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Oracle OCI Always Free Tier: What You Get for Free in 2025

📅 January 2026⏱️ 7 min read✍️ TCOIQ Team

OCI Always Free — No Expiry

OCI Always Free resources are permanently free — no time limit unlike AWS 12-month or GCP limited free tiers.

Compute

ResourceAlways FreeAWS Equivalent Cost
A1.Flex ARM VMs4 OCPU = 8 vCPU, 24GB RAM total~$65/month
E2.Micro AMD VMs2x micro instances~$10/month
Block Volume2x 50GB~$8/month

A1.Flex: configure as 1 VM with 4 OCPU/24GB, or 4 VMs with 1 OCPU/6GB each. Run a small Kubernetes cluster or production web app completely free.

Databases Always Free

  • Autonomous Database ATP: 2 databases, 1 OCPU each, 20GB each
  • Autonomous Data Warehouse: same specs

Other Always Free Services

  • Object Storage: 20GB
  • Load Balancer: 1 flexible LB 10Mbps
  • API Gateway: 1M calls/month
  • Notifications: 1M per month

Free Complete Stack

Web server + App server + Autonomous DB + Load Balancer + Storage = $0/month forever. AWS equivalent: ~$120/month.

OCI Always Free is the best starting point for developers and startups. The ARM compute allowance alone is worth hundreds per year.

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