Oracle Cloud Always Free ARM Instance: Setup Guide for 2026
Oracle Cloud gives away a server with 4 ARM CPUs, 24 GB of RAM, and 200 GB of storage. Permanently. No trial countdown, no credit balance to watch. As long as your account stays active, the instance stays free. The specs sound too good to be real. They are real. I've been running one for over three months in the Tokyo region with six production services and zero infrastructure cost. But getting from "sign up" to "working server accessible from the internet" has a few steps that aren't obvious, and one particular gotcha that cost me an entire afternoon. What You Get (and What You Don't) The Always Free tier includes one Ampere ARM instance with up to 4 OCPUs and 24 GB of RAM. You can split this into multiple smaller instances or use it as one machine. I run everything on a single instance — simpler to manage, and 24 GB is more than enough. What's included beyond compute: # Oracle Cloud Always Free — what's actually free Compute: 4...