What is an Alibaba Cloud account?

Overview

When you sign up for Alibaba Cloud, you create an account that owns every resource you provision. Each account is independent and isolated from all others. Alibaba Cloud assigns each account a unique 16-digit Account ID.

Core functions

Resource ownership: Every resource you create—an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, ApsaraDB RDS database, or Object Storage Service (OSS) object—belongs to your account. The account defines legal ownership and manages the full resource lifecycle.
Billing entity: All costs for consumed services are tracked and billed to the account.
Security boundary: Accounts are completely isolated by default. Operations and risks in one account do not affect others, and cross-account access requires explicit authorization. This isolation underpins multi-environment governance, such as separating production from testing.

Get started

Create an account: You can create an Alibaba Cloud account for free.
Complete identity verification(Required): Required to use Alibaba Cloud services . Verify as individual or enterprise. See Identity verification overview for details.
Enhance account security: Your account underpins your entire cloud security. Take these measures immediately:
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect logins and sensitive operations.
- Periodically change the password.
- As needed, change your logon name and email or change your mobile phone number
- As needed, set the session duration for your account and set or clear a logon mask.

Use RAM users for daily operations:

An Alibaba Cloud account, like a Linux root user, has full permissions and is not intended for daily use. Use Resource Access Management (RAM) users for everyday tasks. See Step 4: Create a RAM user as an administrator.
For team collaboration, create a unique RAM user for each member and grant only the permissions their role requires (least privilege). Quick Start: Create and authorize a RAM user.

Item	Alibaba Cloud account	RAM user
Identity role	Owner of all resources. Has full ownership and the highest permissions.	User of resources and services. Permissions are granted by the Alibaba Cloud account. Usually corresponds to a specific person or application.
Owns cloud resources	Yes	No. Resources are owned by the Alibaba Cloud account.
Default permissions	Full permissions. Cannot be restricted.	No permissions by default. Must be granted by the Alibaba Cloud account.
Recommended use	Key management operations only: authorization, payment, and account management.	Daily development, Operations and Maintenance (O&M), deployment, and other tasks.

Individual vs. enterprise accounts

Your account type—individual or enterprise—depends on your identity verification. The main differences:

Type	Individual account	Enterprise account
Applicable to	Individual users	Enterprises, sole proprietorships, governments, public institutions, schools, organizations, and more.
Identity verification requirements	Individual verification	Enterprise verification
Invoice information	Can issue VAT general invoices to an individual.	Can issue VAT special invoices or VAT general invoices to an enterprise.
Available Alibaba Cloud products	Products available to individual users only.	Products available to both individual and enterprise users, including Short Message Service and Content Moderation.

Note

For business use, choose enterprise verification to avoid asset ownership disputes from employee turnover.
After enterprise verification, the account cannot revert to individual.

Limitations

Alibaba Cloud limits account creation and verification for security and compliance:

Item	Limit	Description
Accounts per mobile number	6	One phone number can register up to 6 accounts.
Accounts that can be verified with one ID card	6	Applies to resident ID cards from the Chinese mainland.
Accounts that can be verified by one enterprise entity in the Chinese mainland	10	Based on the Unified Social Credit Code.

Next steps

For step-by-step instructions, see Step 1: Register an Alibaba Cloud account.