What are coupons?
Coupons are promotional discounts that Alibaba Cloud offers to customers during marketing campaigns. They are categorized by issuance type into cash coupons, spend and save coupons, and discount coupons.
Cash coupon: Has a fixed face value and can be used multiple times to pay for bills or orders until its balance is zero.
Spend and save coupon: Has a usage threshold (for example, "spend USD 100, save USD 10" and can be applied once to an order that meets a minimum spending requirement.
Discount coupon: Has no usage threshold and provides a one-time discount on an order amount, up to a maximum discount value.
Coupons are also categorized by their applicability into general-purpose coupons and product-specific coupons.
General-purpose coupon: Applies to most cloud products, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Object Storage Service (OSS), and ApsaraDB RDS. General-purpose coupons cannot be used for cloud communications, domain names, physical goods, or any third-party products from the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. For a detailed list, see List of products not eligible for general-purpose coupons.
Product-specific coupon: Applies to specific products designated in a promotion. The exact deduction conditions are subject to the rules of the campaign.
Coupons for official website products cannot be used for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products.
Coupons for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products cannot be used for official website products.
Effective June 8, 2023, coupons marked as "Applicable to all products" can no longer be used to pay for Voice Service, Short Message Service (SMS), or Simple Message Queue (SMQ).
How to obtain coupons
You can typically get coupons from promotional campaigns on the official website. Review the campaign rules and applicability conditions before you claim a coupon.
How to view coupons
Log in to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Coupons page.
You can use filters to quickly find specific coupons, including Effective Time, Expiration Time and Coupon No.
In the coupon list, you can view details such as Nominal Value, Balance, Validity Period, Applicable Commodity, Applicable Scope, and Status (Valid, Exhausted, Expired, Void). The Order Type specifies the types of orders the coupon applies to.
Each account can hold a maximum of 50 valid coupons at a time, including Frozen coupons allocated to unpaid orders. Use your existing coupons or wait for them to expire before claiming new ones.
How to use coupons
Each coupon has specific applicable products, order types (subscription or pay-as-you-go), and usage conditions. Some coupons cannot be used in conjunction with other promotional offers. Before using a coupon, you can view its details on the Coupons page.
Use coupons during order payment
When you purchase subscription resources (such as a yearly/monthly ECS instance), the system automatically filters and displays available coupons on the Payment Page based on attributes like the order product, payment type, and order amount. You can manually select one coupon.
Usage quantity: You can use only one coupon per order. A single coupon can be applied to multiple orders within its validity period until its balance is depleted.
Frozen status: A coupon applied to an unpaid order is Frozen and cannot be used elsewhere until the order is canceled. To use the coupon again, you must first cancel the unpaid order. Go to the My Orders page, find the associated unpaid order, and cancel it. After the order is canceled, the coupon's status returns to Available.
Use for renewal: When you manually renew a resource, the renewal payment page displays applicable coupons for you to select. If you enable Auto-renewal, the system automatically selects and applies an eligible coupon based on the campaign rules.
If no available coupons are displayed on the payment page, you can return to the purchase page, select Add to Cart, and then choose a coupon during checkout on the Confirm Order page.
Apply coupons automatically after billing
For Pay-as-you-go resources, the system automatically applies available coupons to pay for charges at billing time.
Automatic matching: The system prioritizes using coupons that are about to expire. If expiration dates are the same, the coupon with the highest balance is used first.
Multi-coupon deduction: If a single coupon's balance is insufficient to cover the entire bill, the system automatically applies the next available Cash Coupon to pay the remaining amount until the bill is fully paid or all available coupons are used.
Balance payment: If a remaining balance exists after all coupons have been applied, this portion must be paid separately.
Coupons cannot be used to cover an overdue payment. You must top up your account to clear the overdue amount. After the overdue balance is paid, you can use coupons for subsequent Pay-as-you-go charges.
Go to the Coupons page and click View Details in the Actions column to see the usage history of a specific coupon.
You can also find the amount deducted by a coupon for an order or bill in the Coupon Deduction Amount field in Billing Details.
Share coupons across multiple accounts
If your enterprise has multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts, you can enable Enterprise Account Center and use equity asset sharing to share coupons within your organization and optimize costs.
Prerequisite: The Enterprise Account Center feature must be enabled.
Procedure:
In the Expenses and Costs console, navigate to Account Sharing and go to the Equity Asset Sharing tab to view your coupon information. Select the coupon you want to share, click Edit in the Actions column, and configure sharing in the pop-up window.
The Sharing Scope can be set to Organization or Account. When you share with an organization, the coupon is shared with all accounts under that organization node and the scope automatically adjusts as accounts are added or removed. When you share with specific accounts, the scope is fixed and does not change automatically.
To cancel sharing: You can Cancel sharing for any shared coupon from the Actions column.
Coupon refund policy
A used coupon may be refunded if an order is canceled, a resource is unsubscribed, or provisioning fails. The refund is based on the product, payment status, and order type:
If you cancel an order before payment, the coupon is refunded.
If a resource fails to provision after an order is placed or a bill is corrected, cash coupons and spend and save coupons can be refunded, but discount coupons cannot.
During resource unsubscribing or bill adjustments, the system evaluates whether to refund the used coupon based on its rules.
Special products: For domain names and virtual machine hosts, coupons are not refunded if the order placement or resource creation fails.
FAQ
Why can't I use my coupon?
Coupons have specific usage rules and restrictions. For details, log in to the Coupons management page or check the relevant campaign page. Common reasons include:
Applicable product restrictions: The coupon does not apply to the product you are purchasing.
Validity period: The coupon has expired.
Usage scenario: The coupon is not valid for the current order type.
Duration restrictions: The order duration does not meet the coupon's configured conditions.
Order amount: The order amount does not meet the threshold for a spend and save coupon.
Mutual exclusivity: Another discount or promotional offer is already applied to the order.
Device or browser issues: If you are unable to use a coupon on a mobile device, try using a different browser or a computer.
List of products not eligible for general-purpose coupons
Products not eligible for general-purpose coupons can be categorized by product, commodity, physical goods, and third-party products from the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.
By product: All products under the product codes listed in the table below are ineligible for general-purpose coupons.
Product Name
Product code
Oplus
oplus
Domain Names and Websites
domain
Trademark
trademark
Filing Service
companyreg
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
cdn
Edge Node Service (ENS)
ens
Edge Network Acceleration (ENA)
snsu
Short Message Service (SMS)
dysms
Voice Service (VS)
dyvms
Artificial Intelligence Cloud Call Service (AICCS)
aiccs
Phone Number Protection (PNP)
dypls
Phone Number Verification Service (PNVS)
dypns
Cell Phone Number Service (CPNS)
dytns
Data Voice Service (DVS)
aliyundvs
Chat App Message Service
cams
5G Interconnection Platform
xgip
Cellular Data Package (CDP)
dycdps
AliOS Things
aliosthings
Cloud Display
cd
IoT Edge
iotedge
CityLink
citylink
Farmlink
farmlink
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
iiot
ApsaraDB for OceanBase
oceanbase
Quick Audience
retailadvqa
Quick Tracking
man
By commodity: All commodities under the commodity codes listed in the table below are ineligible for general-purpose coupons.
Commodity Name
Commodity code
Marketplace Ding Print
hardware_mpdprint
Marketplace Ding Meeting
hardware_mpdmeeting
Marketplace Ding Attendance
hardware_mpdattendance
Marketplace Ding Communication
hardware_mpdcommunication
Alibaba Cloud Workspace CloudBook NS01
gws_hardwarens01_public_cn
Alibaba Cloud Workspace Terminal AS05
gws_hardwareas05_public_cn
Alibaba Cloud Workspace hardware terminal
gws_hardware_public_cn
TiDB Cloud
sgcmgj00035763
Physical goods and third-party Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products: Physical goods (such as server hardware, network devices, or other physical accessories related to cloud computing) and all third-party products from the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace are ineligible for general-purpose coupons.