What's good about...
Alibaba Cloud
- Strong presence in Asia and over 3,000 points of presence (POPs) around the world
- Extensive range of managed services and server configurations
- Offers a solid range of GPU servers
Fal.ai
- Optimized for fast inference, especially for generative media
- Cost-effective, pay-as-you-go pricing model
- Offers both serverless GPU instances
Price comparison
How do Alibaba Cloud's prices compare against Fal.ai?
| Example configuration |
Alibaba Cloud
|
Fal.ai
|
|---|---|---|
| VM Small | $15.21 / mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.xn4.small) | -- |
| VM Medium | $89.79 / mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.xlarge) | -- |
| VM Large | $170.49 / mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.2xlarge) | -- |
| Block Storage | $11.20 / mo 100 GB (Enhanced SSD PL0) | -- |
| Object Storage | $43.84 / mo 1 TB, 250 GB reads, 100 GB writes | -- |
| Load Balancer | $16.56 / mo Small I (slb.s1.small) | -- |
| Managed PostgreSQL | $114.92 / mo 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (general-purpose) | -- |
| Managed Redis®* | $43.09 / mo 1 GB Performance-enhanced (HA) | -- |
| Free egress allowance | 10 GB / mo | -- |
| 1 TB of egress beyond allowance | $74.00 $0.074 / GB | -- |
Alibaba Cloud GPUs
| Name | GPUs | VRAM | vCPUs | RAM | Price/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ecs.gn6i-c4g1.xlarge | 1x T4 | 16GB | 4 | 15GB | $1.18 | Source |
| ecs.gn7i-c8g1.2xlarge | 1x A10 | 24GB | 8 | 30GB | $2.86 | Source |
| ecs.gn6e-c12g1.3xlarge | 1x V100 | 32GB | 12 | 92GB | $3.51 | Source |
Fal.ai uses a usage-based pricing model, ensuring you only pay for the compute you consume. It offers two main structures:
- GPU Pricing: Billed per second for deploying custom applications on their GPU fleet.
- Output-Based Pricing: For models hosted by Fal.ai, billing is based on the output generated, such as per image, per megapixel, or per second of video.
Fal.ai GPUs
| Name | GPUs | VRAM | vCPUs | RAM | Price/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A6000 | 1x A6000 | 48GB | -- | -- | $0.60 | Source |
| A100 | 1x A100 | 40GB | -- | -- | $0.99 | Source |
| H100 | 1x H100 | 80GB | -- | -- | $1.89 | Source |
| H200 | 1x H200 | 141GB | -- | -- | $2.10 | Source |
| B200 | 1x B200 | 184GB | -- | -- | On Request | Source |
Note: Our pricing examples are based on several assumptions. Your actual costs may differ. Always check the cloud provider's website for the most up-to-date pricing.
Which services do they offer
Here are some managed services that Alibaba Cloud and Fal.ai offer:
| Service |
Alibaba Cloud
|
Fal.ai
|
|---|---|---|
| Block Storage | -- | |
| Content Delivery Network (CDN) | -- | |
| Container Registry | -- | |
| GPU-powered Servers | ||
| Load Balancer | -- | |
| Managed Containers | -- | |
| Managed Kubernetes | -- | |
| Managed MySQL | -- | |
| Managed PostgreSQL | -- | |
| Managed Redis®* | -- | |
| Object Storage | -- | |
| Serverless Cron Jobs | -- | |
| Serverless Functions | -- | |
| Static Sites | -- |
Company details
|
Alibaba Cloud
|
Fal.ai
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | fal.ai |
| Headquarters | Singapore 🇸🇬 | United States of America 🇺🇸 |
| Founded | 2009 | 2021 |
| Data Center Locations | 30 | -- |
| Example Customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | PlayAI, Quora Poe, Genspark, Hedra |
|
Alibaba Cloud
|
|
|---|---|
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com |
| Headquarters | Singapore 🇸🇬 |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Data Center Locations | 30 |
| Example Customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers |
Alternatives to consider
Want to see how Alibaba Cloud and Fal.ai compare against other providers? Check out these other comparisons:
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 14, 2024, and for Fal.ai on June 12, 2025.