What is a coupon?
A coupon is a promotional benefit that Alibaba Cloud offers to customers during marketing campaigns. Coupons are issued in three types: cash coupons, threshold-based coupons, and discount coupons.
Cash coupon: A coupon with a fixed face value. It can be used multiple times to deduct costs from bills or orders within its value limit until the balance is used.
Threshold-based coupon: A coupon with a usage threshold, such as "10 dollars off for orders over 100 dollars". It provides a one-time deduction when the order amount meets the specified condition.
Discount coupon: A coupon with no usage threshold. It offers a one-time discount on the order amount, up to a maximum deductible value.
Coupons are also categorized by their applicable scope 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 products such as Cloud Communication, Domain Names, physical goods, or any third-party products from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. For more information, see List of products not eligible for general-purpose coupons.
Product-specific coupon: Applies only to specific products designated in a promotion. The deduction conditions depend on the promotion's rules.
Coupons for products on the official Alibaba Cloud website cannot be used for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products.
Coupons for Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products cannot be used for products on the official Alibaba Cloud website.
Effective June 8, 2023, coupons marked as "Applicable to all products" can no longer be used to deduct costs for Voice Service, Short Message Service (SMS), or Lightweight Message Queue (MNS) products.
You can typically obtain coupons through promotional campaigns on the official website. Before claiming a coupon, review its rules and conditions.
You can also obtain a coupon by redeeming a coupon code from a campaign. A coupon code is a redemption voucher that consists of a specific string of characters. You can redeem it for a coupon to use when you purchase subscription products.
Go to a product purchase page, select a subscription product, such as an annual or monthly ECS or RDS instance, and click Add to Cart. On the shopping cart page, click Buy Now to go to the Confirm Order page.
In the upper-right corner, find the Redemption input box for the coupon code. Enter your coupon code, paying attention to case sensitivity, and click Redeem.
After a successful redemption, you can view the coupon in the Coupon drop-down list on the Confirm Order page. You can also view all your coupon information on the Coupon Management page in the Expenses and Costs console. If the redemption fails, troubleshoot the issue based on the system prompts or contact sales for assistance.
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console and go to the Coupons page to view your obtained coupons.
You can use filters to quickly find a specific coupon, such as by its effective time, status (Available, Used, Expired, or Invalid), or coupon number.
In the coupon list, you can view details such as Face Value, Balance, Validity Period, Applicable Products, Applicable Scope, Coupon Status, and Effective/Expiration Time. The Order Type column specifies the transaction scenarios where the coupon can be used, such as New Purchase, Renewal, Trial, Convert, Scale-out, Upgrade, and Pay-as-you-go Bill.
Each account can hold a maximum of 50 active coupons at a time. This includes coupons that are "frozen" by unpaid orders. Use your existing coupons or wait for them to expire before you claim new ones.
How to use coupons
Each coupon has specific applicable products, consumption types (subscription or pay-as-you-go), and usage conditions. Some coupons cannot be used with other offers. Before using a coupon, check its details on the Coupons page.
Use during order payment
When you purchase subscription resources, such as an annual or monthly ECS instance, the system automatically filters and displays available coupons on the Payment Page based on attributes such as Order Product, Payment Type, and Order Amount. You can manually select one coupon to apply.
Usage limit: Only one coupon can be used per order. A single cash coupon can be applied to multiple orders within its validity period until its balance is used.
Frozen coupons: A coupon applied to an unpaid order is frozen. To use it again, you must first cancel the unpaid order. Go to the Order Management page, find the associated unpaid order, and void it. The coupon then returns to the "Available" state.
Use for renewal: When you manually renew a resource, the renewal payment page displays applicable coupons that you can choose to use. If you enable auto-renewal, the system automatically selects and applies an eligible coupon based on the rules.
If no available coupons appear on the payment page, return to the purchase page, select Add to Cart, and then choose a coupon during checkout on the Confirm Order page.
Automatic deduction after billing
For pay-as-you-go resources, the system automatically applies active coupons to deduct charges when a bill is generated.
Automatic matching: The system prioritizes using coupons that are about to expire. If multiple coupons have the same expiration date, the coupon with the larger balance is used first.
Multi-coupon deduction: If a single coupon's balance is not enough to cover the entire bill, the system automatically uses the next available cash coupon to pay the remainder. This continues until the bill is fully paid or all available coupons are used.
Balance payment: If a balance remains after all coupons are applied, you must pay the remaining amount separately.
Coupons cannot be used to cover overdue payments. You must top up your account to clear the overdue amount. After the overdue amount is cleared, you can use coupons for future pay-as-you-go charges.
Go to the Coupons page and click View Details in the Actions column to see a coupon's usage history.
You can also check the coupon application status for an order or bill by looking at the Coupon Deduction Amount field in Billing Details.
Share coupons across multiple accounts
If your enterprise has multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts, you can enable equity asset sharing in the Enterprise Account Center. This lets you share coupons within your organization and optimize costs.
Prerequisite: The Enterprise Account Center feature is enabled.
Procedure:
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console, click Account Sharing, and go to the Equity Asset Sharing page to view your coupons. Select the coupon that you want to share, click the Edit button in the Actions column, and configure sharing in the pop-up window.
The sharing scope can be set to Organization or Account. If you share with an organization, the coupon is shared with all accounts under that organizational node and automatically adjusts as accounts are added or removed. If you share with specific accounts, the selected scope is fixed and does not change automatically.
Cancel sharing: In the Actions column for a shared coupon, you can choose to cancel sharing.
When an order is canceled, a resource is unsubscribed, or service provisioning fails, a used coupon may be returned. The return policy depends on the product, payment status, and order type:
If you cancel an order before payment, the coupon is returned.
If a resource fails to be provisioned after an order is placed or a bill is rolled back, cash coupons and threshold-based coupons are returned. Discount coupons are not returned.
When a resource is unsubscribed or a bill is adjusted, the system evaluates whether to return the used coupon based on its rules.
Special products: Coupons used for Domain Names and virtual machine hosts are not returned if the order or resource creation fails.
FAQ
Why can't I use my coupon?
Coupons have specific usage rules and applicable scopes. For more information, log on to the Coupons management page or the promotion page.
Product restrictions: The coupon is not applicable to the product that you are purchasing.
Validity period: The coupon has expired.
Consumption scenario: The order type is not within the coupon's applicable scope.
Duration limit: The order duration does not meet the condition configured for the coupon.
Order amount: The order amount does not meet the usage condition for a threshold-based coupon.
Mutually exclusive offers: Another discount or promotional offer is already applied.
Device: If you cannot use the coupon on a mobile device, try using a different browser or a computer.
List of products not eligible for general-purpose coupons
Products that are not eligible for general-purpose coupons are categorized as follows: by product dimension, by commodity dimension, physical goods, and third-party products from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace:
By product: All commodities under the product codes listed in the table below are not eligible for general-purpose coupons.
Product Name
Product code
New Retail Data Service
oplus
Domain Names
domain
Trademark
trademark
Business and Tax Services
companyreg
CDN
cdn
Edge Node Service
ens
Edge Network Acceleration
snsu
Short Message Service
dysms
Voice Service
dyvms
Artificial Intelligence Cloud Call Service
aiccs
Phone Number Protection
dypls
Phone Number Verification Service
dypns
Cell Phone Number Service
dytns
Data Voice Service
aliyundvs
ChatAPP Message
cams
5G Interconnection Platform
xgip
Cellular Data Package
dycdps
AliOS Things
aliosthings
Cloud Display
cd
IoT Edge
iotedge
CityLink
citylink
farmlink
farmlink
Industrial IoT Platform
iiot
ApsaraDB for OceanBase
oceanbase
Quick Audience
retailadvqa
Quick Tracking
man
By commodity: All commodities with the commodity codes listed in the table below are not eligible for general-purpose coupons.
Commodity Name
Commodity code
DingTalk Smart Print
hardware_mpdprint
DingTalk Smart Meeting
hardware_mpdmeeting
DingTalk Smart Attendance
hardware_mpdattendance
DingTalk Smart Communication
hardware_mpdcommunication
Wuying Notebook-NS01
gws_hardwarens01_public_cn
Wuying Magic Cube-AS05
gws_hardwareas05_public_cn
Wuying Hardware Terminal
gws_hardware_public_cn
TiDB Cloud
sgcmgj00035763
Physical goods and third-party Alibaba Cloud Marketplace products: General-purpose coupons are not eligible for physical goods or any third-party products from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. Physical goods refer to hardware devices or accessories related to cloud computing, such as server hardware and network equipment.