{"rid":"compute/tencent-cloud-international","card":{"rid":"compute/tencent-cloud-international","eid":"tencentcloud","topic":"compute","slug":"tencent-cloud-international","provider":"Tencent Cloud International","url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","domain":"tencentcloud.com","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"fails-identity","vorder":4,"grp":"rejected","confidence":"documented","binding":"retention-clamped","identity_kind":"national-id","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":0,"needs_phone":1,"needs_id":1,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":null,"egress_metered":null,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T04:09:20.000Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":13,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"A 3-month free trial of one Lighthouse 2C2G30M instance or one CVM S5 2C4G instance, plus 50 GB of COS storage for 6 months, 14 days of EdgeOne, a free month...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":10},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"tencent-cloud-international","provider":"Tencent Cloud International","url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"A 3-month free trial of one Lighthouse 2C2G30M instance or one CVM S5 2C4G instance, plus 50 GB of COS storage for 6 months, 14 days of EdgeOne, a free monthly TRTC quota, and about 26 further product trials, all at once, for a new account. The free tier page states the trial runs to at least 2026-12-31.","unit":"GiB","metered_on":"wall-clock","source_url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","read_on":"2026-10-22","notes":"time-boxed"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"The trial is time-boxed and does not renew itself: Lighthouse 2C2G30M and CVM S5 2C4G each run 3 months, COS 50 GB runs 6 months, EdgeOne runs 14 days, and the campaign runs 'From now until Dec 31, 2026, 24:00 GMT+8'. Renewal is a manual, paid act: 'Before the product expires, you can renew it in the product control panel', and 'The discounted renewal will not be available for the products purchased during the free trial period, and the renewal will be charged at the official selling price.' A destroyed instance forfeits the trial: 'if the free examples are destroyed, it is deemed to give up the free use'.","days":null,"source_url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"not stated","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier"},"interface":["unknown"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"The Lighthouse 2C2G is a reachable box in Singapore, Bangkok or Frankfurt for 90 days and the COS 50 GB runs 180 days, so the two windows do not end together: storage outlives the server by about three months, which is the wrong way round for a backup target.","limits":[{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"3 months on the machine, 6 months on the 50 GB COS bucket, 14 days on EdgeOne; the campaign ends Dec 31, 2026 24:00 GMT+8; one free experience and one discount renewal per product per real-name subject; renewal after the trial is at the full official price","source":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier"}],"limits_note":"3 months on the machine, 6 months on the COS bucket, 14 days on EdgeOne; the campaign ends Dec 31, 2026 24:00 GMT+8, and the discounted renewal is not available on a trial purchase","binding":"retention-clamped","binding_note":"the machine is gone at 3 months and the campaign closes on Dec 31, 2026, so the clock binds before the money does; but the gate that decides whether the client gets in at all is the real-name document, which is why the verdict is fails-identity rather than trial-only","identity_cost":{"kind":"national-id","detail":"TWO GATES, and only the second one costs a document. GATE 1, opening an account: an email address (or a Google account, or WeChat) with an emailed code; a registration location, which 'cannot be changed' once set; the individual's name and address; 'the mobile number of the registration location', which must receive an SMS code and is capped at 'at most 5 Tencent Cloud accounts' per number; and a bound card - 'Seven types of credit cards/debit cards/prepaid cards are supported: VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, UnionPay, JCB, DISCOVER, and Diners Club', with 'a 1.00 USD pre-authorization' that is 'automatically canceled ... within 1 to 5 business days'. No ID document at this step. Virtual and gift cards are refused: 'Tencent Cloud does not support virtual cards or gift cards', and 'Some card brands may not support debit cards'. The campaign's own eligibility rule requires it: 'All international site users who have registered on Tencent Cloud and completed enterprise or individual authentication ... are eligible to participate.' A passport is producible by for a user, so the gate is a document rather than an affiliation - but it is a real-name check, and the corpus grades that rung as one the client cannot produce.","country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event observed nothing was signed up for","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'LighthouseFree Trial for 3 months', 'Lighthouse 2C2G30M', 'Cloud Virtual MachineFree Trial for 3 months', 'CVM S5 2C4G', 'COS 50GB Free Trial for 6 months', 'EdgeOne Free Trial for 14 days', 'TRTC Free Monthly Quota', quoted; the page lists 'Show you 30 trial products'"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/10495","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"review 'within 2-4 business days', quoted"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/1300/80423","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"'TokenHub currently provides a one-time free trial quota for each root account' and 'This campaign is valid until December 31, 2026', quoted"},{"url":"https://www.studentoffers.co/offer/tencent-cloud","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"a third-party claim that a USD 1 pre-authorisation is required at signup and that virtual cards are refused; this contradicts Tencent's own walkthrough, which describes verification replacing the card, so the card term is contested and unverified either way, reported"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/80678","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, the general verification trigger: 'If you need to purchase or use cloud services in the Chinese mainland (excluding Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), and Taiwan (China)), apply to become a Tencent Cloud partner, or use the online self-service invoice feature, you must complete identity verification for your Tencent Cloud account.'"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/zh/document/product/378/80678","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"the same sentence in the Chinese original: '如果您需要购买或使用中国大陆地区云服务（不含中国香港、中国澳门及中国台湾地区）、申请成为腾讯云合作伙伴、线上自助开票等，需要您完成腾讯云账号的实名认证。' - the English is a translation of binding text, not a rendering artefact"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted from the campaign Rules modal, the eligibility gate: 'All international site users who have registered on Tencent Cloud and completed enterprise or individual authentication (excluding co-authors and sub-accounts) are eligible to participate.'"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/zh/act/pro/FreeTier","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"the same eligibility rule in the Chinese original: '腾讯云官网已注册且完成企业或个人实名认证的国际站用户均可参与（协作者与子用户账号除外）' - 实名认证 is the same term the Identity Verification Overview uses, so 'authentication' here means the ID-document check"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/10495","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, and this is the sentence that ties the two pages together: 'If you want to participate in individual promotional campaigns on the Tencent Cloud official website, or if you want to register your Tencent Cloud account and cloud resources under your personal name, you must complete individual identity verification.' The free trial is an individual promotional campaign."},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/10495","date":"2026-10-24","proved":null},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/17985","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, the account gate: 'Tencent Cloud accounts can be registered using an email address, a Google account, or WeChat'; 'Enter the mobile number of the registration location'; 'Each mobile number can be used for at most 5 Tencent Cloud accounts'; and 'Seven types of credit cards/debit cards/prepaid cards are supported: VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, UnionPay, JCB, DISCOVER, and Diners Club.'"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product/378/17985","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, the pre-authorisation and the exclusions: 'the system will issue a 1.00 USD pre-authorization on your bound bank card to verify its validity ... the pre-authorization will be automatically canceled ... within 1 to 5 business days'; 'Tencent Cloud does not support virtual cards or gift cards'; 'Some card brands may not support debit cards.'"},{"url":"https://www.tencentcloud.com/act/pro/FreeTier","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, shape, term and the absence of auto-renewal: 'Trial configuration: Lighthouse 2C2G30M' for '3 months', 'Trial configuration：CVM S5 2C4G' for '3 months', 'COS' '50GB Free Trial for 6 months', 'Free Trial for 14 days'; 'Before the product expires, you can renew it in the product control panel'; 'The discounted renewal will not be available for the products purchased during the free trial period, and the renewal will be charged at the official selling price.'; 'From now until Dec 31, 2026, 24:00 GMT+8'"}],"verdict":"fails-identity","verified_at":"2026-10-24T04:09:20.000Z","notes":"CONTRADICTION SETTLED 2026-10-24: THE VERDICT WAS RIGHT AND THE RECORD'S REASON FOR IT WAS WRONG. The record's identity_cost.detail asserted nothing ('as stated by the provider's signup page'), and its retention text overstated the gate - 'the account cannot be opened at all without a government document' is false. The two first-party stories are both true of different things. The Identity Verification Overview scopes verification to three triggers - mainland-China purchases, partner applications and self-service invoicing - and buying a Lighthouse or CVM instance in Singapore, Bangkok or Frankfurt is none of them. But the free trial is a campaign, not a purchase, and its own Rules make authentication an eligibility condition: 'All international site users who have registered on Tencent Cloud and completed enterprise or individual authentication ... are eligible to participate.' The Chinese original says 实名认证, the same term the verification doc is titled with, so this is the ID-document check and not an email confirmation. So the answer to 'is it mainland only' is: mainland only for ordinary purchases, ALL regions for the free trial. Hence fails-identity stands, now resting on a quoted sentence instead of a placeholder, and the account gate is correctly described as email + phone + card rather than a document. What this does NOT establish: whether the checkout enforces the campaign rule before or after the trial order is placed. No account was created, so nobody watched it refuse. The rule is stated, and the enforcement is inferred from the rule.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"regional","free_tier_kind":"time-boxed","shape":{"vcpu":2,"ram_gib":4,"gpu_class":null,"gpu_count":0}},"r04_2026_10_24":{"verdict_before":"fails-identity","verdict_after":"fails-identity","verdict_change":null,"record_error_found":"retention.stated claimed 'the account cannot be opened at all without a government document'; that is false, the account opens with email, phone and a card","general_purchase_gate":"mainland China only (plus partner applications and self-service invoicing)","free_trial_gate":"all regions - the campaign's Rules require completed 实名认证 of every international participant","routes_tried":["broker read 200 document/product/378/80678 (English)","broker read 200 zh/document/product/378/80678 (Chinese original)","broker read 200 document/product/378/17985","broker read 200 document/product/378/10495","broker read 200 act/pro/FreeTier, plus fetch and JSON extraction of the Rules modal","broker read 200 zh/act/pro/FreeTier, plus the 实名认证 clause in the rules panel","broker read 404 document/product/378/3401 (dead slug)"]}},"confidence_note":"every step of both gates is quoted from a first-party Tencent Cloud International page read today, including the campaign Rules modal and its Chinese original. No account was created, so the ordering of the gates at checkout - whether the card is asked before the document - is documented rather than measured."},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":50,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":50,"unit":"GB","per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"}],"unknown":[["$.egress.metered","egress-unknown"],["$.egress.terms","not-stated"],["$.evidence[9].proved","withheld"],["$.extras.r04_2026_10_24.verdict_change","withheld"],["$.interface","interface-unknown"],["$.notes","partly-held"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[],"drift":[{"kind":"duplicate-disagrees","subject":"compute/tencent-cloud-international","other":"compute/tencent-lighthouse-intl","field":"verdict","a":"fails-identity","b":"qualifies","detail":null},{"kind":"duplicate-disagrees","subject":"compute/tencent-cloud-international","other":"compute/tencent-lighthouse-intl","field":"identity_kind","a":"national-id","b":"card","detail":null}]}