Many people want to sign up for an Oracle permanent free cloud server, but often can't get ARM-based machines to launch. With the free tier quotas adjusted in 2026, a lot of old tutorials online are now outdated. Here's a tested, zero-cost, step-by-step guide. Oracle is honestly generous, lol.

Basic Rules and Quotas

Account types: There are standard free-tier accounts and PAYG (Pay As You Go) accounts upgraded by linking a credit card.

• Standard free account: Instances left idle for more than 7 days may be reclaimed by the system. These days you basically can't spin up a free instance at all (it always shows "out of capacity").
• PAYG account (card linked): Free resources won't be reclaimed even after long idle periods, and the success rate for launching instances is high. The downside is that once you exceed the free allowance you're charged directly, so every setting must strictly stay within the free specs.

2026 Latest Always‑Free Hardware Limits

• ARM Ampere A1: Up to 2 OCPUs, 12GB RAM (the old 4-core/24GB was halved; exceeding this incurs charges)
• AMD E2.1‑Micro: Up to 2 instances, each with 1/8 OCPU, 1GB RAM
• Total block storage: The combined boot volumes of all free instances are capped at 200GB

Region Restrictions

Free resources can only be created in the "Home Region" you selected when registering your account. Launching instances in other regions easily incurs extra storage and network fees, so make sure the region in the top-right corner is your home region at all times.

Credit Card Verification Notes

Many people get stuck at the credit card verification step when signing up for an Oracle Cloud PAYG (Pay As You Go) account. Oracle only uses the linked card for identity verification — it doesn't start charging you. The system sends a very small temporary authorization hold to your bank, typically around $1 USD, just to confirm the card works and you're the legitimate cardholder. This overseas authorization is very often blocked automatically by your bank's and card's anti-fraud mechanisms. Most banks block overseas online card payments and card-not-present transactions by default; a failed authorization will cause the card binding to be rejected. It's best to temporarily enable overseas/online transactions and turn off the overseas transaction block beforehand. The whole verification process isn't always instant — sometimes bank review and authorization delays mean it takes 1-2 business days to complete verification and for the held amount to be refunded.

Creating an ARM Free Cloud Server

Step 1: Open the Create Instance page

After logging in to Oracle Cloud, click the hamburger menu in the top-left → Compute → Instances, then click "Create instance" to add a server and give it a name.

Step 2: Choose the OS (ARM architecture requires an aarch64 version)

1. Click the Edit button under Image and shape to change the image.
2. We recommend Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 — make sure to pick the aarch64 build for ARM.
3. Tip: Ubuntu without the aarch64 label is the x86_64 Intel architecture and won't install on an ARM processor host; it'll fail to boot.
4. After choosing the system, click Select image to save.

Step 3: Set the Hardware Specs (the step most likely to incur charges)

1. Click Change shape to switch the machine type.
2. Select Virtual machine as the instance type.
3. Pick the Ampere shape series.
4. Check VM.Standard.A1.Flex.
5. Set OCPU strictly to 2 and memory to 12GB.
6. Confirm a green "Always Free‑eligible" label appears on the page, meaning the spec falls within the free tier, then save.

Key reminder: PAYG accounts have no upper-limit guardrail — pushing parameters over the limit charges you directly, so triple-check the specs.

Step 4: Leave Advanced Options at Default — Don't Tweak

• Capacity type: Keep the default On‑demand capacity. Don't pick Preemptible (the system can force-shut it down at any time) or dedicated host options — those are paid features.
• Security options: Leave at default. Shielded instance enables low-level system protection; Confidential computing isn't compatible with A1 hosts, so ignore the greyed-out checkbox.

Step 5: Network Settings — Make Sure to Enable a Public IP

1. For the existing VCN and subnet, pick your Public subnet. The network itself has no password, so don't worry about forgetting credentials.
2. Private IP: leave it auto-assigned.
3. Turn on the "Automatically assign public IPv4 address" toggle.
4. If you don't enable it there'll be no public IP, and you won't be able to SSH into the server afterward.

Step 6: Storage / Boot Volume Configuration

There are two options for the boot volume size:

• Option 1 (recommended): Keep the default 100GB, leaving 100GB of storage quota for adding other free instances later.
• Option 2: Set it directly to 200GB, giving all the free storage quota to this database server — but then you can't add any other free instances.

Other notes: keep disk performance at the fixed 10 VPU balanced mode — never upgrade to the high-performance option, which costs money; keep transfer encryption on; don't manually enable custom KMS key encryption, to avoid tripping paid services.

Step 7: SSH Key Setup (the Only Credential to Log In)

1. Choose Generate a key pair for me to have the system create a key pair.
2. Make sure to download and save the private .key file.
3. This Ubuntu host disables password login by default — lose the private key and you can never connect to the server again; you'd have to delete and recreate it.

Once you've checked all settings — confirming specs meet the free threshold and the public IP is on — click Create to launch the instance.

After the Instance Is Up

1. Wait until the status turns green RUNNING, then copy the public IP address.
2. On Windows use PowerShell, on Mac/Linux use the terminal, and SSH in with your private key as the ubuntu user.

Long-term Stability and Pitfall-avoidance Rules

• PAYG free instances won't be reclaimed for idling, but the linked credit card must stay valid — if the bank fails to verify the card, the account gets frozen.
• Keep all hardware parameters strictly within the free quota; total disk capacity must not exceed 200GB.
• Use the server only for databases and project services. Mining, P2P downloads, attack tools, spam email and other ToS-violating uses are prohibited.
• You can add a budget alert that emails you when spending reaches $1 USD, eliminating any chance of unexpected charges.