How to Get a Free Forever VPS on Oracle Cloud (Complete Guide)

TL;DR: Oracle's Always Free tier gives you a powerful ARM server with 4 OCPUs + 24 GB RAM, 47 GB disk, and 10 TB/month bandwidth — completely free, forever. This guide walks you through every step including common errors and fixes.

Difficulty: Beginner
Time Required: 15–30 minutes (plus waiting time for capacity)
OS: Works from Windows, Mac, or Linux

1. What You Get for Free

Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier is the most generous free cloud offering available. Unlike AWS or GCP free tiers that expire after 12 months, Oracle's Always Free resources never expire.

Resource	Always Free Limit
VM.Standard.A1.Flex (ARM)	4 OCPUs + 24 GB RAM total
VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro (AMD)	2 instances
Boot Volume	47 GB per instance
Block Volumes	200 GB total
Outbound Bandwidth	10 TB/month
Public IPs	2 ephemeral IPs
Object Storage	20 GB
Autonomous Database	2 instances

⚠️ Warning: These resources are free forever only if you stay on Always Free. Never click the "Upgrade" button shown in the orange banner at the top of the console.

2. Create an Oracle Cloud Account

Go to cloud.oracle.com and click Start for free
Enter your email, name, and choose a Home Region (cannot be changed later)
Verify your phone number
Add a credit/debit card for identity verification

💡 Tip on credit card: Oracle keeps your card on file for verification but will not charge you for Always Free resources. If you're worried, use a virtual/prepaid card with ₹0 balance — any charge attempt will simply fail.

Choosing Your Home Region

Pick the region closest to your users:

India South (Hyderabad) — ap-hyderabad-1
India West (Mumbai) — ap-mumbai-1

⚠️ Your Home Region cannot be changed after account creation. Choose carefully.

3. Navigate to Compute Instances

Log in to cloud.oracle.com
Click the ☰ hamburger menu (top left)
Go to Compute → Instances
Click Create Instance

You'll see a multi-step wizard with these sections:

Basic Information
Security
Networking
Storage
Review

4. Configure Image and Shape

This is the most critical step. Use exactly these settings:

Image

Click Change image
Select Canonical Ubuntu
Version: 24.04
For A1.Flex shape: choose aarch64 (ARM) image
Click Select image

Shape

Click Change shape
Select the Ampere tab
Choose VM.Standard.A1.Flex
Set OCPUs: 4
Set Memory: 24 GB
Click Select shape

Setting	Free Value	Paid (avoid)
Shape	VM.Standard.A1.Flex	VM.Standard.E4.Flex
Architecture	ARM (aarch64)	x86_64
OCPUs	4	any
RAM	24 GB	any

⚠️ Do NOT use E3.Flex, E4.Flex, or E5.Flex — those are paid AMD shapes and will charge your credit card.

5. Security Settings

On the Security step:

Shielded instance → Leave OFF
Confidential computing → Leave OFF (not supported on A1.Flex ARM shape)

💡 The A1.Flex ARM shape does not support Confidential Computing — that feature requires AMD EPYC processors (E3/E4/E5 shapes). If you see "incompatible settings" warning, it's because you previously had an AMD shape selected.

Click Next.

6. Set up Networking

Primary Network

Select "Create new virtual cloud network"
VCN name: auto-generated (e.g. vcn-20260615-1913) — keep it

Subnet

Select "Create new public subnet"
Subnet name: auto-generated — keep it
CIDR block: 10.0.0.0/24 — keep default

Public IP

Scroll down to Public IPv4 address assignment
Toggle "Automatically assign public IPv4 address" → ON

⚠️ Known bug: The Public IPv4 toggle may be greyed out even after selecting a public subnet. If this happens, skip it and assign the IP after creation (see Step 10).

IPv6

Leave OFF (not needed for basic use)

7. Download SSH Keys

Still on the Networking page, scroll down to Add SSH Keys:

Select "Generate a key pair for me"
Click "Download private key" → save as e.g. oracle-key.key
Click "Download public key" → save as backup

⚠️ Critical: Download your private key NOW. Oracle shows it only once. Without it, you cannot SSH into your server — you'll have to recreate the instance.

Save to a memorable location:

Windows: C:\Users\YourName\Desktop\oracle-key.key
Mac/Linux: ~/Downloads/oracle-key.key

Click Next.

8. Storage Settings

On the Storage step — change nothing:

Specify custom boot volume size → OFF (default 47 GB is free)
Use in-transit encryption → leave as-is
Block volumes → leave empty

⚠️ Do not increase boot volume size beyond 47 GB or add block volumes beyond 200 GB total across all instances — those cost money.

Click Next, then scroll down and click Create.

9. Handle "Out of Capacity" Error

After clicking Create, you may see:

API Error: Out of capacity for shape VM.Standard.A1.Flex
in availability domain AD-1. Create the instance in a
different availability domain or try again later.

This is extremely common in India regions — free ARM servers are always in high demand. Here's how to deal with it:

Option 1 — Keep Retrying Manually

Click Create every 10–15 minutes. Capacity opens randomly as other users stop their instances.

Option 2 — Use an Automation Script (Recommended)

The YouTube video youtu.be/TAZfDdQha3U (at 12:41) demonstrates a script that automatically retries the OCI API. Run it overnight — most people get capacity within 24–48 hours.

Option 3 — Try Different Availability Domains

Go back to Basic Information → change Availability Domain from AD-1 to AD-2 or AD-3.

Option 4 — Try a Different Region

Switch to Mumbai (ap-mumbai-1) — it may have more free capacity than Hyderabad.

💡 Best time to try: Capacity tends to open up at odd hours — try 2–5 AM IST for best results.

⚠️ Do NOT switch to E4.Flex as an alternative — that will cost money. Stick with A1.Flex and keep retrying.

10. Assign a Public IP Address

If your instance was created without a public IP (shows - in the Details tab):

Go to Compute → Instances → click your instance
Click the Networking tab
Under Attached VNICs → click the VNIC name (blue link)
Click the IP Administration tab
Click the ⋮ three dots → Edit
Under Public IP type → select "Ephemeral public IP"
Leave the name field blank → click Update

You'll now see a public IP like 140.245.xxx.xxx — copy it.

11. SSH into Your Server

Windows (PowerShell)

# Step 1: Fix key file permissions (required on Windows)
icacls "C:\Users\YourName\Desktop\oracle-key.key" /inheritance:r /grant:r "%USERNAME%:R"

# Step 2: Connect
ssh -i "C:\Users\YourName\Desktop\oracle-key.key" ubuntu@YOUR_PUBLIC_IP

Mac / Linux (Terminal)

# Step 1: Fix key permissions
chmod 600 ~/Downloads/oracle-key.key

# Step 2: Connect
ssh -i ~/Downloads/oracle-key.key ubuntu@YOUR_PUBLIC_IP

When prompted:

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

You should see the Ubuntu welcome screen — you're in! ✅

Troubleshooting SSH

Error	Fix
`Permission denied (publickey)`	Run the `icacls` or `chmod 600` command first
`Connection timed out`	Public IP not assigned — see Step 10
`Connection refused`	Port 22 not open in OCI security list

12. First Server Setup

Run these commands right after your first login:

Update System Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Add Swap Space (Prevents Crashes)

Your server has no swap by default. If RAM fills up, it will crash instead of using disk. Fix this:

sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Verify:

free -h
# Should now show 2GB swap

Install Antigravity CLI (Optional — AI in Terminal)

curl -fsSL https://antigravity.google/cli/install.sh | bash
echo 'export PATH="/home/ubuntu/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc
agy

💡 Antigravity CLI detects SSH sessions and shows an authorization URL — open it in your browser to sign in with Google.

13. Open Ports (Fix Connection Refused)

When you deploy an app (Django, Docker, Node.js etc.) on a port like 8000, 3000, or 80, it won't be accessible from the internet even if the app is running. This is because OCI has two layers of firewall:

Layer 1 — OS Firewall (iptables)

Open the port on the server itself:

# Open port 8000 (replace with your port)
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 8000 -j ACCEPT

# Save rules so they persist after reboot
sudo apt install netfilter-persistent -y
sudo netfilter-persistent save

Layer 2 — OCI Cloud Firewall (Security List)

Even after opening the OS firewall, OCI's cloud-level firewall also blocks the port. You must add an Ingress Rule in the console:

Go to Networking → Virtual Cloud Networks
Click your VCN (e.g. vcn-20260615-1006)
Scroll down → click subnet link → scroll down → click Default Security List
Click Add Ingress Rules
Fill in:

Field	Value
Source Type	CIDR
Source CIDR	`0.0.0.0/0`
IP Protocol	TCP
Source Port Range	(leave blank)
Destination Port Range	`8000`
Description	Allow port 8000

Click Add Ingress Rules ✅

💡 Repeat for any other ports you need (80 for HTTP, 443 for HTTPS, 3000 for Node.js, etc.)

Common Ports to Open

Service	Port
HTTP	80
HTTPS	443
Django dev server	8000
Node.js	3000
PostgreSQL	5432
Custom Docker app	your port

After adding the ingress rule, wait 10–15 seconds then try accessing:

http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8000

14. What to Run on Your Free VPS

With 4 OCPUs and 24 GB RAM (on A1.Flex), you can run serious workloads:

🤖 Telegram Bot

sudo apt install python3-pip python3-venv -y
mkdir ~/telegram-bot && cd ~/telegram-bot
python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install python-telegram-bot

RAM usage: ~30–50 MB. Runs 24/7 easily.

🌐 Django Website

Handles 50,000+ daily visits on A1.Flex with Nginx + Gunicorn.

pip install django gunicorn
# Then set up Nginx as reverse proxy on port 80

🔒 WireGuard VPN

sudo apt install wireguard -y

Your own private VPN server — free forever.

🐳 Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu

Run any containerized app 24/7.

🤖 Antigravity CLI

curl -fsSL https://antigravity.google/cli/install.sh | bash

Google's AI agent directly in your terminal.

Summary: Always Free Limits Cheat Sheet

✅ Free Forever	❌ Will Cost Money
VM.Standard.A1.Flex (4 OCPU / 24 GB)	VM.Standard.E4.Flex
VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro × 2	Any E3/E4/E5 flexible shapes
47 GB boot volume (default)	Boot volume > 47 GB
200 GB block storage total	Block storage > 200 GB
10 TB outbound bandwidth	Bandwidth > 10 TB
2 ephemeral public IPs	Reserved public IPs
Clicking "Create" repeatedly	Clicking "Upgrade"

Final Tips

Set a budget alert at ₹1 in Billing → Budgets to get notified if anything is ever charged
Never click "Upgrade" in the orange Free Tier banner
Keep retrying for A1.Flex if you get capacity errors — it always comes through within 24–48 hours
Both firewall layers must be open (iptables + OCI Security List) for ports to work
Download your SSH key immediately — it cannot be retrieved later

Written based on hands-on experience setting up Oracle Always Free VPS in June 2026.
Oracle Always Free resources never expire — not even after your 30-day trial ends.

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