Commitments- Licensed copyrights of video content (Details) - Licensed copyrights of video content - CNY (¥) ¥ in Millions	Mar. 31, 2017	Mar. 31, 2016
Commitments
No later than 1 year	¥ 4,518	¥ 885
Later than 1 year and no later than 5 years	3,913	2,885
Total	¥ 8,431	¥ 3,770

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the second through fifth fiscal years following the latest fiscal year.

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	baba_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationDueInTwoToFiveYears
Namespace Prefix:	baba_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the fixed and determinable portion of the unrecorded unconditional purchase obligation maturing in the next fiscal year following the latest fiscal year. Excludes interim and annual periods when interim periods are reported on a rolling approach, from latest balance sheet date.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 440
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=73718637&loc=d3e25336-109308

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceOnFirstAnniversary
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of the unrecorded obligation to transfer funds in the future for fixed or minimum amounts or quantities of goods or services at fixed or minimum prices (for example, as in take-or-pay contracts or throughput contracts).

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationBalanceSheetAmount
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_UnrecordedUnconditionalPurchaseObligationByCategoryOfItemPurchasedAxis=baba_LicensedCopyrightsOfVideoContentMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: