Broadcom VMware licensing changes, explained. What changed and what it costs in 2026.

Broadcom made VMware subscription only, built around VMware Cloud Foundation and priced per core with a 16 core minimum per CPU. First quotes ran several times the old cost, and a corrected core count plus a costed alternative brought most settlements far below them.

What did Broadcom change about VMware licensing?

Broadcom changed how you pay, what you buy, the unit you count and who sells it to you. Perpetual licenses with annual support became term subscriptions, and the a la carte catalog became bundles built around VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), with vSphere Foundation (VVF) as the smaller tier below it.

The counting unit moved from the processor to the physical core, with a 16 core minimum per CPU socket. The broad reseller channel shrank to a concentrated partner program. VMware announced the end of availability of perpetual licenses on December 11, 2023.

Why does the 16 core minimum cost more than it looks?

Every CPU socket is billed as at least 16 cores. A host with two 12 core processors has 24 physical cores and is billed for 32, so 8 cores that do no work sit in your subscription base every year of the term.

The effect is largest on older hardware, edge sites and small clusters. Where small hosts are common, these phantom cores typically make up 10 to 25 percent of the billed base. The core licensing guide covers the counting rule in detail.

What happened to the VMware partner channel?

Fewer partners can now quote VMware, so there is less price competition between resellers and the Broadcom account team shapes more of the deal. Treat the partner as the delivery route and expect the commercial decisions to come from Broadcom.

Why are Broadcom VMware quotes several times higher than before?

A support renewal was converted into a full stack subscription priced per core with minimums. Across our engagements, first quotes arrived at 2 to 4 times the prior vSphere run rate, most of it from the bundle and the metric rather than the unit price.

A customer paying support only on vSphere Enterprise Plus was paying for compute virtualization. The VCF bundle adds vSAN, NSX and the management layer as one subscription, whether or not those components run in your data centers. Add the core minimum and the multiple follows.

What is the support reduction story?

It is the pressure behind the conversion. Support on perpetual licenses is being wound down, which turns a maintenance renewal into a platform decision on Broadcom's timeline. You are left with three options:

• Keep running unsupported. Your perpetual licenses stay valid, but support, upgrades and routine patches stop when your current contract ends. Broadcom still publishes critical security patches (CVSS 9.0 or higher) for supported vSphere versions to customers whose support has expired.
• Convert to subscription. Accept a bundle and a core count, ideally ones you have corrected first.
• Leave, fully or partly. Move some or all workloads to another platform.

The urgency is manufactured, and the answer is a prepared calendar worked back from your own term end. Our guide to perpetual license options sets out what each path allows, and responding to a cease and desist letter covers the case where Broadcom writes to you about unsupported use.

What does VCF cost per core now, and where does the price bend?

VCF lists at $350 to $400 per core per year. Four factors then set what you pay, and our VCF pricing brief works through the full stack.

• Term. Multi year commitments cut 18 to 38 percent off list.
• Scale. Deals above 10,000 cores earn additional points.
• Competition. A credible alternative takes off 8 to 15 more points.
• The base. Every discount is applied to a core count that the 16 core minimum and the bundle tier inflate by default.

That last factor is why we correct the base first. The per cluster question (VCF or vSphere Foundation) and the per host question (consolidate or keep paying for phantom cores) together shift more money than the headline discount in most environments.

A worked example: 16 hosts on 12 core processors

Say you run 16 hosts, each with two 12 core CPUs, and paid $48,000 a year in support on perpetual vSphere licenses. The figures are hypothetical and use the $350 low end of the VCF list range.

The opening quote is 3.7 times the old support bill. The 128 phantom cores are 25 percent of the billed base, and removing them saves $44,800 a year before any discount. Over a three year term the negotiated price totals $262,080, against $537,600 at the opening quote.

In this example the final figure is still above the old $48,000 support line, so getting close to flat would also need the tier scoping covered below. Set the consolidation hardware cost against the saving. The per core calculator runs the same arithmetic on your own host list.

Do you need VCF on every cluster, or is vSphere Foundation enough?

Decide cluster by cluster. VCF bundles vSphere, vSAN, NSX and the management layer, while clusters that use only compute virtualization often fit vSphere Foundation at a much lower rate. Every core moved to the smaller tier lowers the base that the discount is later applied to.

How does vSAN capacity differ between the two tiers?

Broadcom's core counting guidance gives VCF 1 TiB of vSAN capacity per licensed core and vSphere Foundation 0.25 TiB per core. Three hosts with two 16 core CPUs each need 96 core licenses, which brings 96 TiB of vSAN under VCF and 24 TiB under vSphere Foundation. Capacity beyond the entitlement is bought as an add on.

A storage heavy vSAN cluster may justify VCF, while a compute cluster on external storage rarely does. Check these points for each cluster:

• NSX. Is it running in production, or licensed and never deployed?
• vSAN. How many TiB are in use, and would the vSphere Foundation entitlement plus an add on cover it?
• Management tools. Do your operations teams use the VCF management components?
• Lifetime. A cluster retiring within the term belongs in the ramp discussion.

The VCF versus VVF calculator compares the two tiers for a given core count in a few minutes.

Should you push for the biggest discount first?

The usual advice is to fight for the largest percentage off list, and we think it starts in the wrong place. In the worked example above, 38 percent off the 512 core quote still costs $111,104 a year, while 25 percent off the corrected 384 cores costs $100,800.

The base is the part you can check and change yourself, and an unneeded VCF tier widens the gap further. Settle the count and the tier with Broadcom first, then negotiate the percentage on that smaller number.

How do you check your own core count before Broadcom does?

Pull a host level inventory and reconcile it before any quote is built. Broadcom rounds up to its minimums and its records may be out of date, so bring your own count to the table.

1. Export RVTools. The vHost tab lists sockets, cores per CPU and total cores for every host each vCenter manages.
2. Run Broadcom's counting tool. Its knowledge base article on counting cores for VCF and vSphere Foundation includes a License Counting PowerCLI Tool that totals required core licenses.
3. Apply the minimum per CPU. Flag every socket with fewer than 16 cores.
4. Mark each host's future. Keep, consolidate, retire within the term, or move to another platform.
5. Record vSAN TiB per cluster. This decides which tier's entitlement fits.

What mistakes inflate the count?

• Licensing retiring clusters for the full term. Hosts leaving in year one should be ramped down instead of subscribed for three years.
• Counting threads. The metric is physical cores, so logical CPU counts from a monitoring tool overstate the base.
• Relying on cores disabled in the BIOS. Broadcom's counting guidance warns that disabled cores make its script inaccurate and asks for every physical core to be active when it runs. Do not build savings on disabled cores without Broadcom's written agreement.
• Letting Broadcom's figure stand. A core count on a signed order becomes the starting point of the next renewal.

How do you hold a Broadcom renewal close to flat?

The settlements that landed far below the opening quote rested on two pieces of preparation. A core audit corrected the base, and an exit evaluation corrected the rate.

The core audit

This is an RVTools level inventory with socket and core counts verified before Broadcom rounds them. Small hosts are consolidated or scoped out, and retiring clusters move into the ramp discussion. Our guide to cutting the billable core base shows how consolidation compounds over the term.

The exit evaluation

A costed alternative you could carry out, even for one slice of workloads, shifted the final discount by 8 to 15 points against customers who brought nothing to the table. In Windows heavy environments Hyper-V is the obvious candidate, and Windows Server Datacenter customers saved 50 percent or more on what they moved.

Our alternatives comparison guide covers the wider field, and the exit TCO calculator puts a cost on a migration. Mixed outcomes are the norm, with 20 to 40 percent of workloads staying on VMware after evaluation.

The evaluation paid either way, because the quote moved whether or not the workloads did.

What will the Broadcom account team say, and how should you reply?

• "VCF is the standard offer for customers your size." Ask for a quote per cluster, with VCF where you run the stack, vSphere Foundation elsewhere, and the vSAN entitlement shown for each.
• "This price is only valid until quarter end." Your decision date comes from your calendar. Our note on quarter end discount timing shows how to use Broadcom's fiscal calendar without being rushed by it.
• "Your support is ending, so you have no choice." You have three choices and have priced each, including a period unsupported and a partial exit.
• "The core count comes from our records." Send your host by host export and ask for any differences to be reconciled in writing before the quote.
• "This is the best discount available." Escalate with an independent comparison of what similar customers paid, such as our VCF discount band benchmarks.

What have we seen across Broadcom VMware renewals since 2024?

Across roughly 35 to 50 Broadcom VMware renewals and migrations that Fredrik Filipsson advised between 2024 and 2026, the arc was consistent. First quotes came in at 2 to 4 times the prior vSphere run rate. Customers who arrived with a core audit and a documented alternative settled 30 to 55 percent below list.

The finding that matters most concerns the second renewal. Under subscription this negotiation recurs, and each cycle starts from whatever the previous contract protected. Perpetual licensing rarely forced that discipline. Under subscription, a protection you did not sign for costs you again at every renewal.

What should the contract say so the next renewal is not a repeat?

Ask for terms that fix the starting point of the next cycle, and weigh them alongside the price. The discount bands, ramps and renewal caps set at this signature decide where the next negotiation begins. Our guide to contract red lines covers the wording.

• Renewal cap. A maximum increase on the per core price at the next renewal, so the next cycle does not restart from list. The uplift cap benchmark shows what others have secured.
• Price hold on growth cores. Cores added during the term priced at the signed net rate.
• A ramp matched to real plans. Core counts that step down as clusters retire, or up as new ones arrive.
• Portability. The right to use subscribed cores on replacement hardware and in other data centers without a new order.
• Tier flexibility. The right to move cores between VCF and vSphere Foundation at each anniversary. Broadcom may decline, but asking establishes whether your tier choice is locked for the whole term.
• The agreed core count. The host by host count behind the price, attached to the order.

What to do next

1. Audit the cores before the quote. Count sockets, apply the minimums, find the phantom cores and list consolidation candidates.
2. Scope the bundle per cluster. Put VCF where the full stack runs and vSphere Foundation where it does not, and refuse a single tier for everything.
3. Cost an exit you could carry out. Even a documented alternative for one slice of workloads changes the final price, whether or not anything migrates.
4. Answer support pressure with a calendar. Start 12 months before term end, and do not sign on Broadcom's deadline.
5. Write the next cycle into this contract. Secure renewal caps, growth price holds, ramps and portability now.
6. Bring in help where the numbers are large. The Broadcom VMware practice runs this sequence with you, from the core count to signature.

Frequently asked questions