Alibaba Cloud
vs
Runpod
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
- GPUs from RTX 3070 to B300 in one catalog
- Serverless GPU endpoints that scale to zero
- Built-in deployments, autoscaling & monitoring
- No ingress or egress fees
- SOC 2 Type II certified
Price comparison
Closest matching configuration on each side, monthly list price in USD.
| Service | Alibaba Cloud | Runpod | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small VM | $5.62 /mo 2 vCPU, 1 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c2m1.large) | $43.20 /mo 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | 87% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Medium VM | $60.34 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GiB RAM (ecs.e-c1m2.xlarge) | $86.40 /mo 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | 30% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| Large VM | $188.64 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GiB RAM (ecs.c8a.2xlarge) | $172.80 /mo 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM (Compute-Optimized) | 8% cheaper on Runpod |
| Block storage | $7.60 /mo 100 GB (ESSD PL0) | $10.00 /mo 100 GB | 24% cheaper on Alibaba Cloud |
| 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 | 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 · 3 configs
|
$2.70 /GPU/hr On-demand | $0.23 /GPU/hr On-demand | 91% cheaper on Runpod |
|
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
13 configs
|
-- | $2.89 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
B300
5 configs
|
-- | $7.89 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
B200
3 configs
|
-- | $5.98 /GPU/hr On-demand · sold out | Runpod only |
|
RTX PRO 6000
7 configs
|
-- | $1.64 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
H200
7 configs
|
-- | $3.59 /GPU/hr On-demand | Runpod only |
|
RTX 5090
3 configs
|
-- | $0.69 /GPU/hr On-demand · sold out | 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.
Compliance
Frameworks each provider states on its own site, each linked to its source.
| Framework | Alibaba Cloud | Runpod |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 | -- |
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 | Runpod |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 | 2022 |
| Headquarters | China | USA |
| Locations | 31 | 33 |
| Example customers | Taobao, Henkel, Hang Seng Bank, Tiger Brokers | Civitai, Cognition, Cursor, Hugging Face, Perplexity, Replit |
| 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 Oct. 1, 2026, and for Runpod on Oct. 2, 2026.