Oracle Cloud Always Free Tier
Source: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free
Description
Create account to comment on specific lines or Sign in
+ 1 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) offers a perpetual Always Free Tier with no time limit -- resources remain available indefinitely, even after the 30-day / $300 trial credits expire. The Always Free Tier includes 4 ARM Ampere A1 OCPUs with 24 GB RAM, 2 AMD micro VMs, 2 Autonomous AI Databases, 200 GB block storage, networking with 10 TB/month egress, and 20+ additional services. No charges unless you explicitly upgrade and exceed free limits.
No comments on this line yet.
+ 2
No comments on this line yet.
+
3
No comments on this line yet.
+ 4
No comments on this line yet.
+ 6
No comments on this line yet.
+ 7 1. Go to oracle.com/cloud/free
No comments on this line yet.
+ 8 2. Create an Oracle Cloud account with a valid email
No comments on this line yet.
+ 9 3. Enter a credit/debit card for identity verification (no charge)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 10 4. Select your home region carefully -- most Always Free resources can only be created in your home region, and it cannot be changed later
No comments on this line yet.
+ 11 5. You receive $300 in trial credits (valid 30 days) plus immediate access to all Always Free services
No comments on this line yet.
+ 12
No comments on this line yet.
+ 13 Important: Choose a less popular home region (e.g., US Midwest (Chicago), Canada Southeast (Montreal), Germany Central (Frankfurt)) to avoid "Out of Capacity" errors when provisioning ARM instances. Popular regions like US East (Ashburn) and India often have exhausted free-tier ARM capacity.
No comments on this line yet.
+ 14
No comments on this line yet.
+
15
No comments on this line yet.
+ 16
No comments on this line yet.
+ 18
No comments on this line yet.
+ 19 ResourceSpecification
No comments on this line yet.
+ 20 AMD Micro VMs2x VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro -- 1/8 OCPU (burstable), 1 GB RAM each
No comments on this line yet.
+ 21 ARM Ampere A1VM.Standard.A1.Flex -- 4 OCPUs + 24 GB RAM total (3,000 OCPU-hours + 18,000 GB-hours/month)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 22 Max instancesUp to 4 total (any combination of AMD + ARM)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 23 Boot volume47 GB minimum per instance, 50 GB default
No comments on this line yet.
+ 24 AMD bandwidth50 Mbps internet, 480 Mbps internal per VM
No comments on this line yet.
+ 25 ARM bandwidthScales with OCPU count
No comments on this line yet.
+ 26 OS optionsOracle Linux, Ubuntu, CentOS, Oracle Linux Cloud Developer
No comments on this line yet.
+ 27
No comments on this line yet.
+ 29
No comments on this line yet.
+ 30 The A1.Flex shape lets you divide 4 OCPUs and 24 GB RAM across instances however you choose:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 31
No comments on this line yet.
+ 32 ConfigurationOCPUsRAMUse Case
No comments on this line yet.
+ 33 1 large VM424 GBSelf-hosted apps, databases
No comments on this line yet.
+ 34 2 medium VMs2 each12 GB eachStaging + production
No comments on this line yet.
+ 35 4 small VMs1 each6 GB eachMicroservices, testing
No comments on this line yet.
+ 36
No comments on this line yet.
+
37
No comments on this line yet.
+ 38
No comments on this line yet.
+ 40
No comments on this line yet.
+ 41 ResourceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 42 Block Volume200 GB total (boot + data volumes combined)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 43 Volume Backups5 backups (boot + block combined)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 44 Object Storage20 GB combined (Standard + Infrequent Access + Archive tiers)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 45 Object Storage API50,000 requests/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 46
No comments on this line yet.
+
47
No comments on this line yet.
+ 48
No comments on this line yet.
+ 50
No comments on this line yet.
+ 51 ResourceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 52 Autonomous AI Database2 instances (Transaction Processing, JSON, APEX, Analytics, or Mixed Workloads)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 53 CPU per DB1 OCPU (non-scalable)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 54 Storage per DB20 GB (non-scalable)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 55 Concurrent sessions20 per instance
No comments on this line yet.
+ 56 NoSQL Database3 tables, 25 GB/table, 133M reads + 133M writes/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 57 MySQL HeatWave1 standalone DB, 50 GB data storage, 50 GB backup storage
No comments on this line yet.
+ 58
No comments on this line yet.
+ 60
No comments on this line yet.
+ 61 The Always Free Autonomous Database runs Oracle Database 23ai (upgradable to 26ai) and includes:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 62
No comments on this line yet.
+ 63 • AI Vector Search -- native VECTOR data type for storing and querying embeddings directly in the database
No comments on this line yet.
+ 64 • Hybrid Search -- combine vector similarity search with relational, JSON, spatial, and graph queries in a single SQL statement
No comments on this line yet.
+ 65 • RAG support -- built-in retrieval-augmented generation pipelines using your private business data
No comments on this line yet.
+ 66 • Vector indexes -- approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) indexes for accelerated similarity search
No comments on this line yet.
+ 67 • Embedding generation -- generate embeddings via ONNX models or REST APIs (Cohere, OpenAI, Google, Hugging Face, OCI Generative AI)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 68 • Select AI -- natural language to SQL queries
No comments on this line yet.
+ 69 • Oracle APEX -- low-code app builder included (2 ECPU, 20 GB, supports ~3-6 concurrent users)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 70 • Oracle Machine Learning -- in-database ML algorithms
No comments on this line yet.
+ 71 • Graph Studio -- property graph analytics
No comments on this line yet.
+ 72 • JSON Document Store -- MongoDB-compatible API
No comments on this line yet.
+ 73
No comments on this line yet.
+
74
No comments on this line yet.
+ 75
No comments on this line yet.
+ 77
No comments on this line yet.
+ 78 ResourceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 79 Virtual Cloud Networks (VCNs)2 (IPv4 + IPv6)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 80 Outbound data transfer10 TB/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 81 Flexible Load Balancer1 instance, 10 Mbps, 16 listeners, 1,024 backends
No comments on this line yet.
+ 82 Network Load Balancer1 instance (unlimited bandwidth), 50 listeners, 1,024 backends
No comments on this line yet.
+ 83 Site-to-Site VPN50 IPSec connections
No comments on this line yet.
+ 84 Reserved Public IPs1 permanent
No comments on this line yet.
+ 85 Bastion ServiceFree (secure SSH access without jump hosts)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 86
No comments on this line yet.
+ 87 The 10 TB/month outbound data is significantly more generous than AWS (100 GB), GCP (200 GB), or Azure (100 GB) free tiers.
No comments on this line yet.
+ 88
No comments on this line yet.
+
89
No comments on this line yet.
+ 90
No comments on this line yet.
+ 92
No comments on this line yet.
+ 93 ResourceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 94 Certificates (CAs)5 Certificate Authorities
No comments on this line yet.
+ 95 Certificates150 certificates
No comments on this line yet.
+ 96 Vault (software keys)Unlimited software-protected master encryption keys
No comments on this line yet.
+ 97 Vault (HSM keys)20 HSM-protected master encryption key versions
No comments on this line yet.
+ 98 Secrets150 secrets
No comments on this line yet.
+ 99 Security ZonesFree (enforce security best practices per compartment)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 100 Cloud GuardFree security posture management
No comments on this line yet.
+ 101 IAMFree (identity and access management, MFA)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 102
No comments on this line yet.
+
103
No comments on this line yet.
+ 104
No comments on this line yet.
+ 106
No comments on this line yet.
+ 107 ResourceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 108 Monitoring500M ingestion + 1B retrieval data points
No comments on this line yet.
+ 109 Logging10 GB/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 110 APM (tracing)1,000 events/hour
No comments on this line yet.
+ 111 Synthetic Monitoring10 runs/hour
No comments on this line yet.
+ 112 Notifications (HTTPS)1M/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 113 Notifications (email)1,000/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 114 Email Delivery3,000 emails/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 115 Connector Hub2 connectors
No comments on this line yet.
+ 116 Console Dashboards100 dashboards
No comments on this line yet.
+ 117
No comments on this line yet.
+
118
No comments on this line yet.
+ 119
No comments on this line yet.
+ 121
No comments on this line yet.
+ 122 ServiceLimit
No comments on this line yet.
+ 123 Resource Manager (Terraform)100 stacks, 2 concurrent jobs
No comments on this line yet.
+ 124 Fleet Application Management25 resources/month
No comments on this line yet.
+ 125 OCI Cloud ShellFree browser-based terminal
No comments on this line yet.
+ 126 VCN Flow LogsIncluded in 10 GB/month logging
No comments on this line yet.
+ 127
No comments on this line yet.
+
128
No comments on this line yet.
+ 129
No comments on this line yet.
+ 131
No comments on this line yet.
+ 132 Oracle may reclaim idle Always Free compute instances. An instance is considered idle if, over a 7-day period, ALL of the following are true:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 133
No comments on this line yet.
+ 134 MetricIdle Threshold (95th percentile)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 135 CPU utilizationBelow 10-20%
No comments on this line yet.
+ 136 Network utilizationBelow 10%
No comments on this line yet.
+ 137 Memory utilization (A1 only)Below 10%
No comments on this line yet.
+ 138
No comments on this line yet.
+ 139 What happens:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 140 1. You receive an email warning 7 days before reclamation
No comments on this line yet.
+ 141 2. The instance is stopped (not deleted)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 142 3. You can restart it if capacity is available in your region
No comments on this line yet.
+ 143
No comments on this line yet.
+ 144 How to avoid reclamation:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 145 • Upgrade to Pay As You Go (PAYG) -- best option. You still get all Always Free resources at no cost, but instances are exempt from reclamation. No charges unless you exceed free limits
No comments on this line yet.
+ 146 • Right-size instances -- don't allocate 4 OCPUs / 24 GB if your workload only needs 1 OCPU / 6 GB. Smaller instances reach utilization thresholds more easily
No comments on this line yet.
+ 147 • Run real workloads -- web servers, DNS, VPN, databases, or CI/CD runners naturally generate enough utilization
No comments on this line yet.
+
148
• Avoid artificial load generators -- tools like lookbusy or stress-ng may violate Oracle's Terms of Service and risk account suspension
No comments on this line yet.
+ 149
No comments on this line yet.
+
150
No comments on this line yet.
+ 151
No comments on this line yet.
+ 153
No comments on this line yet.
+ 154 FeatureOracle CloudAWSGCPAzure
No comments on this line yet.
+ 155 Free compute durationPerpetual12 months (t2.micro)Perpetual (e2-micro)12 months (B1s)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 156 ARM instances4 OCPU / 24 GBNone freeNone freeNone free
No comments on this line yet.
+ 157 Free databases2 Autonomous DBsNone perpetualNone perpetualNone perpetual
No comments on this line yet.
+ 158 Monthly egress10 TB100 GB200 GB100 GB
No comments on this line yet.
+ 159 Block storage200 GB30 GB (12 mo)30 GB64 GB (12 mo)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 160
No comments on this line yet.
+
161
No comments on this line yet.
+ 162
No comments on this line yet.
+ 164
No comments on this line yet.
+ 165 • Choose a less popular home region to avoid ARM capacity issues. Check region availability at cloud.oracle.com before signing up
No comments on this line yet.
+ 166 • Upgrade to PAYG immediately after signup to avoid idle reclamation, gain access to larger ARM capacity pools, and unlock Oracle Support -- you still pay nothing within Always Free limits
No comments on this line yet.
+ 167 • Use the ARM instances for self-hosting: 4 OCPUs + 24 GB RAM is enough for Nextcloud, Gitea, Plausible Analytics, Uptime Kuma, n8n, or small Kubernetes clusters (k3s)
No comments on this line yet.
+ 168 • Autonomous Database for AI projects: use AI Vector Search to build RAG applications, semantic search, or recommendation engines with the included 20 GB storage
No comments on this line yet.
+ 169 • The 10 TB egress is ideal for hosting media, APIs, or CDN origin servers
No comments on this line yet.
+ 170 • Port 25 is blocked by default -- request an exemption via service limits if you need outbound SMTP
No comments on this line yet.
+ 171 • No SLA on Always Free -- do not use for mission-critical production workloads without upgrading
No comments on this line yet.
+ 172 • Oracle Cloud credits for startups -- Oracle for Startups offers up to $30,000 in additional credits
No comments on this line yet.
+ 173
No comments on this line yet.
+
174
No comments on this line yet.
+ 175
No comments on this line yet.
+ 176 Sources:
No comments on this line yet.
+ 177 • Oracle Cloud Free Tier
No comments on this line yet.
+ 178 • Always Free Resources Documentation
No comments on this line yet.
+ 179 • Oracle Cloud Free Tier FAQ
No comments on this line yet.
+ 180 • Oracle AI Vector Search
No comments on this line yet.
+ 181 • Oracle Autonomous AI Database
No comments on this line yet.
+ 182 • Oracle AI Database 26ai
No comments on this line yet.
+ 183 • OCI Free Tier Overview
No comments on this line yet.
+ 184 • Oracle for Startups
No comments on this line yet.