ApsaraVideo Live
Video hosting platforms
Video software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
Take the quiz to check if ApsaraVideo Live and its alternatives fit your requirements.
Pay-as-you-go
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
Small
Medium
Large
-
What is ApsaraVideo Live
ApsaraVideo Live is a cloud-based live video streaming service within Alibaba Cloud’s ApsaraVideo suite. It is used to ingest, transcode, distribute, and monitor live streams for scenarios such as events, online education, and interactive broadcasting. The product emphasizes integration with Alibaba Cloud infrastructure and related media services (for example, CDN delivery, security controls, and analytics) rather than being a standalone creator-focused video platform.
Cloud-scale live streaming pipeline
The service supports core live streaming functions such as stream ingest, real-time transcoding, and multi-protocol delivery. This makes it suitable for teams that need to operate live channels at scale without managing their own streaming servers. It aligns well with engineering-led deployments where streaming is embedded into a broader application.
Tight Alibaba Cloud integration
ApsaraVideo Live is designed to work with other Alibaba Cloud services, including CDN distribution, identity and access management, and logging/monitoring. This can reduce integration effort for organizations already standardized on Alibaba Cloud. It also supports building end-to-end workflows that combine live streaming with adjacent cloud components.
Enterprise controls and monitoring
The product provides operational tooling typically required for production live streaming, such as stream management, quality monitoring, and usage reporting. These capabilities help operations teams troubleshoot delivery issues and manage service levels. It is oriented toward reliability and governance needs more than lightweight creator tooling.
Less creator-centric feature set
Compared with video platforms that focus on marketing teams and content creators, ApsaraVideo Live is more infrastructure-oriented. Organizations may need additional tools for branded player customization, interactive audience features, or content collaboration workflows. This can increase the number of systems required for non-technical teams.
Alibaba Cloud ecosystem dependency
The strongest value comes when paired with other Alibaba Cloud services, which can increase switching costs. Teams operating in multi-cloud environments may face additional integration and governance work. Procurement and compliance processes may also be more complex if the organization primarily uses a different cloud provider.
Implementation requires technical expertise
Deploying and operating live streaming at scale typically requires engineering involvement for configuration, player/app integration, and security hardening. Some use cases may require custom development for features like authentication flows, DRM, or advanced analytics. This can lengthen time-to-launch compared with more turnkey video platforms.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (usage-based). Resource plans (prepaid data/transcoding packages) are available for discounted rates.
Free tier/trial: Alibaba Cloud provides product-level free-trial/credit campaigns and ApsaraVideo SDK free trial licenses (e.g., 30-day free trial license for certain SDK editions). See notes.
Example costs (selected, by region where indicated):
-
Downstream traffic (Pay-by-traffic, USD/GB, sample tiers):
- Mainland China: 0–10 TB = $0.042/GB; 10–50 TB = $0.040/GB; 50–100 TB = $0.037/GB; 100 TB–1 PB = $0.032/GB; >1 PB = $0.026/GB.
- North America: 0–10 TB = $0.070/GB; 50–100 TB = $0.060/GB; 100 TB–1 PB = $0.030/GB; >1 PB = $0.025/GB.
- (RTS real-time streaming rates are ~2x the standard traffic rates; e.g., Mainland China RTS 0–10 TB = $0.084/GB; North America RTS 0–10 TB = $0.140/GB.)
-
Transcoding (Standard H.264, USD per minute, sample):
- 480p and lower (LD): $0.0025/min (China, SG, JP, DE listed similarly).
- 480p–720p (SD): $0.005/min.
- 720p–1080p (HD): $0.0099/min.
- H.265 and higher tiers and Narrowband HD™ pricing available (e.g., H.265 720p–1080p ~ $0.0495/min; Narrowband HD™ higher than standard).
-
Recording / other features:
- Live stream recording: Monthly recording service fee ~ $4.50 per recording/month (China, SG, JP, DE listed) and container format conversion ~$0.0025/min.
- Screenshots: ~$0.015 per 1,000 pieces/day (Mainland China sample).
-
Resource plans (prepaid packages, sample prices):
- Live Traffic Package (example, Mainland China): 100 GB = $4; 500 GB = $19; 1 TB = $37; 5 TB = $180; 10 TB = $350; 50 TB = $1,740. (Region-specific prices apply; separate "Global (excluding Chinese mainland)" pricing tiers are listed.)
Discount options:
- Resource plans (prepaid data/transcoding packages) provide discounted unit pricing compared to pay-as-you-go; volume tiers reduce per-GB or per-minute rates.
- Enterprise/large-volume (>TB/PB) pricing further decreases in higher brackets (see >1 PB tiers).
Notes & caveats:
- ApsaraVideo Live billing covers multiple billable items: downstream traffic, transcoding (by bitrate and time), production-studio output, screenshots, time-shifting, recording, etc. Many items are billed only if used.
- All prices are region-specific and the pricing page lists detailed per-region tables.
- Some SDK features (Queen SDK, MediaBox SDK, etc.) have separate per-application or per-year license fees.
(Primary source: Alibaba Cloud ApsaraVideo Live official pricing and documentation pages.)
Seller details
Alibaba Group Holding Limited
Hangzhou, China
1999
Public
https://www.alibabagroup.com/
https://x.com/AlibabaGroup
https://www.linkedin.com/company/alibaba-group/
