Alibaba Cloud
vs
Paperspace
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
- Competitive GPU prices
- Managed platform, from notebooks to container-based clusters
- Free ingress and egress
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Paperspace | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $6.48 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM (C2) | 13% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $57.60 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (C5) | Within 5% |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $115.20 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (C6) | 39% cheaper on Paperspace |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $7.00 /mo 100 GB SSD · Billed hourly, capped at $7.00 / mo | 8% cheaper on Paperspace |
| Object storage | $27.70 /mo 1 TB | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $19.40 /mo Network Load Balancer | -- Not listed | |
| Serverless | $20.63 /mo 25M invocations, 512 MB RAM, 150 ms duration (0.15 vCPU) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 200 GB / mo | Free and unlimited | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | -- Not listed |
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 Paperspace offers 12. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Paperspace | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs · 3 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $2.30 /GPU/hr On-demand | 15% cheaper on Paperspace |
|
T4
12 configs
|
$0.62 /GPU/hr Reserved (12 mo) | -- | Alibaba Cloud only |
|
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
2 configs
|
-- | $5.95 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
|
A100
4 configs
|
-- | $3.09 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
|
RTX A6000
2 configs
|
-- | $1.89 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
|
A4000
1 config
|
-- | $0.76 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
|
A5000
1 config
|
-- | $1.38 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
|
RTX 5000
1 config
|
-- | $0.82 /GPU/hr On-demand | Paperspace only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Paperspace bills on-demand. 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 | Paperspace |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Data centers only |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Data centers only |
| HIPAA | Yes | -- |
| GDPR | Yes | -- |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | Level 1, data centers only |
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 | Paperspace |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2014 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 3 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Fast.ai, SciSpace, Tunebat, Spectrum Labs, Kando |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | paperspace.com |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Paperspace against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Oct. 1, 2026, and for Paperspace on Oct. 1, 2026.