Oracle Slashes Free Tier Ampere Limits Silently

The Unannounced Free Tier Shift

Oracle's decision to halve the Always Free Ampere A1 Compute limits without any public announcement or direct customer notification is the most critical aspect of this situation. This lack of transparency has understandably led to confusion and frustration among developers, self-hosters, and enthusiasts who relied on the previous generous allowance for personal projects, test environments, and even lightweight AI workloads. The ambiguity surrounding whether Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) accounts are truly unaffected, despite documentation suggesting otherwise, exacerbates trust issues. Users are forced to rely on anecdotal evidence from support emails rather than official policy, creating an unstable foundation for development. Furthermore, the fine print regarding the inability to recreate instances above the new limits post-termination poses a long-term risk, potentially locking users into reduced capacity even if their original instances were grandfathered.

Key Points

• Oracle has quietly reduced the Always Free Ampere A1 Compute allowance from 4 OCPUs/24GB RAM to 2 OCPUs/12GB RAM.
• The change, effective June 15, 2026, was not announced publicly via blog posts or customer notifications.
• Users discovered the change through instance shutdowns and community observation of updated documentation.
• The previous limits were significantly generous and attracted a diverse user base for various personal and development uses.
• Ambiguity exists regarding the impact on Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) accounts, with conflicting information from support and documentation.
• A significant concern is the potential for existing instances to be permanently locked to the new, lower limits if terminated, even for grandfathered accounts.

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📖 Source: Oracle Quietly Halves Free Tier Ampere A1 Compute Limits with No Public Announcement