Enterprise Cloud for $0
Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier is a generous free allocation: three servers, two databases and 10TB of traffic a month, with no trial clock. Point Claude at it to handle the setup, and you have somewhere to run small AI models, bots and client sites around the clock.
What You Actually Get
- One Arm (Ampere) server with up to 4 CPUs and 24GB of RAM — enough, for example, for a 2 CPU / 12GB machine running small models or always-on agents
- Two small AMD VMs for sites and bots
- Two databases at 20GB each
- 10TB a month of outbound traffic
It's Always Free rather than a trial, it runs 24/7 whether or not your laptop is on, and the traffic headroom is enough to host client sites.
Let Claude Set It Up
Instead of fighting the Oracle console, Claude can script the provisioning with the OCI CLI, Terraform or SSH, and walk you through each step.
Set expectations on what the hardware can do: two Arm CPUs and 12GB will run small, quantized models and lightweight agents, not large models at full speed.
The Honest Bits
- A credit card is required to verify the account, though Always Free resources aren't charged.
- Free Arm capacity often shows "out of capacity." Retry, or pick a quieter region.
- "Free forever" only applies inside the Always Free limits. Go beyond them and it starts billing.
What's in the Guide
The full free allocation, what it's realistically good for, how Claude can provision it for you, the catches to know before you deploy, and a link to Oracle's free tier page.
The full field guide is in the PDF.
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