Purchase a Public Zone instance and bind domains-Alibaba Cloud DNS(DNS)-阿里云帮助中心

Purchase a Public Zone instance for high-availability, secure public authoritative DNS for your business domain names.

Why choose a paid edition

Alibaba Cloud offers free and paid Public Zone services. The free edition suits development and testing only — it lacks the availability, security, and fine-grained management required in production. Upgrade by purchasing a Public Zone instance. Key benefits:

Feature	Free edition	Paid edition	Benefits
SLA guarantee	None	100% monthly availability	Ensures 100% monthly availability for critical domain names, preventing single-point-of-failure outages.
Resolution line	Basic	intelligent resolution	Optimizes access speed for global users, supports more DNS records, and allows higher API call rates.
Security protection	None	Optional Anti-DDoS	Protects against high-volume DNS DDoS attacks to keep your resolution service stable.
Technical support	None	Expert support	Provides expert technical support and advanced O&M features such as resolution logs and health checks.

Compare all features in Edition Comparison.

Purchase

Purchase entry points

Option 1: Go directly to the Public Zone purchase page: Authoritative Hosted Domain (Subscription).

Option 2:

Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Instance Plans and select the Public Zone tab.
Click Buy Now.

Form fields

Parameter	Required	Description
Instance type	Yes	Authoritative Hosted Domain: Stable, high-quality public authoritative DNS for a set number of domain names. Keep the default.
Edition	Yes	Personal Edition: For individual developers. Meets basic DNS needs at a cost-effective price. Enterprise Ultimate Edition: For enterprises and organizations. Provides finer-grained O&M and expert consulting. Premium Edition: For enterprises and organizations. Removes limits across multiple metrics, with finer-grained O&M and expert consulting. Compare editions in Edition Comparison.
DNS security	Yes	Personal Edition: A DNS security plan is optional. Enterprise Ultimate Edition: A DNS security plan is required. Premium Edition: Includes Advanced DNS Security by default.
Number of domains	Yes	Domain names bindable to this instance. Default: 1. Maximum: 100,000.
Initial domain binding	No	Enter up to 10 comma-separated domain names. The system binds them to the selected plan after purchase. To bind more, use batch binding in the console.
Subscription duration	Yes	Options: 1, 3, or 6 months; 1, 2, or 3 years.
Auto-renewal	No	Enable auto-renewal to prevent service disruptions from instance expiration. The instance renews for its subscription period at the current price before expiry. You can disable auto-renewal at any time.

After you purchase a Public Zone instance, the system automatically generates a unique identifier for the instance, which is the instance ID. You can find the ID on the Instance page in the console.

Billing

Package 1: `Personal Edition` + DNS Security (optional)

You can add DNS Security to the Personal Edition. The total fee is calculated as follows: Total fee = (Unit price of Personal Edition + Unit price of the DNS Security tier) × Number of domains

Billable item	Price	Description
`Personal Edition`	CNY 48/domain/year	Personal Edition: CNY 48/domain/year DNS Basic Security: CNY 600/domain/year DNS Full Security: CNY 3,000/domain/year Note For individual developers only. Enterprise-verified users cannot purchase new Personal Edition instances. Existing Personal Edition instances can still be used and renewed.
`Personal Edition` + `DNS Basic Security`	CNY 648/domain/year
`Personal Edition` + `DNS Full Security`	CNY 3,048/domain/year

Package 2: `Enterprise Ultimate Edition` + DNS Security (required)

The Enterprise Ultimate Edition requires a DNS Security tier. The total fee is calculated as follows: Total fee = (Unit price of Enterprise Ultimate Edition + Unit price of the DNS Security tier) × Number of domains

Billable item

Price

Description

Enterprise Ultimate Edition + DNS Basic Security

CNY 1,168/domain/year

Enterprise Ultimate Edition: CNY 568/domain/year

DNS Basic Security: CNY 600/domain/year

DNS Full Security: CNY 3,000/domain/year

Enterprise Ultimate Edition + DNS Full Security

CNY 3,568/domain/year

Package 3: `Premium Edition`

The Premium Edition includes DNS Full Security by default. The total fee is calculated as follows: Total fee = Unit price of Premium Edition × Number of domains

Billable item	Price
`Premium Edition`	CNY 30,000/domain/year

Post-purchase configuration

Step 1: Add domain to Public Zone

For domain names registered with Alibaba Cloud: Make sure the domain name is in a normal state (not locked or expired) and not bound to another instance.

For domain names not registered with Alibaba Cloud:

If the domain name has no DNS records, add it to Public Zone. Domain Management.
If DNS records already exist, migrate them to Alibaba Cloud Public Zone. Migrate DNS resolution for a domain name to Alibaba Cloud DNS.

Step 2: Bind domain to instance

Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Instance Plans.
Find the target instance and click Bind Zone in the Actions column.
On the Bind Zone page, in Basic Information, click Bind Zone and enter the domain name. For multi-domain instances, enter multiple domain names here.

Step 3: Change and verify nameserver addresses

Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Public Zone, view the DNS Server IP Address of the target domain name, and copy the system-assigned addresses. The addresses assigned after a domain name is bound to an instance are typically in the format vip(1-8).alidns.com.
Click the nameserver address to open a DNS diagnostic. If Current Nameservers match Nameservers Assigned by Alibaba Cloud (for example, vip3.alidns.com and vip4.alidns.com), the domain name's DNS is configured correctly.
Go to your domain registrar's console to change the nameserver addresses. The following steps use a domain name registered with Alibaba Cloud as an example:
1. Go to the Domain Names console. Find your domain name and click Manage in the Actions column.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose DNS Management > Modify DNS and then click Modify DNS Server.
3. Enter the DNS server addresses assigned by Alibaba Cloud DNS, such as vip1.alidns.com and vip2.alidns.com, and submit the change.

To change nameservers for domain names at other registrars, follow Modify DNS servers for a domain name.

Verify that the DNS change has taken effect

DNS propagation typically takes a few minutes to 48 hours depending on the TLD. Verify the change in one of the following ways:

Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Public Zone and check whether the status of the DNS Server IP Address for the target domain name is Available.

Run the following commands to check if the DNS resolution has taken effect:

# Check if the NS records have taken effect
dig yourdomain NS
# Check if resolution is working correctly
dig @vip1.alidns.com yourdomain A

Instance management and upgrades

An expired instance can cause service degradation or resolution failures. Enable auto-renewal to prevent this. Instance expiration and renewal.
Only partial refunds are supported. Unsubscribe from an instance.
To unbind, rebind, upgrade, or downgrade an instance, see Upgrade, unbind, rebind, or downgrade an instance.

FAQ

Q: Is monthly payment supported? A: Yes. Click More Durations on the purchase page to select other cycles. Minimum: one month.

Q: What if I purchased more domain name slots than I need? A: You cannot reduce the number after purchase. Purchase based on your actual needs.

Q: What do I do if binding a domain name fails? A: Common causes:

Invalid domain name format: Check the domain name for special characters.
Insufficient permissions. Verify your account's permission settings.
The number of bound domains exceeds the limit:
Each instance has an upper limit on the number of attachable domains. After the limit is reached, you cannot bind more domains. In the Alibaba Cloud DNS console, click Instance in the left-side navigation pane, and check the Bound Domains/Quota column. To bind more domains, unbind the domains that no longer need the paid instance, or click Upgrade and add the number of Attachable Domains on the bug page.

Q: How long does a nameserver change take to propagate? A: Typically a few minutes to 48 hours, depending on the TLD.

Instance-related FAQ.