Oracle Quietly Halves A1 Free Tier Compute Allowance, Enforcement Began Aug 18
Oracle has reduced the Always Free allocation for its Ampere A1 Flex instances from 4 OCPUs and 24GB RAM to 2 OCPUs and 12GB RAM across an entire tenancy. The documentation change reportedly dates to mid-June 2026, but active enforcement only began on August 18, 2026, catching many users off guard. Some users reported their instances were disabled even when they believed they were within the new limits, though Oracle has not officially confirmed any enforcement errors. The new cap applies tenancy-wide rather than per instance, meaning users running multiple A1 VMs must ensure their combined resources stay within the 2 OCPU and 12GB ceiling. The two AMD E2.1.Micro always-free instances remain unchanged, and Oracle's free tier is still considered relatively generous for lightweight workloads.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.
Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in