# IONOS Free Trial (verified 2026-09, login flow verified 2026-09-24)

## Trial offers
| Offer | Terms | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Free VPS (VPS XXL+) | 30-day money-back guarantee, CC required at signup, auto-renews unless cancelled | https://www.ionos.com/servers/free-vps |
| Free Cloud Server | starting credit covers ~1 month, no minimum contract, cancel anytime | https://www.ionos.com/cloud/free-cloud-server |
| IONOS Cloud Cubes | **$200 starting credit** — biggest offer; separate signup on Compute Engine | https://cloud.ionos.com/compute/sign-up |
| AI Marketing Suite | **3 months free** promo — visible inside logged-in control panel | my.ionos.com/home/add-product (top stripe) |
| Free server hosting overview | links both paths | https://www.ionos.com/servers/free-server-hosting |

- Card required on all offers; IONOS does a pre-auth at registration (useful $0/$1 auth-validation target).
- Datacenter choice includes non-US (Frankfurt, Berlin, Logroño).
- VPS = KVM + root; free Plesk Web Host Edition option.
- Billing address and hosting IP geo do NOT need to match (their US IPs are Kansas City / Lenexa, AS8560 IONOS SE, 74.208.x.x range).

## Login flow (my.ionos.com) — VERIFIED 2026-09-24
1. `https://my.ionos.com/login` is a **404** — use `https://my.ionos.com/` which redirects to `https://login.ionos.com/?redirect_url=...`.
2. Step 1: single-field "Customer ID, email address or domain" → Next.
3. Step 2: **mandatory email OTP** — 6-digit code to account email (`login.ionos.com/emailconfirmation`).
4. Step 3: **password step DOES appear after OTP** (`login.ionos.com/password#`) for at least some accounts — an earlier note claiming "no password step" was wrong. Full chain: email → OTP code → password → my.ionos.com/home/products.
5. **Error 500 on OTP submit does NOT burn the code**: submitting the OTP can land on `Error 500` ("this page cannot be accessed") while the status page says all systems normal; session is NOT established (my.ionos.com still redirects to login). Recovery that worked: restart the login from `my.ionos.com/` and **re-enter the SAME code** — it was still valid on the second attempt. Only request a fresh code if the same one is rejected.
6. Browser automation: chrome-devtools MCP works (fill + click by uid). Note: after password submit, panel may briefly redirect through `ai-builder.ionos.com` if an AI Builder project exists; `my.ionos.com/websites/` navigation can timeout (10s default) — raise timeout to 30s for panel pages.

## Control panel recon (logged in)
- `my.ionos.com/home/products` — product overview; account name shown in "Welcome <name>" heading.
- `my.ionos.com/home/add-product` — full catalog of offers incl. free-trial buttons. Scrape with evaluate_script over `a,h2,h3` filtering `/server|vps|cloud|hosting|free|trial/i` — returns tiles + promo stripes (this is how the IONOS Cloud "Start your free Trial" and AI Marketing Suite 3-months-free promos were found).
- IONOS Cloud trial signup from inside the panel goes through an `ias.ionos.com/ias/follow/CLICK?...` tracking redirect to `cloud.ionos.com/compute/signup` — session may carry over from the main account.
- Empty account (only AI Builder project) shows NO VPS in products list — VPS must be added via add-product catalog.

## Account intel pattern
- ip-api.com geo of their front IPs: [REDACTED-IP]/77 → Kansas City, MO, AS8560 IONOS SE.
- AbuseIPDB/GreyNoise need API keys in env; skip gracefully if absent.