Key Points
- Action: Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) is cutting prices for select ninth‑generation ECS instances in overseas regions, effective October 30, 2025.
- Scope: Price cuts apply to ECS families ecs.c9i, ecs.g9i, ecs.r9i, ecs.ebmc9i, ecs.ebmg9i and ecs.ebmr9i, with reductions across monthly, yearly and “savings plan” pricing.
- Magnitude: Largest single cut is 10.26% in Frankfurt (Fǎlánkèfú 法兰克福); other notable reductions include 7.89% in Tokyo (Dōngjīng 东京) and 9.64% in Dubai (Díbài 迪拜).
- Why it matters: The ninth‑generation platform (built on Intel architecture) can deliver up to ~20% higher compute performance; combined with planned regional expansion (e.g., Brazil, France, the Netherlands and capacity boosts in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Dubai), this is a targeted play to win AI workloads and accelerate overseas adoption.
Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) cuts overseas prices with targeted reductions on ninth‑generation ECS instances across Europe, Japan and the Middle East.
What happened
Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) launched another round of price cuts for select overseas ECS instances.
The reductions take effect on October 30, 2025 (Beijing time).
The changes apply to specific ninth‑generation ECS product families in Frankfurt (Fǎlánkèfú 法兰克福), Tokyo (Dōngjīng 东京) and Dubai (Díbài 迪拜).
The largest single cut called out in the notice is 10.26%.
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Which products and how large are the cuts
The affected ECS families are: ecs.c9i, ecs.g9i, ecs.r9i, ecs.ebmc9i, ecs.ebmg9i and ecs.ebmr9i.
Alibaba Cloud said it lowered monthly, yearly and “savings plan” prices across those SKUs.
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ecs.g9i — Frankfurt: 10.26% reduction.
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ecs.g9i — Tokyo: 7.89% reduction.
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ecs.g9i — Dubai: 9.64% reduction.
Why this matters
These cuts are limited in scope, but they send a clear signal about Alibaba Cloud’s pricing playbook for overseas growth.
Targeted discounts like this often indicate a strategy to win AI and compute workloads where demand is accelerating.
Region‑by‑region pricing lets cloud providers be surgical with market share tactics — and this is a textbook example.
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Context: product, performance and strategy
The affected instances are part of Alibaba Cloud’s ninth‑generation line, introduced earlier this year.
The company says the new generation is built on Intel architecture and can deliver up to ~20% higher compute performance for certain workloads.
Because the ninth‑generation SKUs are recent, the quick price adjustment suggests Alibaba Cloud is leaning into aggressive pricing to speed adoption.
Pricing cuts are being paired with infrastructure growth.
At its cloud conference this year, Alibaba Cloud announced expansion plans to add new regions in Brazil, France and the Netherlands.
The company also said it will expand capacity in Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai.
That combination — denser local capacity plus selective price moves — is a clear play to capture enterprise AI workloads outside of Asia Pacific.
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Market position and competitive pressure
Third‑party market trackers such as Gartner place Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) as the fourth largest cloud provider globally.
Alibaba Cloud trails Amazon (Amazon 亚马逊), Microsoft (Microsoft 微软) and Google Cloud (Google Cloud 谷歌云) in that ranking.
The company already dominates in parts of Asia Pacific, and now the challenge is to accelerate growth in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.
The AI-driven surge for dense compute and low‑latency infrastructure has intensified competition among global providers.
Why Frankfurt matters
Frankfurt (Fǎlánkèfú 法兰克福) has been a strategic European node for Alibaba Cloud since it opened its first European cloud center there in 2016.
Alibaba Cloud added further German capacity in 2022.
That history — plus the fact that Frankfurt received the largest cut in this update — underscores its role as a regional hub for EU customers.
What to watch next
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Whether competitors respond with local price moves in the targeted regions.
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How quickly demand for the ninth‑generation ECS family grows in AI workloads and enterprise adoption.
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Whether Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) ups promos or bundles, such as expanded savings plans, to accelerate migration.
Takeaway
This round of targeted, up‑to‑double‑digit price reductions fits Alibaba Cloud’s broader overseas push.
The playbook is simple: combine denser infrastructure, localized capacity, and competitive pricing to capture AI‑related compute demand.
For customers, these cuts lower the immediate cost of compute in key overseas regions and make migration economics more attractive.
For the market, the move marks another step in an intensifying global cloud competition that may ultimately concentrate among a few “super” providers.
Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun 阿里云) cuts overseas prices
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