Edit: Now it’s only free for 3 months, not that great anymore. 
Essential Steps for Free Usage (Refers to the USD site only; others unknown):
-
- Credit card or PayPal (Tested: Mainland China dual-currency cards,
Xiaohong Card, overseas PayPal accounts can register. YPT, Xuebao Card require KYC and can’t be used for free tricks. Note: Xiaohong Card no longer works.)**
- Credit card or PayPal (Tested: Mainland China dual-currency cards,
-
- SMS OTP: US phone number (Tested: non-VoIP numbers work, TT and GV not tested)**
-
- Non-mainland network environment (Tested: Hong Kong, Taiwan, US, Japan fixed home broadband all work. Other non-home broadband may also work but untested.)**
-
- Real US address**
-
- Email (Tested: Gmail, Outlook, ProtonMail work. Don’t use Chinese mail providers)**
Optional (For repeat free trials): Prepare a bunch of virtual cards from any brand, such as YPT.
Step-by-step guide:
1. Register: www.alibabacloud.com
1-①
Select individual registration
1-②
Set up your account
1-③
SMS OTP and verification, choose the US
Notes:
If prompted as shown, verify using a phone number directly—do not use email first.
If both phone and email verification are required, just complete both as requested.
Above provider has shut down!
Try this alternative (affiliate link, register and get $1 for Alibaba): NexSMS Active
Verify email (if the previous step required both SMS and email on the same page, skip this)
1-④
Credit card or PayPal verification, fee is 1.0xx USD, so keep $1.10 in your account.
PayPal will redirect for login and authorization.
Enter fake name and US address
You can use this website: Random US Address Generator – Generate Real US Addresses
2. Start your free service! Get one year free
Note: If you verified via PayPal, you must also bind a credit card in the billing system (YPT works, same $1.0xx verification) before you can launch a free ECS instance.
2-①
Find the free trial entry, Products – ECS
2-②
Choose a region
Default is Singapore
Scroll down—ecs.t5.lc1m1.small—regional options, 7 countries/regions (Update: US region currently unavailable), choose as you prefer.
If the estimated cost on the right is not free, search for
t5 above and select the suitable spec.
2-③
Keep 1M fixed bandwidth. For convenience, set root + password below.
2-④
Confirm payment (if the amount shown isn’t $0, your account may be banned; check site messages for KYC prompt)
Now you have a one-year free instance with just 1Mbps bandwidth but unlimited traffic. If that’s enough, you can skip steps 3 and 4.
3. Enable CDT for 200Mbps bandwidth and 200GB outbound traffic per month
3-①
Enable CDT
Search CDT and go to upgrade.
3-②
Enter the ECS console to change bandwidth
Select change bandwidth
Choose to reduce bandwidth
Set to pay-by-traffic and max out
3-③
Allow ports in the security group
Now you have a free server for one year, 200Mbps bandwidth, 200GB outbound monthly, direct connection to all three major ISPs.
IPV6 quality is poor, often routes globally via all three ISPs, so not essential. If you don’t need it, skip step 4.
4. Enable IPV6 and max out to 1000Mbps bandwidth
4-①
Manage the Elastic Network Interface and enable the switch for IPV6
4-②
Add IPV6
4-③
Enable public IPV6 bandwidth
Max out
No fee as long as you don’t exceed 200GB outbound (risk control is stricter now; you may be prompted to contact support for KYC during setup. If so, best to give up.)
Remember to allow IPv6 ports:
Done! You now have a free dual IP server for one year: IPv4 at 200Mbps, IPv6 at 1000Mbps, 200GB outbound per month.
All free.
5. What? You think one is not enough? Greedy!
Unlimited loop free trials
Besides previous requirements, you also need:
- Another virtual card (with $2.10 balance)
- A browser fingerprint tool, such as:
ixBrowser - Permanently free fingerprint browser - multi-account security manager
Notes: - Don’t use the same network environment
- Don’t use the same browser
- Don’t use the same card you already linked to another Alibaba Cloud account, even if you close the account (deletion does not remove the linked payment method)
Principle behind unlimited free trials:
Scarce “good cards” for Alibaba Cloud International registration, so after grabbing a machine, rebind another junk virtual card, then remove your good card.
Then use the same good card to register a new account and keep repeating.
So this is mainly a tutorial on how to rebind cards.
5-①
Add a new payment method (any virtual card). $1.0x fee charged (apparently, no charge now)
5-②
Set as preferred payment method, another $1.0x charge (apparently, no charge now)
Note, if using YPT to rebind, you’ll need 3DS authentication, i.e., open your 3DS method and prepare to verify. (Other 3DS may require SMS/email; check yourself)
Open the YPT-APP on your phone, click to verify when prompted, and tap authorize!
Authorized!
Now you can set the virtual card as default.
5-③
Remove the good card you used to register the account
5-④
All done! Next, change your network, create a fingerprint browser, and use the same card to register a new account for endless free trials.
I had to mess up almost 20 times for this Alibaba Cloud freebie tutorial, so if I don’t get 100 likes 
I’ll…
I’ll cry under my blanket all night and hang myself at the forum entrance tomorrow morning! Scare the hell out of you!
Just scored a freebie, here’s my test post: Alibaba Cloud 1-Year Free Hong Kong ECS Test, Direct Connection with All Three Major ISPs - Review - NodeLoc
