Alibaba Cloud
vs
Runpod
What's good about each
- 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
- Deploy affordable GPUs in under a minute
- Scale across 30+ regions worldwide
- SOC 2 Type II certified, 99.9% uptime SLA
- Flexible billing: pay by the second, no commitments
- Multi-node Clusters scale to thousands of GPUs
- Built-in deployments, autoscaling & monitoring
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Runpod | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $15.21 /mo 1 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.xn4.small) | $43.20 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | 2.8x more expensive on Runpod |
| Medium VM | $89.79 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.xlarge) | $86.40 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | Within 5% |
| Large VM | $170.49 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c7.2xlarge) | $172.80 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | Within 5% |
| Block storage | $11.20 /mo 100 GB (Enhanced SSD PL0) | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | 11% cheaper on Runpod |
| Object storage | $43.84 /mo 1 TB, 250 GB reads, 100 GB writes | -- Not listed | |
| PostgreSQL | $114.92 /mo 2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (general-purpose) | -- Not listed | |
| Redis | $43.09 /mo 1 GB Performance-enhanced (HA) | -- Not listed | |
| Load balancer | $16.56 /mo Small I (slb.s1.small) | -- Not listed | |
| Egress allowance | 10 GB / mo | Free and unlimited | |
| Egress | $74.00 /TB $0.074 / GB | Free and unlimited |
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 Runpod offers 35. Cheapest listed price per GPU per hour; GPUs both providers sell come first.
| GPU | Alibaba Cloud | Runpod | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
V100
14 configs · 2 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.19 /GPU/hr On-demand · sold out | 14x more expensive on Alibaba Cloud |
|
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
12 configs
|
-- | $3.19 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
B300
4 configs
|
-- | $7.89 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
B200
4 configs
|
-- | $6.79 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
H200
8 configs
|
-- | $3.59 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
6 configs
|
-- | $1.69 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
RTX 5090
4 configs
|
-- | $0.99 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
Alibaba Cloud bills on-demand and reserved (12 months); Runpod bills on-demand. The line under each price names the billing type shown.
Services
Managed services each provider offers.
Company details
| Fact | Alibaba Cloud | Runpod |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2022 |
| Headquarters | Singapore | USA |
| Locations | 30 | 32 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Zillow, CivitAI, Wix, OpenAI, Perplexity, Cursor |
| Website | www.alibabacloud.com | www.runpod.io |
Alternatives to consider
Compare Alibaba Cloud and Runpod against other cloud providers.
Our data for Alibaba Cloud was last updated on Sept. 11, 2026, and for Runpod on Sept. 12, 2026.