Alibaba Cloud Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) supports three blockchain engines: Ant Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric, and Quorum. Ant Blockchain and Hyperledger Fabric are generally available (GA). Quorum is available as a free trial — apply on the BaaS homepage.
Billing details for BaaS based on Ant Blockchain
Billing item: blockchain instances
Ant Blockchain instances run the BaaS platform and include four nodes by default. All instances are dedicated — CPU, memory, storage, and I/O resources are exclusive to each instance.
Network setup:
The network operator creates a consortium, then creates a blockchain instance and invites participants to join.
Participants join the consortium after confirming the invitation.
One blockchain instance can belong to only one consortium at a time.
Billing method: Subscription
Instance specifications and pricing
| Instance type | Nodes | Free storage per node | Use case | Price (all regions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Edition | 4 | 6 TB | Production networks requiring dedicated resources and high reliability | USD 160,000 / year |
For guidance on selecting the right edition, see the Purchase guide.
Billing details for BaaS based on Hyperledger Fabric
Billing covers two items:
Billing item 1: blockchain network instances
Hyperledger Fabric instances run the BaaS platform. All instances are dedicated — CPU, memory, storage, and I/O resources are exclusive to each instance.
Network structure:
A Fabric blockchain network consists of one consortium instance and N organization instances (N ≥ 1).
The operator creates a consortium instance first, then invites participants to join.
Each participant creates an organization instance and joins after confirming the invitation.
One organization instance can belong to only one consortium at a time. If a participant needs exclusive blockchain nodes, a ledger, chaincode deployment, and blockchain user management, create a separate organization instance. Participants with no exclusive requirements can share an organization instance. Consortium and organization instances can be purchased by the same cloud account or by different cloud accounts.
Billing method: Subscription
Instance specifications and pricing
| Instance type | Edition | Free storage | Use case | Price (all regions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consortium (test network) | Starter Edition | 50 GB | Testing and smart contract development. Owned by a single customer, includes one Starter Edition consortium instance and two Starter Edition organization instances to simulate a minimum multi-party scenario. | USD 623 / month |
| Consortium | Basic Edition | 100 GB | Production networks with standard performance requirements. | USD 1,078 / month |
| Consortium | Enterprise Edition | 500 GB | Production networks with high-throughput or large-scale multi-party requirements. | USD 5,254 / month |
| Organization | Basic Edition | 100 GB | Production networks with standard performance requirements. | USD 735 / month |
| Organization | Enterprise Edition | 500 GB | Production networks with high-throughput or large-scale multi-party requirements. | USD 3,645 / month |
For guidance on selecting the right edition, see the Purchase guide.
Billing item 2: storage space
Storage holds blockchain ledgers and related data, backed by Alibaba Cloud Performance NAS. Each network instance includes a free storage quota. When data exceeds the free quota, storage scales out automatically to maintain session continuity and connection availability.
Billing method: Pay-as-you-go. Charges for each hour are deducted from your account balance at the next hourly interval. Keep sufficient account balance while using this service.
Pricing formula:
Fees = Actual capacity (GiB) × Unit price per hourUnit price (all regions):
| Billing unit | Price |
|---|---|
| GiB-month | USD 0.34 |
| GiB-hour | USD 0.000472 (≈ 0.34 / 30 / 24) |
Example: If your data exceeds the free quota by 100 GiB for a full month (720 hours), the additional storage cost is:
100 GiB × USD 0.000472/GiB-hour × 720 hours ≈ USD 34.00