple Application Server card… source ↗
Pricing model
Simple Application Server is subscription-only: every instance needs a plan, paid upfront when the instance is created; a data disk adds a… source ↗
What the free plan includes
USD 90 of Elastic Compute Service credit, for new users of computing products only; accounts that have bought ECS instances or Simple… source ↗
When the free offer ends
The USD 90 ECS credit is valid for 3 months source ↗
Egress over allowance
No per-GB overage price on current Simple Application Server plans, which show Unlimited data transfer source ↗

First line of each sourced value. The full text is in Alibaba Cloud pricing below.

Alibaba Cloud plans and prices

Simple Application Server plans (Linux, China (Hong Kong))The Linux plan cards on Alibaba Cloud's Simple Application Server product page, in USD a month on subscription; each card's Buy Now link opens the China (Hong Kong) region, and the page publishes no other region's prices. No card shows a strike-through or promotional price. Alibaba's instance-families documentation lists these General-purpose types with no fixed data transfer plan and no charge for traffic, so the limit is the 200 Mbit/s peak bandwidth. Windows cards cost more ($10 to $60). A one-time $9.9/year offer on SAS 2vCPU 1GiB in Singapore is not shown.
PlanvCPURAMDiskTransferPrice
SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB20.5 GiB20 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$4 a month
SAS 2vCPU 1GiB21 GiB30 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$5 a month
SAS 2vCPU 2GiB22 GiB40 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$8 a month
SAS 2vCPU 4GiB24 GiB50 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$16 a month
SAS 4vCPU 8GiB48 GiB70 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$32 a month
SAS 4vCPU 16GiB416 GiB80 GiBNo quota, up to 200 Mbit/s$48 a month

Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud · read · every row quoted from this page

01.Evaluation guide

Who it suits

Fixed-price servers close to China and Asia: Simple Application Server plans from $4 a month (2 vCPU, 0.5 GiB) with no transfer quota and a 99.95% SLA, on a platform with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 and PCI DSS Level 1.

Consider something else if…

You want list prices outside Hong Kong or more memory at the entry price: the product page prices only China (Hong Kong), the $4 plan has 0.5 GiB, and the $90 new-user credit is for ECS only and excludes accounts that have bought servers.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Each value below links to the page it was read from, with the sentence it came from. Criteria Alibaba Cloud does not publish are not listed.

Alibaba Cloud pricing

9 criteria
Free tierNo — Compute is offered as a time-limited USD 90 ECS credit, not an ongoing free plan.
Sources (1) →
  • Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “Elastic Compute Service (ECS) USD 90 Free Credits (Valid for 3 Months) Use your free trial credit to explore different configurations and find the right setup for your workload.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

Kind of free offerFree credit
Sources (1) →
What the free plan includesUSD 90 of Elastic Compute Service credit, for new users of computing products only; accounts that have bought ECS instances or Simple Application Servers are not eligible.
Sources (1) →
  • Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “Elastic Compute Service (ECS) USD 90 Free Credits (Valid for 3 Months) [...] Elastic Compute Service's free trials are only available to new users of computing products. That is, users who have previously purchased Elastic Compute Service instances and Simple Application Servers with a new purchase order greater than or equal to $0 are not eligible for Elastic Compute Service's free trials”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

Credit card to startYes — A credit or debit card (or PayTM) must be added; PayPal alone does not qualify.
Sources (1) →
  • Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “During the free tier period, you must add a payment method to continue using the service for free. These payment methods include the credit card, and debit card. [...] PayPal is not supported for Alibaba Cloud Free Tier.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

When the free offer endsThe USD 90 ECS credit is valid for 3 months.
Sources (1) →
Entry paid plan$4/month for SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB (2 vCPUs, 0.5 GiB memory, 20 GiB system disk, up to 200 Mbit/s), the cheapest Simple Application Server card on the product page; its Buy Now link opens the China (Hong Kong) region. The same page shows a one-time $9.9/year offer on SAS 2vCPU 1GiB in Singapore (resellers excluded, no coupons) and states no renewal price for it.
Sources (1) →
  • Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “One-time participation allowed (resellers excluded) The system disk of 30 GiB and the maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s Default image: Alibaba Cloud Linux Cannot be combined with coupons $9.9/year [...] %22region%22:%22ap-southeast-1%22,%22version_type%22:%22swas.s.c2m1s30b1.linux%22 [...] SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB Suitable for account security management and game acceleration. The system disk of 20 GiB and the maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s Default image: Alibaba Cloud Linux $4/month [...] %22region%22:%22cn-hongkong%22,%22version_type%22:%22swas.s.c2m05s20b1.linux%22”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction

Pricing modelSimple Application Server is subscription-only: every instance needs a plan, paid upfront when the instance is created; a data disk adds a subscription charge, and transfer beyond a quota (legacy plans only) is billed pay-as-you-go. ECS, the general compute service, is billed separately.
Sources (1) →
Egress over allowanceNo per-GB overage price on current Simple Application Server plans, which show Unlimited data transfer. Legacy plans with a monthly quota are billed per GB beyond it: USD 0.07/GB in Frankfurt and London, USD 0.076/GB in Virginia, up to USD 0.153/GB in China (Hong Kong).
Sources (1) →
  • Billable items for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “If your plan shows Unlimited for data transfer, no excess data transfer fees apply. For legacy plans that include a monthly data transfer quota, you are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis for any data transfer that exceeds the quota. The unit prices for excess data transfer are as follows: Germany (Frankfurt) and UK (London): USD 0.07/GB US (Virginia): USD 0.076/GB [...] China (Hong Kong): USD 0.153/GB”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

When you exceed a capNo overage on current Simple Application Server plans: plans showing Unlimited data transfer incur no excess transfer fees. Legacy plans with a monthly quota are billed pay-as-you-go for outbound transfer beyond it; the quota resets on the first day of each calendar month.
Sources (1) →
  • Billable items for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “If your plan shows Unlimited for data transfer, no excess data transfer fees apply. For legacy plans that include a monthly data transfer quota, you are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis for any data transfer that exceeds the quota. [...] Alibaba Cloud automatically resets the data transfer quota for your Simple Application Server instance on the first day of each calendar month.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

Limits

3 criteria
Storage (entry plan)20 GiB system disk on SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB ($4/month, China (Hong Kong)), the cheapest Simple Application Server plan on the product page.
Sources (1) →
  • Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB Suitable for account security management and game acceleration. The system disk of 20 GiB and the maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s Default image: Alibaba Cloud Linux $4/month [...] %22region%22:%22cn-hongkong%22,%22version_type%22:%22swas.s.c2m05s20b1.linux%22”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction

Memory (entry plan)0.5 GiB on SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB ($4/month, China (Hong Kong)), the cheapest Simple Application Server plan on the product page.
Sources (1) →
  • Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB Suitable for account security management and game acceleration. The system disk of 20 GiB and the maximum bandwidth of 200 Mbit/s Default image: Alibaba Cloud Linux $4/month [...] %22region%22:%22cn-hongkong%22,%22version_type%22:%22swas.s.c2m05s20b1.linux%22”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official pricing · Report a correction

Included bandwidthNo monthly transfer quota on the current General-purpose Simple Application Server types: the docs list them with no fixed data transfer plan and no charge for traffic, limited instead by peak Internet bandwidth of up to 200 Mbps.
Sources (1) →

Deployment

2 criteria
Docker deploymentSupported
Sources (1) →
ContainersSupported
Sources (1) →

Infrastructure

5 criteria
Persistent storageSupported
Sources (1) →
Managed databasesSupported
Sources (1) →
AutoscalingSupported — Auto Scaling adds and removes ECS or ECI instances; it does not resize an instance.
Sources (1) →
Regions33 regions in the ECS regions-and-zones tables on 2026-09-27: 16 in China, including Hong Kong, and 17 outside it (Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, the US, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico and Brazil). Two China local regions, Nanjing and Fuzhou, are marked Closing Down, leaving 31. Other products may support fewer.
Sources (1) →
  • Regions and zones - Elastic Compute Service - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “Regions and zones in China Region name Region ID Number of zones Zone name Zone ID China (Qingdao) cn-qingdao 2 [...] China (Nanjing - Local Region) Closing Down cn-nanjing 1 Nanjing - Local Region Zone A cn-nanjing-a China (Fuzhou - Local Region) Closing Down cn-fuzhou 1 [...] Regions and zones outside China Region name Region ID Number of zones Zone name Zone ID Singapore ap-southeast-1 4”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

Uptime SLA99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage for Simple Application Server (paid use only), with service credits of 10% below 99.95%, 25% below 99% and 100% below 95% of the monthly fee.
Sources (1) →

Data

1 criteria
Backup retentionECS automatic snapshot policies: retention set in days, or snapshots kept permanently, with expired snapshots deleted automatically; several policies can run on one disk, and snapshots can be replicated to another region with their own retention.
Sources (1) →
  • Automatic snapshot policy - Elastic Compute Service - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “Custom retention with automatic deletion on expiration Set a retention period in days, or choose to retain snapshots permanently. Snapshots are automatically deleted upon expiration without manual intervention [...] After cross-region replication is enabled, snapshots are periodically replicated to the destination region, and you can set a separate retention period for the new snapshots in the destination region.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

Support

1 criteria
Support on entry paid planBasic support, by website ticket, is included with all Alibaba Cloud services. Paid tiers: Developer $19.99/month prepaid; Business the greater of $99 or 10% of monthly cloud charges (tiered down to 3%).
Sources (1) →

Compliance

10 criteria
SOC 2SOC 2 Type 2 report on security, availability and confidentiality, issued twice a year over rolling 12-month periods; available to customers in the Alibaba Cloud Compliance Repository.
Sources (1) →
  • Alibaba Cloud System and Organization's Controls (SOC2) - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “SOC 2 Type 2 Report : This report describes Alibaba Cloud's internal controls [...] relevant to security, availability, and confidentiality [...] Alibaba Cloud issues SOC reports twice a year with a reporting period of 12 months on a continuous rolling basis (1 April to 31 March and 1 October to 30 September). The latest SOC reports are available in May and November each year. Alibaba Cloud SOC Reports are available to Alibaba Cloud customers in Alibaba Cloud Compliance Repository”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

ISO 27001ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified by BSI (certificate IS 591687), valid to 2027-11-03; the scope names Elastic Compute Service, Elastic Block Storage, Auto Scaling and Simple Application Server among many services.
Sources (1) →
HIPAAAlibaba Cloud states it supports a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for customers who need HIPAA compliance, and points to a HIPAA whitepaper for which products are covered.
Sources (1) →
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “Alibaba Cloud fully supports the Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for customers that require strict compliance with the HIPAA requirements to protect the privacy and security of healthcare information. For detail information, please refer to our HIPAA whitepaper, which covers multiple Alibaba Cloud products and services compliance under HIPAA security requirements.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

GDPR / data residencyCustomers choose the region where content is stored; Alibaba Cloud says it stores and processes content only in the chosen region(s) and will not move it without consent. A GDPR Addendum with Standard Contractual Clauses covers transfers out of the EEA.
Sources (1) →
  • Security Compliance FAQs - Alibaba Cloud Trust Center ↗

    “Customers can choose the Alibaba Cloud Region(s) or Zone(s) where their content will be located. [...] Alibaba Cloud only stores and processes each customer's content in the Alibaba Cloud Region(s) that is chosen by the customer. Alibaba Cloud will not move customer content without the customer's consent. [...] Alibaba Cloud provides a GDPR Addendum that includes the Standard Contractual Clauses”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSSPCI DSS v3.2.1 Level 1, assessed annually onsite by a QSA; the assessment covers cloud products, security services and CDN in 12 global regions (including Hong Kong), and the AOC is downloadable.
Sources (1) →
  • PCI Data Security Standards Compliance - Alibaba Cloud ↗

    “Alibaba Cloud engaged with PCI SSC Approved Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) to conduct annual onsite assessment, i.e., PCI DSS v3.2.1 level 1 certified. The scope of the PCI DSS assessment includes cloud products, security services and CDN services that are available in 12 global regions (including Hong Kong). The Attestation of Compliance (AOC) report is available for downloading.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official site · Report a correction

Encryption at restOpt-in for ECS disks: a disk is encrypted with a KMS key (a service key by default) when the Encryption box is selected at creation, or by default in a region where account-level default encryption is enabled. Encryption cannot be reversed.
Sources (1) →
  • Protect data stored on disks by using disk encryption - Elastic Compute Service - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “Encrypt ECS disks with Key Management Service (KMS) to protect data at rest against threats such as physical theft and unauthorized access. [...] Encryption is irreversible. An encrypted disk cannot be converted back to an unencrypted state. [...] Create a disk in a region where account-level default encryption for Elastic Block Storage is enabled: The disk uses the specified account-level key by default. You can select a different KMS key. Other scenarios: Select the Encryption checkbox and select a KMS key. A service key is used by default.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

Customer-managed keysECS disk encryption accepts a customer master key (CMK) created in or imported into KMS, with the customer controlling rotation, disabling and deletion.
Sources (1) →
Role-based access controlResource Access Management (RAM): multiple identity types (users, groups, roles), each granted fine-grained permissions through policies; free and enabled by default.
Sources (1) →
Private networking / VPCSimple Application Server instances in the same account and region share a VPC and talk over the internal network by default; service interconnection extends that to ECS, ApsaraDB and other services in a chosen VPC, at no charge.
Sources (1) →
  • Billable items for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center ↗

    “service interconnection (free) By default, all Simple Application Server instances that belong to the same account and are in the same region are deployed in the same VPC and can communicate with each other over the internal network. You can enable service interconnection between all Simple Application Server instances in the same account and region and other cloud services (such as ECS and ApsaraDB) in a target VPC.”

    Read 2026-09-27 · official docs · Report a correction

Dedicated infrastructureDedicated Host (DDH): a single-tenant physical server; no other tenant's workloads run on it, and the customer chooses which ECS instance families to deploy.
Sources (1) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

Alibaba Cloud in the news

Headlines from other publications, not checked by us · collected

Selected by a search on this company, refreshed weekly. Nobody here has verified these claims — where something material is confirmed, it is written into the page above with its source, the way every other fact on this site is.

Alibaba Cloud pricing questions

How much does Alibaba Cloud cost?

$4/month for SAS 2vCPU 0.5GiB (2 vCPUs, 0.5 GiB memory, 20 GiB system disk, up to 200 Mbit/s), the cheapest Simple Application Server card on the product page; its Buy Now link opens the China (Hong Kong) region. The same page shows a one-time $9.9/year offer on SAS 2vCPU 1GiB in Singapore (resellers excluded, no coupons) and states no renewal price for it.

Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud · read

How does Alibaba Cloud charge?

Simple Application Server is subscription-only: every instance needs a plan, paid upfront when the instance is created; a data disk adds a subscription charge, and transfer beyond a quota (legacy plans only) is billed pay-as-you-go. ECS, the general compute service, is billed separately.

Billing rules for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center · read

Does Alibaba Cloud have a free tier?

No free tier; the free offer is a free credit.

Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud · read

Does the Alibaba Cloud free offer expire?

The USD 90 ECS credit is valid for 3 months.

Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud · read

Do you need a credit card to start on Alibaba Cloud?

Yes — A credit or debit card (or PayTM) must be added; PayPal alone does not qualify.

Start for Free - Alibaba Cloud · read

What happens if you exceed Alibaba Cloud's limits?

No overage on current Simple Application Server plans: plans showing Unlimited data transfer incur no excess transfer fees. Legacy plans with a monthly quota are billed pay-as-you-go for outbound transfer beyond it; the quota resets on the first day of each calendar month.

Billable items for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center · read

How much does Alibaba Cloud charge for egress?

No per-GB overage price on current Simple Application Server plans, which show Unlimited data transfer. Legacy plans with a monthly quota are billed per GB beyond it: USD 0.07/GB in Frankfurt and London, USD 0.076/GB in Virginia, up to USD 0.153/GB in China (Hong Kong).

Billable items for Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center · read

What uptime does Alibaba Cloud guarantee?

99.95% Monthly Uptime Percentage for Simple Application Server (paid use only), with service credits of 10% below 99.95%, 25% below 99% and 100% below 95% of the monthly fee.

Simple Application Server Service Level Agreement - Alibaba Cloud · read

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.