Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the available purchase models?

   The available purchase models are:

   • Pay As You Go: Pay As You Go (PAYG) pricing lets customers quickly provision services with no commitment, and they’re only charged for what they use. There’s no upfront commitment and no minimum service period. Any cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS) services consumed are metered and billed based on that consumption. If, during the services period of your order, Oracle makes new IaaS and PaaS services available within your cloud services account, Oracle will notify you of any fees that would apply to their activation and use. For more details, see our complete price list.

   • Annual Universal Credits: Oracle Annual Universal Credits enables customers to have the flexibility to use any Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and platform services at any time, in any region, to deliver faster time to market. Customers can commit to an amount of Oracle Annual Universal Credits that can be applied towards the future usage of eligible Oracle IaaS and PaaS cloud services. This payment option offers a significant savings across cloud services, combining cost reduction and a predictable monthly spend with a ramp up period as you on-board your workloads.

2. What are the pricing or discounting models?

   PAYG and Annual Universal Credits prices are available on Oracle Universal Credit Pricing. Automatic discounts apply based on a published discount schedule.

3. What Cloud Services can I use with my Universal Credits?

   Any Oracle Infrastructure or Platform Cloud Services (IaaS and PaaS) that are available on the rate card. The exception to this is Enterprise Analytics Services in North America, which has a separate Universal Credits SKU.

4. What happens when Oracle releases new services to existing Universal Credits agreements?

   New services are added to the list of existing services in Universal Credits agreements (to the existing rate card) without additional charges. However, their usage is charged per the applicable price card.

5. Can Universal Credits be used in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and OCI Classic?

   Yes.

6. What is the minimum term for a Universal Credits agreement?

   The minimum term is 12 months. Longer terms are available.

7. How are Universal Credits consumed?

   You consume your Universal Credits by creating service instances. The rate of consumption (burn down) is specified in the rate card on an hourly basis. Oracle Universal Credits must be used during the service period and will expire at the end of that yearly credit period; any prepaid unused amounts are nonrefundable and are forfeited at that time.

8. Is a delayed start possible?

   Yes, you can specify a future date to start your subscription.

9. What’s the start date for Universal Credits usage or burn down?

   The start date for metering of Universal Credits is the date when you receive the account information. This is known as the activation email.

10. Can I use my existing bursting capability for Universal Credits?

    With Universal Credits, you don’t require bursting as Universal Credits offer you a greater flexibility. If you exceed your resource capacity, then you’ll be charged overages for your usage as per Oracle’s price list.

11. How is overage calculated?

    If you exceed your monthly commitment amount, then overage is billed as per the negotiated terms of your contract.

12. How can I control my spending or monitor my usage in Universal Credits?

    See Managing Budgets.

13. Is there any way to prevent overage?

    To some extent, you can control overage by setting alerts with soft limits. You will be notified as to the overage and you can then delete or scale down your service instances.