Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation
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Updated 2024-09-24

Always Free Autonomous Database

You have the option to create a limited number of Always Free Autonomous Databases that do not consume cloud credits. Always Free databases can be created in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure accounts that are in a trial period, have paying status, or are always free.

Sign Up with Oracle Cloud Free Tier

These are the services you can use for an unlimited time:

  • Two Oracle Autonomous Databases with powerful tools like Oracle APEX and Oracle SQL Developer
  • Two Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute VMs; Block, Object, and Archive Storage; Load Balancer and data egress; Monitoring and Notifications

See Oracle Cloud Free Tier to start for free.

Resource Restrictions for Always Free Autonomous Database

  • The Always Free option provides databases that have CPU and storage included and you are never billed for an Always Free instance until the instance is upgraded to a paid Autonomous Database.

  • Maximum of approximately 20 GB Exadata storage per database (you may see more than this)

  • Maximum of 30 simultaneous database sessions

  • Maximum of 2 Always Free Autonomous Database instances per Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy. The Always Free Autonomous Database workload types are: Data Warehouse, Transaction Processing, JSON Database, and APEX Service. If you create 2 Always Free instances, they can be the same or different Autonomous Database workload types.

  • The HTTP interface for Always Free Autonomous Databases is rate limited to restrict the number of simultaneous service users. Approximately 3-6 simultaneous users can be supported across all of the APEX, Oracle REST Data Services, and Database Actions running on your Always Free Autonomous Databases. Additional simultaneous users beyond that may result in users encountering HTTP errors such as HTTP status code 429.

    This HTTP interface rate limit applies only for Always Free Autonomous Databases.

Note

  • For details on Always Free Oracle APEX Application Development (APEX Service), see Always Free Oracle APEX Application Development.

  • Always Free Autonomous Databases cannot be scaled manually or automatically beyond the fixed resource restrictions described above.

  • The Maximum of 30 simultaneous database sessions limit for Always Free allows you to work with Autonomous Database; however, if your usage includes many simultaneous users and/or many concurrent database client connections then you can exceed these limits, resulting in errors. To avoid such errors, obtain more resources for your Autonomous Database by upgrading to paid service.

  • Always Free Autonomous Databases cannot be provisioned as a private endpoint and cannot reside within a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN). See Configure Private Endpoints When You Provision or Clone an Instance for further information on private endpoints.

Oracle Database Versions for Always Free Autonomous Database

The available Database versions for Always Free Autonomous Database are:

  • Oracle Database 19c

    If you have Oracle Database 19c, then many database concepts and features of this service are further documented here:

  • Oracle Database 23ai

    If you are using Always Free Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai, then many of the concepts and features of this service are further documented here:

    Notes for Always Free Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai:

    • Always Free Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai is available in the following regions:
      • US West: Phoenix (PHX)
      • US East: Ashburn (IAD)
      • UK South: London (LHR)
      • France Central: Paris (CDG)
      • Australia East: Sydney (SYD)
      • India West: Mumbai (BOM)
      • Singapore (SIN)
      • Japan East: Tokyo (NRT)

    • To take advantage of new features available with Oracle Database 23ai, your tenancy must have a home region of one of these regions and you must provision your Always Free Autonomous Database in your home region.

    See Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai Notes for additional information and limitations on Always Free Autonomous Database with Oracle Database 23ai.

Regional Availability for Always Free Autonomous Database

  • Always Free Autonomous Databases are available worldwide in a subset of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure data regions. See Data Regions for more details on where Always Free databases are supported.

  • When you sign up for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle creates a tenancy and designates a home data region for the tenancy that you specify. You can create Always Free Autonomous Databases only in this home data region. You cannot create an Always Free Autonomous Database in other data regions that you subsequently subscribe to. See The Home Region for more information.

Backup Functionality Not Available in Always Free Autonomous Database

  • Always Free Autonomous Databases do not support long-term backups or manual backups to your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure object storage.

  • Always Free Autonomous Databases do not support restore (you cannot restore the current database to the selected past backup or timestamp).

  • To use backup and restore functionality on Autonomous Database you must upgrade an Always Free Autonomous Database to a paid instance.

See Backup and Restore Autonomous Database Instances and Upgrade an Always Free Autonomous Database to a Paid Instance for more information.

Autonomous Data Guard Not Available for Always Free Autonomous Database

Autonomous Data Guard is not available with Always Free Autonomous Databases. See Use Standby Databases with Autonomous Data Guard for Disaster Recovery for more information.

Tools Configuration Options Not Available for Always Free Autonomous Database

Always Free Autonomous Database does not provide configuration options for Autonomous Database tools and does not allow you to disable Autonomous Database tools. For example, you cannot specifically disable HTTP access to Oracle APEX and REST Data Services on Always Free databases.

Supplemental Logging and Oracle GoldenGate Extract are Not Available for Always Free Autonomous Database

The following are not available for Always Free Autonomous Databases:

  • Supplemental logging

  • Oracle GoldenGate Extract

See Supplemental Logging and Configuring Extract to Capture from an Autonomous Database for more information.

Inactivity Monitoring and Database Stoppage

Persistently inactive Always Free Autonomous Databases are detected and handled as follows:

  • After being inactive for 7 days, the database will be stopped automatically, preserving its stored data. Inactivity measurements leading up to 7 days are based on database connections and CPU usage. Successfully making a SQL*Net or HTTPS connection and running SQL commands on your database resets these measurements to zero.

  • A database that is automatically or manually stopped and stays inactive for 90 days, cumulative, may be reclaimed and permanently deleted. Inactivity measurements leading up to 90 days are based on the database being inactive or in the stopped state. Starting a stopped database resets these measurements to zero.

    Start an Always Free Autonomous Database by clicking the Start button on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console. Start a stopped Always Free Autonomous Database before 90 days to avoid losing access to its data.

    When you start an Always Free Autonomous Database from the stopped state, you need to wait about 5 minutes before attempting to connect to an APEX application or to an Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) endpoint. If you attempt to connect before the background APEX and ORDS startup completes, then you may see HTTP error messages.

  • On an Always Free database the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console shows banner alerts prior to automatic stop and permanent delete operations occurring. If you subscribe to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Alerts and Notifications, you also will receive email notifications.

Note

After an Always Free Autonomous Database has been stopped and is later started, you may need to reconnect to the database from SQL*Net database clients. You can use the same Oracle Wallet and database user credentials to reconnect.

Topics

Parent topic: Overview

Upgrade an Always Free Autonomous Database to a Paid Instance

You can upgrade an Always Free Autonomous Database to a paid instance to provide the instance with additional compute and storage resources.

If your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure account is in a trial period or has paying status, you can upgrade the Always Free database to a paid instance as follows:

  1. From the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure left navigation menu click Oracle Database and then, depending on your workload click one of: Autonomous Data Warehouse, Autonomous JSON Database, or Autonomous Transaction Processing.
  2. On the Autonomous Databases page select an Always Free Autonomous Database from the links under the Display name column.
  3. On the Autonomous Database Details page, from the More actions drop-down list select Upgrade instance to paid.
  4. Click Upgrade instance to paid.

When you upgrade from an Always Free instance to a paid instance you get a paid instance of the same workload type with the minimum CPU and minimum storage available for that workload type. After you upgrade you can scale up CPU and storage resources to fit your needs.

For example:

  • Data Warehouse workload type: When you upgrade to paid from an Always Free instance, the upgrade process provides a paid Autonomous Database instance with workload type Data Warehouse, with 2 ECPUs and 1 TB of database storage.

  • Transaction Processing workload type: When you upgrade to paid from an Always Free instance, the upgrade process provides a paid Autonomous Database instance with workload type Transaction Processing, with 2 ECPUs and 1 TB of database storage.

Notes for upgrading an Always Free Autonomous Database to a paid instance:

  • If have an Always Free Autonomous Database and you want an Autonomous Database for Developers instance you can clone the Always Free instance. To create the paid Autonomous Database for Developers instance, perform the clone operation and in the configure the database step, select the Developer option. See Clone an Autonomous Database Instance for more information.

  • If your account has finished a trial without upgrading to paying status, you can continue using Always Free databases but you cannot upgrade Always Free instances to paid instances until the account is first upgraded to paying status. See Upgrade Your Free Oracle Cloud Promotion for more information.

  • For details on upgrading your Always Free APEX Service to an Oracle APEX Application Development paid instance, see Upgrading Always Free APEX Service to a Paid Version.

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Updated 2024-09-24