--- last_verified: 2026-04-08 source: Migrated from former kb/pricing/.yaml files (removed 2026-04-08). Stable, non-numeric pricing knowledge that does not need API refresh. All actual price numbers live in kb/pricing/oci-sku-catalog.yaml (auto-refreshed). description: Pricing context, billing models, free tiers, BYOL rules, and cross-service estimation knowledge for the OCI Deal Accelerator. --- # ============================================================================= # OCI Pricing Knowledge # ============================================================================= # # This file is the human-readable companion to kb/pricing/oci-sku-catalog.yaml. # The catalog has live SKU prices (auto-refreshed). This file has the *context* # a Solutions Architect needs to estimate accurately: # - Pricing models and when to use each # - BYOL rules and savings # - Free-tier rules per service # - Service-specific billing nuances # - Cost comparison framing vs hyperscalers # # This file is intentionally non-numeric where possible. Specific prices that # change should NOT be added here — add them to the SKU catalog instead. # Where a percentage or range is unavoidable (e.g. "BYOL ~50% off"), prefer # stable rules of thumb over exact figures. # ============================================================================= # ── PRICING MODELS ──────────────────────────────────────────────── pricing_models: payg: name: Pay As You Go commitment: none billing: Per second (compute), per hour (database), per month (storage) when_to_use: - Variable / unpredictable workloads - Short-term projects - Dev / test environments - Initial cloud adoption (before committing) monthly_flex: name: Monthly Flex (Universal Credits) commitment: Minimum $1,000/month or custom commitment billing: Committed credits consumed by usage discount_tiers: - spend_band: $1K-$10K/month approx_discount: 5-10% - spend_band: $10K-$50K/month approx_discount: 10-20% - spend_band: $50K+/month approx_discount: 20-30% (negotiated) when_to_use: - Steady-state production workloads - Known baseline consumption - Multiple services across OCI annual_flex: name: Annual Flex (Committed) commitment: 1-year or 3-year discount: Deeper than Monthly Flex when_to_use: - Established production workloads with predictable spend - Organizations committed to OCI long-term byol: name: Bring Your Own License approx_savings: ~50% on database ECPU/OCPU costs eligible: - Oracle Database Enterprise Edition - Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 - Oracle WebLogic - Oracle Java SE conversion: 1 processor license = 2 OCPUs (or 8 ECPUs) when_to_use: - Existing Oracle on-prem licenses with active support - Licenses not being used elsewhere when_not_to_use: - No existing licenses - Licenses still needed for on-prem during migration - Standard Edition workloads on ADB (ADB requires EE) reserved_capacity: name: Reserved Capacity commitment: 1-year or 3-year for specific shapes approx_discount: one_year: ~35% off on-demand three_year: ~55% off on-demand when_to_use: - Known compute shapes running 24/7 - Predictable database capacity notes: Shape-specific, less flexible than Universal Credits # ── ESTIMATION APPROACH ────────────────────────────────────────── estimation_approach: steps: - Calculate PAYG cost first (baseline) - Apply BYOL if customer has eligible licenses - Show savings with Monthly Flex / Annual Flex for steady-state - Compare total annual cost vs current on-prem spending - Include migration costs in year 1 assumptions_to_state: - Hours per month (730 for 24/7) - Auto-scaling hours per day (estimate) - Data transfer volumes (egress in particular) - Backup retention policy - Support tier (Premier vs Standard) # ── DATABASE KNOWLEDGE ────────────────────────────────────────── database: billing_unit_change: fact: ADB and most modern Oracle Database services bill in ECPUs, not OCPUs. rule_of_thumb: 1 OCPU ≈ 4 ECPUs for sizing conversion. note: When reading old datasheets or RFP documents, normalize to ECPU before quoting. autonomous_database_serverless: auto_scaling: Billed per ECPU-second for additional ECPUs above base. Same hourly rate as base ECPUs. adg_standby: Standby ECPU cost at the same rate as primary. Storage shared (no extra storage charge). backup: Automated backups included in storage cost. Manual backups use Object Storage rates. sweet_spot: 4-32 ECPUs with auto-scaling. Below 4, consider Always Free. Above 128, consider ADB-D or ExaCS. autonomous_database_dedicated: x11m_elastic_model: description: | X11M is the current-generation Exadata infrastructure for ADB-D and ExaCS (announced 2025). It uses elastic scaling instead of fixed quarter / half / full racks. configuration: min_db_servers: 2 min_storage_servers: 3 max_db_servers: 32 max_storage_servers: 64 key_changes_vs_x9m: - No fixed rack shapes — elastic scale in / out by server - Hard minimum: 2 DB + 3 storage servers (cannot provision less) - Per-second ECPU billing (was per-hour in older generations) - Improved compute, storage density, RDMA throughput pricing_caveat: | Per-server line items exist in the OCI price list ('Database Server - X11M', 'Storage Server - X11M') but the dollar amounts are not visible in the public API. For estimation, use X9M quarter rack as a proxy and confirm final pricing with the Oracle PDM / sales team. legacy_x9m_model: shapes: - quarter_rack - half_rack - full_rack note: Still available in some regions; new deployments default to X11M. dbcs_editions: SE: Standard Edition 2 EE: Enterprise Edition (base) EE_HP: Enterprise Edition - High Performance (partitioning, advanced compression, etc.) EE_EP: Enterprise Edition - Extreme Performance (RAC, Active Data Guard, In-Memory) note: Backup storage is charged separately at Object Storage rates. exacs_gotchas: - Infrastructure cost is fixed regardless of ECPU utilization on X9M (rack-based). - X11M elastic model bills by server, not by rack — scale in / out as needed. - Provisioning takes 4-8 hours. - Billing starts only at AVAILABLE state. - For X11M, the public API does not expose infrastructure-rate dollar amounts — confirm with PDM. exadata_cloud_at_customer: note: Exadata infrastructure deployed in the customer datacenter, managed by Oracle. same_ecpu_pricing_as: ExaCS Dedicated database_migration_service: free_period: First 183 days of an active migration are free. backup_recovery: autonomous_recovery_service: Per-GB protected per month, virtualized. zdlra: Zero Data Loss variant — same model, slightly higher rate. cost_comparison_vs_hyperscalers: when_pitching_vs_aws_rds_or_azure_sqlmi: include_in_comparison: - OCI inbound data transfer is free - OCI egress to internet is dramatically cheaper (~80% less than AWS after 10TB free) - OCI BYOL discount is deeper than AWS BYOL - ADB-S includes patching, tuning, indexing — RDS does not - ADB now bills in ECPU (not OCPU) — 1 ECPU is a fraction of an OCPU - Network LB is free per-hour on OCI # ── NETWORKING KNOWLEDGE ──────────────────────────────────────── networking: data_transfer: ingress: Free (all sources) egress_internet: free_tier: First 10 TB / month is free billing_after: Per-GB charge applies beyond free tier inter_region: Per-GB charge (low) fastconnect: Free in both directions (ingress AND egress) competitive_advantage: | OCI is dramatically cheaper than hyperscalers for data transfer: - AWS: $0.09 / GB egress (OCI is ~10x cheaper after 10 TB free) - Azure: $0.087 / GB egress - GCP: $0.12 / GB egress - OCI FastConnect egress is FREE (AWS DirectConnect charges per GB) This is one of the strongest cost arguments when migrating data-intensive workloads from AWS / Azure / GCP. fastconnect: note: Private dedicated connectivity. No data transfer charges. port_speeds_available_in_api: [1, 2, 5, 10, 40, 100, 400] # Gbps note_400gbps: 400 Gbps option is available; check oci-sku-catalog.yaml for current SKUs. network_load_balancer: cost_model: No per-hour charge (Layer 4). Data processing fees apply. flexible_load_balancer: cost_model: Base instance hourly + bandwidth per Mbps-hour. See oci-sku-catalog.yaml. vpn_connect: cost_model: No additional charge for IPSec VPN tunnels. Included with DRG. dns: free_tier: 1 million queries / month at no cost. waf: cost_model: Pricing based on requests processed. See oci-sku-catalog.yaml. # ── STORAGE KNOWLEDGE ─────────────────────────────────────────── storage: block_volume: tier_model: | OCI block volume tiers are configured via Volume Performance Units (VPU): - Lower Cost: 0 VPU - Balanced: 10 VPU (default) - Higher Performance: 20 VPU - Ultra High Performance (UHP): 30-120 VPU The base storage SKU is the same across tiers; the difference is the VPU multiplier on top. See oci-sku-catalog.yaml for the base storage SKU and the VPU SKU. boot_volume_free_tier: First 200 GB included with each compute instance. backup_billing: Block volume backups have their own per-GB-month rate (lower than primary). object_storage: tiers: standard: General-purpose, immediate access. infrequent_access: Lower per-GB cost; retrieval fee applies. archive: Lowest per-GB cost; standard retrieval is ~1 hour. free_tier: 10 GB storage + 50,000 requests / month always free. request_pricing: Separate per-10k-PUT and per-10k-GET charges. file_storage: note: Per-GB-month, higher rate than block volume. high_performance_mount_target: Available for high-throughput workloads. # ── OBSERVABILITY & MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE ──────────────────────── observability: free_services: - Cloud Guard (tenancy threat detection) - Security Zones (compartment policy enforcement) - Vulnerability Scanning (host + container image) - Certificates (TLS certificate management) - Bastion (managed SSH / RDP bastion) - Vault (software keys; HSM is paid) - OS Management Hub - Java Management Service - Autonomous Linux - Resource Analytics - Events service - DevOps pipeline execution (compute / storage billed separately) - Cluster management for OKE basic clusters free_tiers: monitoring: ingestion: 500 million datapoints / month retrieval: 1 billion datapoints / month logging: free_per_month: 10 GB queue: free_per_month: 1 million requests functions: invocations: 2 million / month memory: 400,000 GB-seconds / month notifications: deliveries: 1 million / month emails: 1,000 / month ops_insights: note: Basic and Autonomous tiers are free. Cloud-external (e.g. on-prem databases) is paid per OCPU-hour. log_analytics: unit: 1 storage unit = 300 GB. full_stack_dr: note: Orchestrates DR failover across compute, database, and networking. Billed per ECPU / OCPU hour. # ── COMPUTE / CONTAINERS / SERVERLESS KNOWLEDGE ──────────────── compute_containers_serverless: oke: basic_cluster: Cluster management is free (control plane). enhanced_cluster: Per-cluster hourly charge — adds virtual nodes, workload identity, etc. worker_nodes: Billed at standard compute shape rates (see kb/pricing/compute.yaml). virtual_nodes: Additional per-pod pricing on enhanced clusters. container_instances: billing: Billed at compute rates (OCPU / hour + GB memory / hour). No additional service charge. shapes_available: [A1 (Arm), E3 (AMD), E4 (AMD), E5 (AMD), E6 (AMD)] functions: free_tier_strength: Very generous — most event-driven workloads stay in the free tier. batch: billing: Pay-as-you-go compute pricing, no additional service charge. # ── INTEGRATION & MIDDLEWARE KNOWLEDGE ───────────────────────── integration: integration_cloud: editions: [Standard, Enterprise] billing_unit: Per 5,000 messages / hour band api_management: note: Per-API-call pricing is very low; most use cases trivially below $1 / million calls. streaming: note: Kafka-compatible. Billed per GB stored per hour + per GB transferred. queue: free_tier_strength: 1 million requests / month free, very cost-effective for decoupling. goldengate: billing: OCPU-hour. BYOL available. use_case: Real-time data integration and replication. soa_suite: note: For legacy SOA workload migration. OCPU-hour billing. # ── DEVELOPER SERVICES KNOWLEDGE ─────────────────────────────── developer: apex: free_tier: Yes — APEX free tier available for low-code development. visual_builder: note: Low-code app builder with included storage. devops: free: Pipeline execution itself is free; compute / memory billed separately. blockchain: note: OCPU-hour billing; storage charged separately. iot: billing_unit: ECPU-hour. media_flow: billing: Per-minute, varies by codec, resolution, and fps. media_streams: billing: Per-GB packaged. # ── AI / ML KNOWLEDGE ────────────────────────────────────────── ai_ml: generative_ai_vendors_available: - Cohere (Command, Embed) - Meta Llama - xAI Grok - Google Gemini generative_ai_billing_unit: Per 10K transactions or per 1M tokens (varies by vendor). generative_ai_agents: extra_costs: Plus storage and ingestion fees for agent knowledge bases. data_science: notebook_sessions: Billed at compute shape rates (OCPU / hour + GB memory / hour + GPU options). jobs: Same compute pricing as notebook sessions. model_deployment: Compute + networking + storage combined pricing. model_catalog_storage: Object Storage rates. anomaly_detection: free_tier: Up to 100M data points / month per region. document_understanding: note: OCR billed per 1K transactions; custom training billed per training hour. language_services: note: Pretrained per-transaction billing; custom training available at additional cost. vision: note: Per-1K image analysis billing; custom training per hour. speech: note: Per-transcription-hour billing. digital_assistant: note: Per-request billing with a minimum throughput floor. # ── SECURITY KNOWLEDGE ───────────────────────────────────────── security: free_services: - Cloud Guard - Security Zones - Vulnerability Scanning - Certificates - Bastion - Vault (software keys only — HSM keys are paid) paid_services: - Access Governance (per workforce / consumer user / month) - Network Firewall (instance hours + data processed) - Data Safe (per target / month + audit records) - Vault (HSM-backed keys) # ── HYBRID / EDGE KNOWLEDGE ──────────────────────────────────── hybrid: vmware_solution: note: Bare-metal nodes (BM.Standard2.12, BM.Standard3.16, BM.Standard.E4.32, BM.Standard.E5.48). Hourly to 3-year commitment ranges. hcx_enterprise: Available for cross-cloud migration from on-prem vSphere; 1-month minimum commitment. compute_cloud_at_customer: note: OCI compute, storage, and load balancer in customer datacenter. E6 shapes available. managed_mac: note: Apple Mac instances (M2 Pro, M4 Pro) for iOS / macOS build pipelines. roving_edge: note: Portable compute / GPU / storage devices for edge and disconnected scenarios. Per-device-day billing.