Alibaba Cloud
vs
AWS
Both are hyperscalers with matching service catalogs. Alibaba Cloud charges less for medium VMs and runs regions in mainland China, while AWS adds H100 to GB300 GPUs and GovCloud.
What's good about each
- 30+ regions, most in mainland China and Asia-Pacific
- 3,200+ CDN nodes in 70+ countries
- Qwen models served through Model Studio
- PolarDB, its own MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database
- 200+ managed services across compute, storage, databases and AI
- 30+ datacenter locations, including two GovCloud regions
- 100 GB of free egress each month
- Single-GPU T4 up to 8x H200 and B200 nodes
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | AWS | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $6.77 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (t3a.micro) | 17% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $110.16 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (c6a.xlarge) | 45% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $220.32 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (c6a.2xlarge) | 14% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $8.00 /mo 100 GB | 5% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | $37.96 /mo 1 TB | 27% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| PostgreSQL | -- Not listed | $57.59 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GiB RAM, 50 GB storage (db.t3.medium) | |
| Redis | -- Not listed | $19.58 /mo 2 vCPU, 1.37 GiB RAM (cache.t3.small, Valkey) | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | $22.34 /mo Network Load Balancer | 13% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | $36.25 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration | 43% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | 100 GB / mo | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | $90.00 /TB $0.09 / GB (North America) | 18% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
Heads up: Figures take each provider's closest plan to a common setup, and vary by region and usage. Hover a service for the reference configuration. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.
GPUs
Alibaba Cloud offers 4 GPU models, while AWS offers 18. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | AWS | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs · 6 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $3.06 /GPU/hr On-demand | 12% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
|
T4
12 configs · 21 configs
|
$1.12 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.53 /GPU/hr On-demand | 53% cheaper on AWS |
|
A10
26 configs
|
$0.71 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
P100
12 configs
|
$0.87 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
H100
6 configs
|
-- | $2.97 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | AWS only |
|
B300
1 config
|
-- | $17.80 /GPU/hr On-demand | AWS only |
|
B200
1 config
|
-- | $14.24 /GPU/hr On-demand | AWS only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
6 configs
|
-- | $3.36 /GPU/hr On-demand | AWS only |
|
H200
1 config
|
-- | $7.91 /GPU/hr On-demand | AWS only |
|
A100
6 configs
|
-- | $1.17 /GPU/hr Reserved (36 mo) | AWS only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); AWS bills on-demand and reserved (12 or 36 months). The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | Level 1 |
| FedRAMP | -- | High, GovCloud; Moderate in US East-West |
Heads up: Each entry links to the provider's own statement. An attestation can cover one tier, one region or the platform alone rather than every service. Verify the scope before you rely on it. A dash means we found nothing to link to, not that the provider lacks it.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2006 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 36 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Vanguard, Disney, Samsung, Zocdoc, GoPro |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | aws.amazon.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and AWS against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Sept. 26, 2026, and for AWS on Sept. 26, 2026.