Details of the Always Free Resources
This topic provides reference information about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's Always Free resources.
Compute
All tenancies get two Always Free Compute virtual machine (VM) instances.
You must create the Always Free Compute instances in your home region.
- Shape: VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro
- Processor: 1/8th of an OCPU with the ability to use additional CPU resources
- Memory: 1 GB
- Networking: Includes one VNIC with one public IP address and up to 50 Mbps network bandwidth via the internet. Traffic to private IPs, on-premise endpoints via a Dynamic Routing Gateway, or to endpoints within the same Oracle Cloud region is up to 480 Mbps.
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Operating System: Your choice of one of the following Always Free-eligible operating systems:
- Oracle Linux (including Oracle Autonomous Linux)
- Canonical Ubuntu Linux
- CentOS Linux
The Linux operating systems labeled "Always Free Eligible" in the Console are compatible with Always Free Compute instances and incur no licensing fees. These operating systems are also compatible with paid resources and are available to users of paid accounts. To provision a Compute instance with an operating system that is not Always Free-eligible, you must have a paid account or a Free Trial account with available credits.
See Platform Images for more information about the available operating systems. For steps to create an Always Free-eligible Compute instance, see Tutorial - Launching Your First Linux Instance.
Database
All tenancies get two Always Free Oracle Autonomous Databases. The Autonomous Databases use shared Exadata infrastructure (meaning Oracle handles the database infrastructure provisioning and maintenance). For current regional availability, see the "Always Free Cloud Services" section of Data Regions for Platform and Infrastructure Services.
- Processor: 1 Oracle CPU processor (cannot be scaled)
- Database Storage: 20 GB storage (cannot be scaled)
- Workload Type: Your choice of either the transaction processing or data warehouse workload type
- Maximum Simultaneous Database Sessions: 20
Always Free Autonomous Databases can be upgraded to paid instances after provisioning if you need features like more storage or CPU scaling.
- Before creating an Always Free Autonomous Database, check your home region for Always Free Autonomous Database support. See Data Regions for Platform and Infrastructure Services.
- You cannot create an Always Free Autonomous Database in a Home Region where Always Free Autonomous Databases are not supported.
- Not all regions support the same database version. The supported version may be 19c-only or 21c-only, depending on the region.
See Overview of the Always Free Autonomous Database for additional product details. See To create an Always Free Autonomous Database for steps to create an Always Free Autonomous Database.
Load Balancing
All Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancies created after December 15, 2020 get one Always Free Flexible Load Balancer with a minimum and maximum bandwidth set to 10 Mbps.
Those tenancies created before December 15, 2020 get one Always Free 10 Mbps Load Balancer.
Tenancies created on December 15, 2020 or later
- Shape: Flexible (minimum and maximum: 10 Mbps)
- Listeners: 16
- Virtual Hostnames: 16
- Backend Sets: 16
- Backend Servers: 1024
Tenancies created before December 15, 2020
- Shape: Micro (10 Mbps)
- Listeners: 10
- Virtual Hostnames: 10
- Backend Sets: 10
- Backend Servers: 128
For information about provisioning an Always Free load balancer, see Getting Started with Load Balancing.
Network Load Balancer
Always Free tenancies get a limit of one Network Load Balancer.
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Listeners: 50
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Backend sets: 50
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Backend servers per set: 512
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Backend servers total: 1024 (to be distributed among your backend sets)
Block Volume
All tenancies receive a total of 100 GB of Always Free Block Volume storage, and five volume backups. These amounts apply to both boot volumes and block volumes combined. When you provision a Compute instance, the instance automatically receives a 50 GB boot volume for storage. You can also create and attach block volumes to expand the storage capacity of a Compute instance. For more information, see Creating a Volume and Attaching a Volume.
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100 GB total of combined boot volume and block volume Always Free Block Volume storage.
- Five total volume backups (boot volume and block volume combined).
When you create a Compute instance, the default boot volume size for the instance is 50 GB, which counts towards your allotment of 100 GB. You can customize the instance's boot volume size up to 100 GB; however, this will use up your full allotment of storage for Always Free Block Volume resources. Also, because the minimum boot volume size allowed for Compute instances is 50 GB, launching two instances will use all your Always Free Block Volume resources. Alternatively, you can launch one instance with the default boot volume size of 50 GB, and then create and attach a 50 GB block volume to expand the storage capacity of the instance. For more information, see Creating a Volume and Attaching a Volume. Although it is possible to mix paid and Always Free resources, Oracle does not recommend this. If you have used up your allotment of Always Free Block Volume resources, you can free up block storage resources by terminating an Always Free instance and deleting the boot volume, or terminating an Always Free block volume.
You can have a maximum of five Always Free volume backups at any time. This applies to both boot volume and block volume backups. For example, you could have three boot volume backups for your Always Free instance and two block volume backups for your Always Free block volumes. In this example, if you try to create new backups, the operation will fail with an error until you delete existing Always Free volume backups. For more information about volume backups, see Overview of Block Volume Backups and Overview of Boot Volume Backups.
Object Storage
All tenancies get a total of 20 GiB (gibibytes) of Always Free Object Storage.
If you have a free account (including trial accounts), Always Free includes the following:
- 20 GiB of combined Standard tier, Infrequent Access tier, and Archive tier data
- 50,000 Object Storage API requests per month
If you have a paid account, Always Free includes the following:
- 10 GiB of Standard tier data
- 10 GiB of Infrequent Access tier data
- 10 GiB of Archive tier data
- 50,000 Object Storage API requests per month
If you are participating in an Oracle Cloud Free Trial, you can store unlimited data and can use 20 GiB for free (your usage of the first 20 GiB incurs no deduction of your initial $300 trial credit balance). Upgrade to a paid account to continue access to unlimited storage. If you do not upgrade before your trial ends, your free account will be limited to 20 GiB of combined Standard tier, Infrequent Access tier, and Archive tier data. If you are using more than the 20-GiB limit when your Free Trial ends, all of your objects will be deleted. You can then upload objects until you reach your Always Free usage limits.
See Putting Data into Object Storage for instructions on using your Always Free storage resources.
Resource Manager
All tenancies get the following Always Free resources for Resource Manager.
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Resource (per tenant)
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Always Free resources
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|---|---|
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100
|
|
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Jobs (concurrent)
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2 Job duration: 24 hours |
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10
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|
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10 Variables per stack: 250 Size per variable: 8192 bytes Zip file per stack: 11 MB |
Service Connector Hub
All tenancies get 2 Always Free service connectors .
If you have a free account (including trial accounts), Always Free Service Connector Hub includes 2 Always Free service connectors .
If you have a paid account, see Service Connector Hub Limits.
Vault
All master encryption keys protected by software are free. All tenancies get 20 key versions of master encryption keys protected by a hardware security module (HSM) and 150 Always Free Vault secrets. You can spread these keys or secrets across any number of vaults in the tenancy, although virtual private vaults are not included in the Always Free resources.
- all key versions of a master encryption key protected by software (across any number of keys or vaults)
- 20 total key versions of a master encryption key protected by an HSM (across any number of keys or vaults)
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150 total Always Free secrets (across any number of vaults).
- 40 secret versions of any given secret (including up to 20 in some form of active use and 20 pending deletion).
If you have used up your allotment of Always Free secrets, you can release resources by scheduling a secret or secret version for deletion. At minimum, you do have to wait a day before the secret or secret version is deleted.