{"rid":"compute/alibaba-cloud-international","card":{"rid":"compute/alibaba-cloud-international","eid":"alibabacloud","topic":"compute","slug":"alibaba-cloud-international","provider":"Alibaba Cloud International","url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/599911","domain":"alibabacloud.com","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"trial-only","vorder":2,"grp":"trial","confidence":"documented","binding":"volume-quota","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":1,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":null,"egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T03:21:02.824Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":7,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"On 2026-10-23 the international free-trial documentation describes product trials as per-product resource quotas and solution trials as points: 'Points are d...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":8},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"alibaba-cloud-international","provider":"Alibaba Cloud International","url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/599911","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"On 2026-10-23 the international free-trial documentation describes product trials as per-product resource quotas and solution trials as points: 'Points are deducted from the actual cloud-resource bills generated by the trial resources, at 1 point : USD 1.' The initial claim is 50 points, with 5 points per additional solution up to 10 solutions, valid for one year, and any single solution trial is capped at 168 hours. A separate promotion offers USD 200 on approval of a business use case.","unit":"mixed","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/product-overview/learn-about-free-trials","read_on":"2026-10-23","notes":"points at 1 point to USD 1"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/599911","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable","days":null,"source_url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/599911","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"the help documentation read on 2026-10-23 states no egress allowance; the earlier blog post stated 200 GB a month of non-mainland transfer, which stays here as an older claim and was not re-confirmed","metered":true,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/product-overview/learn-about-free-trials"},"interface":["unknown"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"The money-denominated lane is now points at 1 point to USD 1, capped at an initial 50 points with one year of validity, so it buys a small trial rather than a season of compute. The earlier 200 GB a month of non-mainland egress is the term that would survive a quiet account if it still exists.","limits":[{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"50 initial points at 1 point to USD 1, plus 5 points per additional solution up to 10 solutions, valid for one year, with any single solution trial capped at 168 hours","source":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/product-overview/learn-about-free-trials"}],"limits_note":"the product trials are per-product resource quotas and the solution trials are points; the help page states no blanket signup credit","binding":"volume-quota","binding_note":"the 168-hour per-solution cap stops any single long run first, and the 50-point initial claim plus the one-year validity bound the whole lane","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"card at signup; a USD 1.00 pre-authorisation verifies the card; debit accepted if enabled for international payments; prepaid, gift, virtual and UnionPay-only cards refused because they cannot pass pre-authorisation; PayPal also supported; a verified phone number, and one identity may hold one account","country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/blog/599911","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"' USD 90.00 3 ', ' USD 0.25/ ECS + ', ' 220 GB 200 GB + 20 GB ', quoted from Alibaba Cloud's own community post"},{"url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/product-overview/learn-about-free-trials","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"eligibility needs 'a verified phone number and a payment method', and the accepted methods are 'Credit card (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, or JCB with international payment enabled)', debit card of the same networks, or 'PayTM (available for users in India)'; 'PayPal is not supported'; and a risk-control block requires KYC, quoted"},{"url":"https://buildaicurrent.com/credits/alibaba-cloud-free-credits/","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"a third party correcting the widely repeated USD 300 figure: 'As of 2026-08-21 that is not the current official model. The official free page lists per-product trials instead, with the ECS USD 90 for 3 months as the compute-relevant one', reported"},{"url":"https://help.aliyun.com/en/ecs/user-guide/ecs-free-trial","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"the mainland site's parallel offer: 'a total free quota of CNY 300 for ECS instances and system disks', 4 vCPU and 8 GiB maximum, seven regions including Hong Kong, and the same 220 GB split of monthly traffic, quoted."},{"url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/product-overview/learn-about-free-trials","date":"2026-10-23","proved":"'Points are deducted from the actual cloud-resource bills generated by the trial resources, at 1 point : USD 1.', quoted; the same page states the 50-point initial claim, the one-year validity and the 168-hour per-solution cap"},{"url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/support/payment-faq","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'Only Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, or JCB credit or debit cards enabled for international payments are accepted. Prepaid, gift, virtual, and UnionPay-only cards are not supported.'"},{"url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/support/payment-faq","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, the hold: 'Pre-authorization failure: A USD 1.00 pre-authorization (or local currency equivalent) verifies your card.'"}],"verdict":"trial-only","verified_at":"2026-10-24T03:21:02.824Z","notes":"Two offers sit behind one brand and they are not the same door. The international lane takes a Visa or Mastercard and needs no national document, which is why this record is trial-only rather than fails-identity; the mainland lane at CNY 300 needs Chinese identity verification and is the one for a user cannot open. The USD 300 figure that circulates in credit roundups is stale and the third-party correction above says so; the vendor's own community post says USD 90. The free trial page at alibabacloud.com/free is login-gated and served no content to any reader route, so the per-product list could not be read directly. Corrected on 2026-10-23: the earlier USD 90 over 3 months came from a localised page that the international help documentation no longer states. The money-denominated lane is now points at 1 point to USD 1 plus a USD 200 application. PAYMENT CORRECTION 2026-10-24: the corpus table said Alibaba's hold was 'not published'. It is published: USD 1.00, on the payment FAQ. The refusal of prepaid, gift and virtual cards is confirmed there too, which is why prepaid counts as refused for this vendor.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"regional","free_tier_kind":"trial-credit","shape":{"vcpu":2,"ram_gib":4,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":0}},"payment_methods":{"card_at_signup":"yes","debit":"accepted-with-condition","prepaid":"refused","virtual":"refused","hold_amount":"USD 1.00","hold_detail":"pre-authorisation to verify the card","identity":"verified phone number; KYC only on a risk-control block","source_url":"https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/user-center/support/payment-faq","read_on":"2026-10-24"}},"confidence_note":"Payment facts re-read on 2026-10-24: the card types, the hold and the identity gate each come from a first-party page quoted in evidence[]."},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":168,"unit":"hours","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":168,"unit":"hours","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.evidence[3].proved","partly-held"],["$.interface","interface-unknown"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[{"hid":"history/2026-10-23T080500Z/credit-ladder-corrected.md","when":"2026-10-23T08:05:00Z","status":"corrected","title":"The credit ladder was re-read, and eight claims moved"}],"drift":[]}