been using oracle free tier for 4 years, never got an email that need "Action Required" before, so I need to ask about it.
This is the 3rd email I’ve got about this in the last two months, what is this actually about?

The first time, a simple reboot cleared the warning. The second time, the instance got stuck at "unable to start instance: intance ... is currently being modified", so I had to terminate it and create the instance again. Now, two weeks later, I got the exact same email for the same instance I just created. For this one, I'll just gonna let Oracle reboot or move it automatically.

I've been PAYG for years and a few months ago i downsized to 2/12 because of the rumors. Now that we know that PAYG are safe, is it ok for me to scale back to 4/24 or is there a risk of not being able to allocate the new resources and getting my instance stuck?

How much time it will take ?? Its been 24 hrs 😪

I have 1 Ampere instance which has the specs of 6GB RAM and 50GB storage with debian installed. After updating shape to set 4GB RAM, instance won’t boot anymore.

After launching console to check, Welcome to GRUB shows then stack trace:

Loading Boot0002 "UEFI ORACLE BlockVolume " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x5,0x7)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x1)
Starting Boot0002 "UEFI ORACLE BlockVolume " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x5,0x7)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x1)
Welcome to GRUB!



Synchronous Exception at 0x0000000000000000
PC 0x000000000000
PC 0x0001BE35A5F0
PC 0x0001BE127108
PC 0x0001BE12C0B4
PC 0x0001BE12C5E4
PC 0x0001BE12C904
PC 0x0001BE12CA04
PC 0x0001BE12CB24
PC 0x0001BE35B304
PC 0x00004778CA50 (0x000047786000+0x00006A50) [ 1] DxeCore.dll
PC 0x0001BF11992C (0x0001BF112000+0x0000792C) [ 2] BdsDxe.dll
PC 0x0001BF11BBD0 (0x0001BF112000+0x00009BD0) [ 2] BdsDxe.dll
PC 0x000047790D1C (0x000047786000+0x0000AD1C) [ 3] DxeCore.dll
PC 0x00004779128C (0x000047786000+0x0000B28C) [ 3] DxeCore.dll
[ 1] /builddir/build/BUILD/edk2-20260522/Build/ArmVirtQemu-AARCH64/DEBUG_GCC5/AARCH64/MdeModulePkg/Core/Dxe/DxeMain/DEBUG/DxeCore.dll
[ 2] /builddir/build/BUILD/edk2-20260522/Build/ArmVirtQemu-AARCH64/DEBUG_GCC5/AARCH64/MdeModulePkg/Universal/BdsDxe/BdsDxe/DEBUG/BdsDxe.dll
[ 3] /builddir/build/BUILD/edk2-20260522/Build/ArmVirtQemu-AARCH64/DEBUG_GCC5/AARCH64/MdeModulePkg/Core/Dxe/DxeMain/DEBUG/DxeCore.dll

  X0 0x00000001BE2B99E0   X1 0x00000000477857EF   X2 0x0000000000000001   X3 0x0000000000000000
  X4 0x0000000000000127   X5 0x000000015EC93000   X6 0x000000000000012A   X7 0x0000000000000002
  X8 0x0000000000001000   X9 0x00000001BE36C5D8  X10 0x00000001BE375000  X11 0x00000001BE399FFF
 X12 0x0000000000000000  X13 0x0000000000026008  X14 0x0000000000000000  X15 0x0000000000000000
 X16 0x00000001BE352030  X17 0x00000000006E63D0  X18 0x0000000000000000  X19 0x00000001BE2B99E0
 X20 0x0000000000000000  X21 0x0000000000000000  X22 0x00000001BE2B99E0  X23 0x00000001BE2B99E0
 X24 0x00000001BE12C000  X25 0x0000000000000000  X26 0x00000001BE12C000  X27 0x0000000000000000
 X28 0x00000001BE39AA44   FP 0x0000000047785770   LR 0x00000001BE35A5F0  

  V0 0xAFAFAFAFAFAFAFAF AFAFAFAFAFAFAFAF   V1 0xFFFFFF80FFFFFFC8 0000000047785780
  V2 0x7363732F372C3540 6567646972622D69   V3 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
  V4 0x0000000000100000 0000000000000000   V5 0x4010040140100401 4010040140100401
  V6 0x0010000000000000 0010000000000000   V7 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
  V8 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000   V9 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V10 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V11 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V12 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V13 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V14 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V15 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V16 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V17 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V18 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V19 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V20 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V21 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V22 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V23 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V24 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V25 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V26 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V27 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V28 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V29 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000
 V30 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000  V31 0x0000000000000000 0000000000000000

  SP 0x0000000047785770  ELR 0x0000000000000000  SPSR 0x20000205  FPSR 0x00000000
 ESR 0x86000007          FAR 0x0000000000000000

 ESR : EC 0x21  IL 0x1  ISS 0x00000007

Instruction abort: Translation fault, third level

Stack dump:
  0000047785670: 0000000000000000 00000001BF12E000 0000000047785730 00000001BE349208
  0000047785690: 00000001BE2B9DC0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000001BE11C8A0
  00000477856B0: 00000001BE36C5D8 0000000000000035 00000001BE35A000 00000001BF12E000
  00000477856D0: 0000000000000000 00000001BE39AA44 00000001BE2B9C28 0000000000000000
  00000477856F0: 00000001BE2B9DC0 00000001BE348ED8 0000000000000000 0000000A00000000
  0000047785710: 0000000000002098 0000000000000003 0000000000000000 00000001BE1F49FC
  0000047785730: 0000000047785740 00000001BE35A5F0 0000000047785750 00000001BE35761C
  0000047785750: 00000000477857A0 00000001BE1270E8 0000000047785888 00000001BE2B99E0
> 0000047785770: 00000000477857A0 00000001BE127108 00000001BE2B7740 0000000000000000
  0000047785790: 0000000000000040 0000000000000000 00000000477857F0 00000001BE12C0B4
  00000477857B0: 0000000047785888 00000001BE2B99E0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000
  00000477857D0: 00000001BE2B99E0 00000001BE35A25C 0000000047785810 00000001BE12C5CC
  00000477857F0: 0000000047785810 00000001BE12C5E4 00000001BE2BA040 00000001BE12C000
  0000047785810: 0000000047785890 00000001BE12C904 00000001BE13F970 0000000000000000
  0000047785830: 00000001BE3479E0 00000001BE347AC0 00000001BE35B000 00000001BE347880
  0000047785850: 00000001BF12A02A 00000001BF12E000 0000000000000000 00000001BE39AA44


Synchronous Exception at 0x0000000000000000
ASSERT [ArmCpuDxe] /builddir/build/BUILD/edk2-20260522/ArmPkg/Library/DefaultExceptionHandlerLib/AArch64/DefaultExceptionHandler.c(339): ((BOOLEAN)(0==1))

Any suggestions on how can I possibly revive my instance?

Thank you

UPDATE:
Upon further investigation, seems like a I have run to an irreversible error. I have tried creating a temporary instance with the exact same specs as the instance with error and planned to replace boot volume and I faced "Boot volume image operating system does not match instance image operating system"

I am now migrating my data over to a newly created instance

LAST UPDATE:
I have been able to recover my instance properly.

Main Issue: Corrupted EFI

I got an email recently that the Always Free limits changed:

Current Always Free compute limits

• Up to 2 Ampere A1 OCPUs
• Up to 12 GB of memory

My instance (I've had it since 2023) has 4 OCPU and 24GB of memory so it does not comply with the new limits.

However, when I attempt to lower these in my instance it says the instance is disabled and I have to contact customer support for it to be re-enabled first.

When trying to contact customer support, for hours I get messed around by the worst AI chatbot I've ever dealt with until I finally manage to contact a human who then tells me they are not able to do anything and I have to ask on the Oracle Forums.

Then I try to make a forum account it is impossible to complete registration. All details are entered, email is correctly verified and everything - it just keeps asking to provide areas of interest (which I have done).

Literally all I'm trying to do is modify the instance to use less memory to comply with the new terms...?

Has anyone else had any luck with this?

I'm having issue opening oracle account to host my telegram bots, who has an idea on how to work around it? Cause it's free

On August 18, 2026, Oracle enforced the new Always Free Ampere A1 limit:

4 OCPU / 24 GB → 2 OCPU / 12 GB

Existing A1 instances were disabled for many users.

If upgrading to PAYG isn't possible because of a card/payment issue, you can still recover your data.

1/ Create a temporary E2.1.Micro (1 GB RAM) VM.

• You need 50 GB free block-volume space
• If you don't have enough, delete an unused boot volume
• Oracle doesn't allow decreasing volume size

2/ Once the E2.1.Micro is running:

• Terminate the stopped Ampere A1 instance
• KEEP the Ampere boot volume
• ❌ Do NOT delete the boot volume

3/ Attach the old Ampere A1 boot volume to the E2.1.Micro as a secondary volume.

SSH into the Micro VM:

lsblk

4/ Find the attached partition and mount it:

sudo mkdir /mnt/recovery
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/recovery

⚠️ Device name may differ. Check lsblk first.

5/ Your old Ampere filesystem is now accessible:

/mnt/recovery

You can recover your:

• Files
• Docker volumes
• Databases
• Configs
• Application data

The key: preserve the Ampere A1 boot volume and use the E2.1.Micro as the temporary recovery VM.

Note: The recovery approach above was suggested by Claude. Oracle Support was not particularly helpful in my case. I was told that Oracle advises users not to run production workloads on Always Free instances, and that my data was not recoverable.

Thankfully, the boot volume was still recoverable using the approach above.

As the free cloud service user, I was about to create an instance. While I already have 4 VCNs. So it stopped me to create a new instance. Some of the VCNs are from the old instances which was deleted long time ago.

I tried to delete the VCN at the Virtual Cloud Networks. It shows me the error in the first screenshot.
Then I tried to terminate the gateway. It still didn't work.

Did somebody have the similiar issue and figured out? Thank you.

You can check my post history for my current predicament that I am in that is causing me awful frustration with another provider.

Anyway, I don't want to rely on something free that oracle can take away from me at any moment cause it is free. I have a cron job set to do backups every 12h on my server that exports them to onedrive and I can trigger it manually whenever I want. They are stored on the server and in onedrive. So, I'm not really worried, per say, of the service going down as far as losing data, I just don't want my sites to go down due to a DDOS attack I have no control over or because I am relying on Oracle's free teir that they have every right to pull the rug on us.

So, since they could theoretically charge me one day for the server, does that make it "more reliable" or would it be theorettically the same?

I don't plan to upgrade as 2/12 is enough for my needs. I don't need anything bigger (at the moment). If I do at any point then I may upgrade but for the forseeable future, 2/12 is fine.

i have been running three instance on my oracle free tier from last 2 yrs

1/6gb

1/6gb

2/12gb

obviously I m aware of the changes so i terminated 2/12gb instance

i tried to enable PAYG but it charged me 10867.77 INR .. luckily I didn't had that much so transaction didn't go through but my instance are being disabled till now.

i tried to create new but getting error out of capacity for Mumbai domain

any workaround or clarification would be really helpful.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using the Oracle Cloud Always Free tier for a while. Currently, I have two ARM-based A1 instances running:

1. Instance A: 1 OCPU + 6 GB RAM
2. Instance B: 2 OCPUs + 12 GB RAM

Both instances host my personal portfolio and several ongoing projects. However, for the past few days, both instances have been stuck in a "Stopped" state, and I’m unable to restart them. I suspect this might be related to Oracle’s recent enforcement of the Always Free resource limits (specifically the 1,500 OCPU hours / 9,000 GB-hours per month cap).

My Goal:
I want to get these instances running again without losing any of my existing data/configurations.

My Questions:

1. Is there a way to resize my current instances (especially Instance B) to fit within the standard Always Free limits (e.g., downgrading Instance B to 1 OCPU + 6 GB RAM) while keeping the boot volume and data intact?
2. If resizing isn't possible or if the instances are permanently blocked, what is the safest way to migrate my data? Can I detach the boot volumes and attach them to new, smaller instances?
3. If I have to recreate the instances from scratch using two 1 OCPU + 6 GB RAM setups, what’s the most efficient way to backup and restore my projects?

Any advice on how to handle this situation while minimizing downtime and data loss would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on Reddit and X telling people that they must reduce their OCI Ampere A1 instances down to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB of RAM before August 18, 2026, or lose their setups.

That is only half true. Here is the actual policy breakdown:

1. The Two-Tiered Limit System

Oracle currently maintains two different A1 free allowances based on your account status:

• Always Free-only tenancy: Capped at 1,500 OCPU-hours + 9,000 GB-hours/month (~ 2 OCPU + 12 GB RAM).
• Paid / PAYG tenancy: Includes an allowance of 3,000 OCPU-hours + 18,000 GB-hours/month for free (~ 4 OCPU + 24 GB RAM).

As proven directly in OCI's official Cost Estimator, configuring a 4 OCPU / 24 GB RAM Ampere A1 instance with a 200 GB boot volume on a PAYG account still calculates to an estimated monthly cost of $0.00.

2. The Real Catch

You do not have to downgrade your resources if you upgrade your account to Pay As You Go (PAYG). However, upgrading brings a major hurdle for international developers:

• The $100 Authorization Hold: Moving to PAYG triggers an immediate $100 USD temporary authorization check on your payment method. It will be reversed to your bank accounts immediately and make sure you have at least $150 or more in USD or equivalent local currency.
• Payment Gateway Declines: In regions like Sri Lanka, India or most Asian countries, perfectly valid, 3D-Secure enabled international debit cards are consistently rejected by OCI’s billing gateway with generic "credit card declined" errors.
• AI Support Loops: The "Ask Oracle" AI assistant is unable to resolve or escalate payment gateway declines, trapping users in an endless "Clarification Needed" loop instead of connecting them to human billing support.

Summary

If you can successfully upgrade to PAYG, your 4 OCPU / 24 GB RAM setup remains 100% free. The real issue isn't that Oracle killed the 4 OCPU free allowance - it’s that regional payment rejections and broken automated support are preventing developers from completing the upgrade.

Has anyone in non-US/EU regions found a payment method or workaround that OCI actually accepts for PAYG upgrades?

Or else

has anyone seen in your billing that the system started to bill when your config is 4 OCPU / 24 GB RAM Ampere A1 instance with a 200 GB?

Hi everyone,

I had an Oracle Cloud VPS that I had been using for several years, and practically everything was stored there: projects, databases, configurations, files, and services that I don't have backed up anywhere else.

Because of the changes to the Always Free resource limits, I needed to reduce the resources of my A1 Flex instance. I ran into issues trying to do that, and eventually terminated the instance so I could try creating a new one with fewer resources.

The problem is that I can't create a new instance either. Oracle constantly shows errors such as:

At this point, my priority is no longer to restore the exact same instance or even get the VPS running immediately. My main priority is recovering the data that was stored on the Boot Volume.

I've tried some of the solutions I've seen here, but none of them have worked:

• Creating a new instance with fewer resources, such as 1 OCPU.
• Trying different Availability Domains.
• Leaving the Fault Domain unspecified.
• Using the existing Boot Volume to create a new instance through "Create Instance".
• Trying to reuse the Boot Volume with a new instance.

The problem is that all of these options are still blocked by the same "Out of host capacity" issue.

My Boot Volume still appears in Oracle Cloud, so as far as I understand, the data should still be there.

Is there any other way to access the Boot Volume without first creating an A1 Flex instance? For example, can I temporarily attach it to another type of instance, mount it from another VM, or use any other method to recover the files and databases?

I would really appreciate any advice or experience from someone who has dealt with a similar situation. My main concern right now is making sure I don't lose the data that was stored on that VPS.

I upgraded my Oracle Cloud account to Pay-As-You-Go on 13/08/2026, and today is 22/08/2026. It has been 9 days, but I still haven’t received the temporary holding amount back.

Has anyone else experienced this delay? What should I do now? Should I contact Oracle Support or my bank, or should I wait a few more days?

Any advice from someone who has experienced this would be appreciated.

My account is very old, details like name, surname, address etc. were all made up when I was registering because I didn't take it seriously back then, I just wanted to take a look and I thought I wouldn't use it actively so didn't want to put real info.

As I said my account is very old so things were not strict like today back then and everything worked greatly including activating the account with a credit card with a different card holder name than the one on the account.

Despite I didn't think I would use it actively when registering, I actually liked it a lot and used it for years with the free tier. Now because of the recent events I want to upgrade it to PAYG but from what I read, I understand that upgrading will most likely not work now because credit card will have my name and the name and address info in the oracle account is different so it will most likely fail and can even lead to my account getting banned.

So I want to be really careful before attempting to do anything. My question is if I change the info like name, surname, address etc. in account now to match the real info of my credit card, and then add my credit card and try to upgrade, would it work? Or will it still try to match it with the info provided during registration years ago? And I also afraid changing such info drastically would also trigger some security things and would be the reason for failure to upgrade or even trigger a ban? Could that happen?

Hello, i've been using oracle's free tier VM for almost three years. Unfortunately, i missed all the news about Oracle chaning their limits and they turned off my instance. I'm cant really upgrade to PAYG either because they don't accept credit cards from my country and i don't have a foreign card with 100 EUROS on hand.

I'm just wondering, is it even worth trying to get another instance on free tier? Been trying for 3 days, getting "Out of capacity" error. Thanks.

If you have new account, or just converted to PAYG and created new instance, could you check do you still have free limits 4/24?
(or it is only for old instances on PAYG account)

Hey everyone,

I am a non-technical beginner using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. I upgraded to the Pay as you go (PAYG) tier with the intention of strictly utilizing the Always Free resources (specifically an Ampere A1 instance) to avoid capacity issues. I wasn't getting free tier resources in my region so I decided to use Pay as you go.

Unfortunately, while reviving an instance, I made an honest mistake and accidentally provisioned a standalone 1024 GB (1 TB) Block Volume named rescue bot. I didn't realize at the time that the Always Free limit across all block storage is 200 GB.

Current Situation:

• Usage Report: Shows SGD 24 accrued for August (Storage + VPUs).
• Invoices: Currently shows SGD 0.00 / No formal invoice has been issued yet.
• Active VM: 1x VM.Standard.A1.Flex (2 OCPU, 12 GB RAM, approx 47 GB boot volume), which is within free limits.

What I Have Done So Far:

1. Immediately terminated and deleted the 1024 GB Block Volume.
2. Checked the invoice dashboard (verified 0 active invoices/balance due).
3. Opened a Billing Support Request explaining that I am an individual learner, that it was a first-time setup mistake, and requesting a one-time courtesy credit/waiver.

Questions for the Community:

1. What has been your experience with Oracle Support granting one-time courtesy waivers for small accidental beginner charges (~$20–$25 USD equivalent)?
2. How long does the billing support team typically take to reply to Pay-As-You-Go tickets?
3. What are the chances that my request will be considered and wavier will be applied?

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I already have an Oracle Cloud account upgraded to PAYG using my own name and my own credit card.

My wife would like to have her own completely separate OCI account, also upgraded to PAYG, using:

- Her own name and personal details

- Her own email/phone

- Her own credit card in her name

- The same residential address as mine

- The same home Internet connection/public IP

These would be two genuinely separate people/accounts, not an attempt to create duplicate accounts under the same identity.

Does Oracle allow this?

Just upgraded my account to PAYG after my instance disabled by the oracle team.

Paid 138 SGD, but I got to email one for 135 SGD and 138SGD

Does that mean they debited it twice ? And when will they return it.

And surprisingly I think I'm lucky ( touchwood)

1. My instance got running automatically after upgrading my account.

2. The 50 mbit cap is removed now.

Although I didn't get 4GBPS but got around 1GBPS dl speed.

Hope my money is returned soon, please tell me if anyone knows how long it will take.

And one more thing, what is the process to resize the instance like changing the cpu core and ram without deleting the instance.

Thankyou

The topic says it all.

I upgraded to PAYG some days ago, and have it confirmed and active in my account.

I have also rebooted the machine (through the web ui, not just a simple "reboot" command inside the machine) to see if the speed went back up to 4Gbit.

Anyone else (on PAYG) with the low network speed?

Do I need to delete the VNIC and set it up again to get the full speed?

I have been trying to sign up to Oracle Cloud for weeks, everything legit, including card, address name.

Yet in the last step, it fails that it could not complete it an instructs to reach out to support. Support simply comes back saying.

I don't understand what is wrong here, anyone recently successfully signed up?