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Elastic IP Address:Quick start for EIP

Last Updated:Dec 01, 2025

After you create an Elastic IP Address (EIP) and associate it with an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, the ECS instance can communicate with the Internet.

You cannot associate an EIP with an ECS instance that is already assigned a public IP address. However, you can convert the assigned static public IP address to an EIP.

Step 1: Request an EIP

An EIP is a standalone public IP address that you can purchase. To use an EIP, you must first request an EIP.

  1. Log on to the Elastic IP Addresses console.

  2. On the Elastic IP Addresses page, click Create EIP.

  3. On the creation page, configure the EIP. Then, click Buy Now and complete the payment.

    Configuration

    Description

    Billing Method

    Select a billing method for the EIP. In this topic, Pay-as-you-go is selected.

    Region

    Select the region for the EIP. Make sure that the EIP and the ECS instance to be associated are in the same region.

    Line Type

    Select a line type for the EIP. In this topic, BGP (Multi-ISP) is selected.

    Network Type

    Select a network type for the EIP. Currently, only the Internet network type is supported.

    Security Protection

    Select an edition of Anti-DDoS service as needed. In this topic, Default is selected.

    IP Address Pool

    Select an IP address pool. If you do not select a specific address pool, an EIP is allocated to you from the public IP address pool of Alibaba Cloud by default.

    Data Transfer

    Select a metering method for the EIP data transfer. In this topic, Pay-By-Bandwidth is selected.

    Maximum Bandwidth

    Select a peak bandwidth for the EIP. In this topic, this parameter is set to 1 Mbps.

    Name

    Enter a name for the EIP.

    Resource Group

    Select the resource group to which the EIP belongs.

    Billing Cycle

    Select a billing cycle for the EIP. Currently, pay-by-bandwidth EIPs support only billing by Day.

    Quantity

    Select the number of EIPs to purchase.

Step 2: Associate an EIP with an ECS instance

Associate the EIP with an ECS instance in a virtual private cloud (VPC). Once the ECS instance is associated with the EIP, the ECS instance can communicate with the Internet.

  1. Log on to the Elastic IP Addresses console.

  2. In the top navigation bar, select the region of the EIP.

  3. On the Elastic IP Addresses page, find the target EIP. In the Actions column, click Associate with Resource.

  4. In the Associate EIP with Resource dialog box, configure the following parameters and click OK.

    Configuration

    Description

    Instance Type

    Select ECS Instance.

    Resource Group

    Select the resource group to which the ECS instance belongs.

    Select an instance to associate

    Select the ECS instance with which you want to associate the EIP. Make sure that the ECS instance is in the Running or Stopped state, and is not assigned a static public IP address or associated with another EIP.

Step 3: Test the connection

After you associate the EIP with the ECS instance, test whether the ECS instance can connect to the Internet.

  1. Log on to the ECS instance that is associated with the EIP.

  2. Run the ping <public_domain_name> command to verify the Internet connection.

    Connection test

References