Contents
Key takeawaysHow ExaCC is pricedWhat BYOL costsThe missing support lineWhat we saw in 2024 and 2025BYOL or license includedControlling options and coresBefore you signWhat to do nextFAQExaCC bills the rack as a fixed subscription and the database cores by the hour, both on your Oracle Cloud invoice. Under BYOL a third cost runs separately: 22 percent support on the licenses you bring, for as long as you hold them.
- Three charges, two invoices. The infrastructure subscription and the database compute come from Oracle Cloud, while BYOL support comes from Oracle Support on its own renewal cycle.
- The rack bills for the full term. Oracle requires a 4 year infrastructure subscription, and scaling cores to zero stops only the compute meter.
- Two OCPUs per processor license. At 100 enabled OCPUs you bring 50 Enterprise Edition licenses carrying $522,500 a year in support, and every option you bring scales the same way.
- Some options come free with BYOL. ExaCC BYOL includes the Diagnostics and Tuning packs, Transparent Data Encryption, Data Masking and Subsetting and Real Application Testing, so check what support you still need.
- BYOL usually wins, on one condition. Buyers holding Enterprise Edition, RAC and Partitioning paid 12 to 22 percent less on BYOL over three years, but only where option entitlements matched actual use.
- Cores need an owner. Enabled cores left running after peaks are the most common waste, and a monthly review by a named owner is the fix.
How is Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer priced?
Exadata Cloud@Customer (ExaCC) runs on three charges. The infrastructure subscription and the database compute arrive on your Oracle Cloud invoice. The third charge, support on the licenses you bring under bring your own license (BYOL), arrives from Oracle Support on a separate renewal and never shows up on the cloud bill.
ExaCC is a cloud subscription with a physical footprint. Oracle owns the rack, installs it in your data center, operates it from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure control plane and takes it away when the term ends. The hardware never reaches your balance sheet, and no database licenses come with it.
| Layer | What it is | How it is charged | Who carries the risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | The Exadata rack, in your room, operated by Oracle | Fixed subscription for the committed term | You, for the whole term. It bills whether used or not |
| Database compute | Enabled cores on the database servers | Metered per core hour (OCPU or ECPU), scaled online | You, every month, through scaling discipline |
| Database license | Enterprise Edition and every option in use | Inside the license included rate, or brought and supported by you | You, permanently, including the audit exposure |
Two terms on Oracle's own pricing pages shape every model. The infrastructure must be subscribed for a 4 year term. On the X11M generation the database compute is sold in ECPUs, with a minimum purchase of 8 ECPUs per database node.
What does Oracle operate, and what stays with your team?
ExaCC is not a managed database service. Oracle runs everything up to the virtual machine cluster boundary. Everything above that line is yours:
- Oracle's side. Hardware, firmware, storage cells, the network fabric, the hypervisor and the control plane, patched in a maintenance window you choose.
- Your side. Databases, schemas, performance, patching decisions, backup configuration, the data itself and option compliance.
If the business case assumes a smaller database administration team, test that assumption against this boundary before you sign. The DBA work that disappears is hardware and firmware work. Most of the effort stays.
Does stopping a VM cluster stop the bill?
No. Oracle's ExaCC documentation states that billing continues when a VM or VM cluster is stopped. Compute billing ends only when you scale the cluster to zero OCPUs (zero ECPUs on X11M). The hypervisor still holds back 2 OCPUs, or 8 ECPUs on X11M, for each VM. Those cores are not billed, but no other VM can use them.
Scaling to zero stops the database compute meter and nothing else. The rack charges for every month of the committed term whether you run a query or not, so an underused rack is the same bill with less work done on it. Size the rack for steady use across the term, and handle peaks with core scaling.
How to Negotiate an Oracle ULA: No Price List, Just Your Business Case
What does bring your own license cost on ExaCC?
BYOL converts at two OCPUs per Oracle Database Enterprise Edition processor license, because the 0.5 core factor is already built into the cloud unit. Every priced option you bring converts at the same ratio. The option stack therefore grows with enabled compute, whatever the workload on those cores actually needs.
The table applies that ratio at 100 enabled OCPUs, using list prices and 22 percent annual support.
| Component | List per processor | Licenses needed | List value to own | Support at 22% a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Database Enterprise Edition | $47,500 | 50 | $2,375,000 | $522,500 |
| Real Application Clusters | $23,000 | 50 | $1,150,000 | $253,000 |
| Multitenant | $17,500 | 50 | $875,000 | $192,500 |
| Partitioning | $11,500 | 50 | $575,000 | $126,500 |
| Subtotal you must bring for these four | $99,500 | 50 of each | $4,975,000 | $1,094,500 |
| Diagnostics and Tuning packs (included with ExaCC BYOL, see below) | $12,500 combined | 50, only if you keep them on support | $625,000 | $137,500 |
| All five lines, list before discount | $112,000 | 50 of each | $5,600,000 | $1,232,000 |
The right hand column is the cost business cases leave out. It attaches to licenses you own, not to the rack you rented, so it outlives the ExaCC term. Stop paying it and you lose the BYOL rate, which makes BYOL a permanent commitment.
Which options come with ExaCC BYOL at no extra cost?
Oracle's ExaCC data sheets list five items a BYOL subscription adds to the Enterprise Edition licenses you bring. Standard Edition licenses cannot be brought to ExaCC at all.
- Transparent Data Encryption, the encryption half of Advanced Security
- Diagnostics Pack and Tuning Pack
- Data Masking and Subsetting Pack
- Real Application Testing
- The Exadata System Software, which on premises Exadata owners license separately
So you do not need Diagnostics and Tuning licenses to use those packs on ExaCC. If the processors you move already carry them on support, that $137,500 a year buys nothing on the new platform.
Check how the packs sit on your orders before you cancel, because cancelling part of an order can trigger Oracle's support repricing rules. Our guide to Oracle support costs in 2026 explains how repricing works.
Do you need to bring Multitenant at all?
Often you do not. Since Oracle Database 19c, each container database can hold up to 3 user created pluggable databases without a Multitenant license. If your design stays within that limit, leave Multitenant off the BYOL list and save $192,500 a year of support at 100 OCPUs.
Exadata licensing strategy brief
Capacity on demand, storage software, consolidation arithmetic and BYOL exit paths, priced against the renewal.
Get the white paper →Why do ExaCC business cases miss the support line?
They miss it because the bill does not come from Oracle Cloud. The support renewal arrives from a different Oracle team, in a different month, against a different budget, and it was already being paid before anyone proposed ExaCC. Not one ExaCC business case we were shown had carried it into the comparison.
At 100 OCPUs, a three year comparison that leaves it out understates the BYOL cost by $1.6m to $3.7m. Our models used three year windows, but Oracle's minimum infrastructure term is now 4 years, so carry the support line across the full term. The example below uses the 100 OCPU table, with no uplift.
| What you bring | Support per year | Over 3 years | Over the 4 year minimum term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Edition only | $522,500 | $1,567,500 | $2,090,000 |
| Enterprise Edition, RAC, Multitenant, Partitioning | $1,094,500 | $3,283,500 | $4,378,000 |
| All five lines, packs still on support | $1,232,000 | about $3.7m | $4,928,000 |
Every figure in that table rises with each annual support uplift, for as long as you hold the licenses. Put the support line in the same model as the infrastructure and compute charges, owned by the same person, before you compare the two license paths.
What have we seen in ExaCC models in 2024 and 2025?
Across roughly 18 to 24 ExaCC and Exadata cost models we built in 2024 and 2025, two things drove the result: the license path and the enabled core count. Rack shape mattered less. The patterns that repeated:
- BYOL came out cheaper in about 2 of 3 models. Buyers already holding Enterprise Edition plus RAC and Partitioning paid 12 to 22 percent less on BYOL across three years, support included.
- Option coverage was a problem in about 2 of 5 contracts. Options were either paid twice or it was unclear whether an entitlement covered them.
- Enabled cores outlived the peaks. Every environment we modeled had cores still enabled weeks after the peak that justified them. Idle enabled cores wasted 10 to 20 percent of the database charge.
- Ownership fixed it. A named owner for scaling cores down, with a monthly review, recovered a median 17 percent of the database charge.
BYOL wins on ExaCC only when the support line is in the model and your option entitlements match what your teams actually switch on.
When does bring your own license beat license included?
BYOL wins when you already own Enterprise Edition and the options your workloads use, and when the workload will stay on the platform for years. License included wins when you would otherwise have to buy licenses, or when the workload has a short life.
Why we push back on "license included is the safer default"
Oracle account teams and many consultants call license included the clean choice, because it bundles every option an Exadata workload might touch. For buyers who already own the core licenses, our benchmarks found BYOL cheaper in most models, even with support counted.
The finding is often quoted without its condition: your option entitlements must match what your teams enable. Run the option inventory first, then choose the path.
When is license included the right answer?
License included makes sense in three situations:
- You hold no spare Enterprise Edition entitlements to move.
- The workload is short lived, such as a migration landing zone or a project that ends inside the term.
- You want the option compliance question to disappear. License included covers Enterprise Edition plus all its options and Enterprise Manager packs.
License included is a rental priced like a rental, which is fair until a workload you thought was temporary turns out to be permanent. The exit positions also differ more than the rates do. Under BYOL you still hold perpetual licenses when the term ends. Under license included you hold nothing.
Can you mix both paths on one rack?
Yes. The license type is set per VM cluster and can be changed after provisioning in the console. Long lived production can run on BYOL while a short project that needs extra options runs on license included, on the same rack. Keep a record of which cluster runs on which path, because an auditor will ask.
How do you keep options and cores under control on ExaCC?
You control them with privileges, usage evidence and a named owner. The Exadata service presents the full Enterprise Edition feature set, and anyone with the privilege can enable RAC, Partitioning, Multitenant, Database In-Memory, Advanced Compression or Active Data Guard, options an on premises buyer would purchase separately.
Bring Enterprise Edition alone, let a developer switch on Partitioning because the platform offers it, and you have bought a compliance finding instead of a discount.
How can you check what is actually in use?
- DBA_FEATURE_USAGE_STATISTICS. The view inside each database that records which features have been used and when. Oracle's audit collection scripts read it.
- Oracle's options and packs usage script. The options_packs_usage_statistics.sql script on My Oracle Support (Doc ID 1317265.1) summarizes that view by licensable option.
- The VM cluster page in the OCI console. It shows the license type and the enabled OCPU or ECPU count for each cluster.
- OCI Cost Analysis and usage reports. These show compute charged per day, which is how you spot cores left enabled after a peak.
For the option rules in detail, see our guides to Partitioning usage evidence and Enterprise Edition option pricing.
Which controls make BYOL safe?
- Baseline option usage before migration, and again 30 days after go live. Usage on a new platform drifts fastest in the first month, and teams rarely report it.
- Restrict the privileges that enable priced options. Enabling one should go through a change request with a named approver.
- Match every option in use against a specific entitlement line. A general belief that you are covered does not count. This is exactly where 2 of 5 contracts failed.
- Treat an unexplained increase in enabled cores as an incident. The owner of core scaling reviews enabled cores against demand every month.
- Rerun the option check before every renewal. On a shared platform, one team's decision creates the liability for every database on it.
What does core scaling look like in practice?
Take a hypothetical VM cluster that needs 120 OCPUs for a four day month end close and 60 OCPUs for the rest of a 30 day month. Left at 120 all month, it bills 86,400 OCPU hours. Scaled down after the close, it bills 48,960 OCPU hours, about 43 percent less, and scaling happens online.
Why does the OCPU and ECPU difference matter?
Oracle has been moving cloud database services from the OCPU to the smaller ECPU, and the two are not interchangeable. Oracle's Exadata FAQ equates one core with four ECPUs, so a lower rate per ECPU can still cost more per workload.
Read the unit in your ordering document and rebuild the whole model in it. The BYOL conversion ratio for each service sits in Oracle's PaaS and IaaS Universal Credits service descriptions, so confirm it there before you count licenses.
What should you ask Oracle before you sign an ExaCC order?
Ask for the terms that decide the next four years in writing, in the ordering document. The account team will argue for the simplest order to book. These are the lines we hear most, with the reply that works:
- "License included removes all compliance risk." Reply that you want both paths priced at the enabled core count you expect, with your existing support line included, before you decide.
- "Size the rack for peak so you have headroom." Reply that peaks are handled by core scaling, and the rack is a fixed charge for the full term, so it should match expected steady use.
- "ECPU pricing is lower than OCPU." Ask for both quotes restated for the same workload, and for the BYOL conversion ratio in that unit.
- "Your BYOL rate needs current support." This one is true. Use it to review which of your support lines the new platform actually needs.
Which contract terms should you request?
- The compute unit and BYOL ratio, named. It fixes the license count your support line depends on.
- A price hold on the database compute rate for the full term. Metered rates can move, and your scaling savings disappear if the rate rises.
- The right to change license type per VM cluster. It keeps the mixed approach open if a project needs options you do not own.
- Renewal pricing for the infrastructure at term end. Without it, the renewal quote arrives when moving off the rack is hardest.
- A written list of options included with BYOL. It settles later disputes about the Diagnostics and Tuning packs and Transparent Data Encryption.
For rack sizing, see the Exadata guide for 2026. For the wider comparison of the two license paths on OCI and ExaCC, see BYOL versus license included, and the full library sits in the Oracle practice hub.
What to do next
- Add the support line to the business case. Carry 22 percent of the list value of every license you plan to bring, for the full comparison period and at least the 4 year term.
- Inventory option usage before you choose a path. Match each option against a specific entitlement line, and note which ones ExaCC BYOL already includes.
- Model both paths at realistic enabled core counts. Include scaling down, instead of pricing everything at the peak the rack was sized for.
- Confirm the unit in the ordering document. Check whether it names OCPUs or ECPUs, and rebuild every figure in that unit before comparing rates.
- Review support on the licenses you move. Identify packs the new platform includes, and check the repricing effect before cancelling anything.
- Name an owner for scaling cores down before go live. Set a monthly review from the first month. Our Oracle practice builds both models with you.
Want a second opinion on your Oracle position? Our Oracle licensing consultants are former Oracle insiders who now work only for buyers.
Frequently asked questions
Do Oracle Database licenses come with Exadata Cloud@Customer?
No. The infrastructure subscription contains no database licenses, which is the budget surprise on most ExaCC deals. You either rent the licenses inside the hourly compute rate under license included, or bring Enterprise Edition licenses you already own and keep paying Oracle Support on them.
What does bring your own license cost each year on ExaCC?
At 100 enabled OCPUs you need 50 Enterprise Edition processor licenses, about $2.375m at list, and $522,500 a year in support at 22 percent. Add RAC, Multitenant and Partitioning and yearly support reaches $1,094,500. If the Diagnostics and Tuning packs stay on support too, it reaches $1.23m.
Why is the BYOL support line so often missed?
It sits outside the cloud project. The renewal is handled by the support team, often in another department's budget, and it predates the ExaCC proposal, so the people building the cloud case never see it. Ask finance for the support renewal schedule of every license you plan to move.
What is the BYOL conversion ratio on ExaCC?
One Enterprise Edition processor license covers two OCPUs, since an OCPU is one physical core and the 0.5 core factor is already applied. Options follow the same ratio. On ECPU based X11M systems, confirm the ratio in Oracle's Universal Credits service descriptions before counting licenses.
Does scaling cores to zero stop the ExaCC bill?
Only the database compute part. The infrastructure subscription charges every month of the term regardless of use. Also note that stopping a VM from the console does not stop compute billing; you must set the enabled OCPU or ECPU count to zero.
What is the options trap on Exadata?
Every Enterprise Edition option is technically available on the platform, whether or not you own it. With the Diagnostics and Tuning packs now included in BYOL, the exposure sits mainly in Partitioning, Database In-Memory, Advanced Compression, Active Data Guard, RAC and Multitenant beyond 3 pluggable databases per container.
When is license included the right choice on ExaCC?
When you own no spare Enterprise Edition licenses, when the workload will end before or with the term, or when you prefer to pay a higher rate to have every option covered. Because license type is set per VM cluster, you can use it for one project and keep BYOL elsewhere.
Is ExaCC a managed database service?
No. Oracle manages the hardware, storage cells, network, hypervisor and control plane. Your team still owns the databases, schemas, tuning, patching decisions, backups and option compliance, so budget for DBA effort close to what you have today.
What is the difference between OCPU and ECPU on ExaCC?
An OCPU is one physical core. An ECPU is a smaller abstract unit, and Oracle equates four ECPUs with one core. Newer X11M systems bill in ECPUs with a minimum of 8 per VM, so compare quotes per workload and rebuild your model in the unit the ordering document uses.
How much does scaling discipline recover on ExaCC?
In our models idle enabled cores wasted 10 to 20 percent of the database charge, and putting one person in charge of scaling down with a monthly review recovered a median 17 percent. It costs almost nothing because scaling is done online.