Cross-region usage FAQ

Service quality for resources outside mainland China

Yes. The Alibaba Cloud China site provides the same quality of products and services to all users. The region of purchase does not affect your service rights on the China site.

Cross-region migration using copy image

Yes.

Payment currencies for international users

Currently, the Alibaba Cloud China site supports payments only in CNY.

Differences between regions and region selection

Instances outside the Chinese mainland are deployed in local data centers. These data centers offer significant geographical and market advantages for international businesses and provide faster local network connectivity. They are ideal for customers with a global presence or business operations in those regions.

For a list of supported regions, see Regions and zones.

OS switching for cross-region instances

For instances outside the Chinese mainland, you can only switch between operating systems of the same type. For example, you can change from one Linux distribution to another, or from one version of Windows to another.

Marketplace images for cross-region use

Yes.

Free trials in other regions

You can visit the Free Trial page to see which products are available for a free trial.

Refund policy for cross-region purchases

Yes, the Alibaba Cloud China site supports this policy for eligible purchases. For more information, see Refund rules and instructions.

Account requirements for cross-region purchases

No. You can use your China site account to purchase instances in any region, both within and outside the Chinese mainland. You do not need separate accounts for the China site and the international site.

Deploying ECS instances in other regions

The deployment method for an instance is the same regardless of its region, provided the operating system is the same. The only difference is the physical location of the data center.

Cross-region instance migration

You cannot change the region or zone of an instance after it is created. To use an instance in a different region, you must purchase a new instance in the desired region or copy an image to the target region and create an instance from the image.

Region-specific instance type availability

Not all instance types are available in every region. To check which instance types you can purchase in a specific region, see Available regions for ECS instance types.

ICP filing requirements for cross-region websites

Websites hosted in Chinese mainland regions require an ICP filing for their domain names. Websites hosted in other regions do not. For more information, see What is an ICP filing?.

Pricing differences across regions

The price of an instance depends on its instance type, storage, and network bandwidth. Some regions may also include a fee for using a specific image. Since the costs of these components vary by region, the total price of an instance also differs across regions.

For detailed pricing information, see Pricing overview.

Network coverage by region

• China (Hohhot), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Beijing), China (Qingdao), China (Hangzhou), China (Shenzhen), and China (Shanghai): These regions provide multi-line BGP backbone networks that cover all provinces and cities in the Chinese mainland, ensuring stable and high-speed domestic access.

• China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Frankfurt), and UAE (Dubai): These regions offer international bandwidth, providing coverage for areas such as the Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.

• US (Silicon Valley) and US (Virginia): Located in the United States, these regions connect to the backbone networks of multiple US carriers via BGP lines. They provide extensive coverage across North America and offer excellent connectivity to South America and Europe.

Checking instance expiration dates

You can view the expiration date of a subscription instance in the Billing method column on the Instances page of the ECS console.

Can I change the region or availability zone of an ECS instance?

You cannot directly change the region of an existing ECS instance. To migrate an instance to a different region, perform the following steps:

1. Create a custom image from the current instance. For more information, see Create a custom image from an instance.

2. Copy the custom image to the destination region. For more information, see Copy a custom image.

3. Use the copied image to create a new ECS instance in the destination region.

4. After you verify that the new instance runs as expected, release the original instance.

To change the availability zone of an ECS instance, you can use the cross-zone instance type change feature. For more information, see Change an instance type across availability zones.