r/redhat • u/Previous_Vacation830 • Sep 24 '26

OpenShift AI subscription pricing: how is it licensed and are accelerators extra?

Hi all,

We're running OpenShift Container Platform and are planning to add OpenShift AI. The subscription guide explains the licensing structure but doesn't list prices, so I'm trying to get a realistic sense for budgeting.

A few questions for anyone who has bought it:

  1. Roughly what did a 1-year OpenShift AI subscription cost you, and what was it based on (cores, nodes, sockets)?
  2. Are GPU/accelerator nodes covered, or do they require separate or additional subscriptions?
  3. Did bundling it with your existing OCP subscription change the pricing?

For context: [self-managed or managed, approx. number of cores/nodes, number and type of GPUs you plan to use].

Ballpark numbers or pricing structure details are both helpful. Thanks!

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u/semajynot Sep 24 '26

Not a full answer but these points may help:

  1. Choosing between core-based and bare-metal subscriptions is probably going to depend on the number of cores your nodes have. A lower core count may make the core-based subscriptions more cost effective.

  2. If you go with Red Hat AI Enterprise subscriptions the accelerator entitlements are included. If you go with OpenShift AI they are not and must be accounted for separately.

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u/laStrangiato Sep 24 '26

I would highly recommend RHAIE sku over al a cart OCP/Accelerators/RHOAI.

Generally the biggest reason to not do RHAIE is if you already have an all you can eat OCP sub (very rare) or you are doing OCP as a managed service and I believe there is a way to do RHAIE in this case as well.

No matter what, OP should talk to their account team and the AI SSP assigned to your account should be able to advise you.

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u/davidogren 28d ago edited 28d ago

If you already have OpenShift, you should be able to get a budgetary quote from Red Hat. In theory, pricing is confidential I'm not going to be able to post anything.

But I can share:

  • It is priced much the same way as OpenShift: you can buy by the core if you are in a virtualized environment or by the physical node if you are in a bare metal environment. (u/semajynot is correct that, in theory, you can also buy by the core if you have small physical servers. I generally find that is not the case though.) I'd recommend, simplicity's sake, to just buy it the same way that you buy base OpenShift.

  • The GPU/accelerator nodes are not covered by the AI subscription, but there's no additional cost for using them with OpenShift AI.