Every free cloud iaas tier that clears our bar in 2026: 5 offers meet the criteria and 7 offers are demoted with a named reason. Recorded changes and a published ranking method. We could not confirm today's terms for 3 of them, and on all 3 the page we cite did not answer. Each row says why.

Best Free Cloud IaaS Tools

Every free cloud iaas tier that clears our bar today. Updated 2026-11-14.

5 offers meet our criteria for this category. Of those, 3 carry no recorded change to the terms we publish, and 2 a recorded narrowing. The Durability column below says which offer is in which group, and links the dated record behind every change. We do not rank these by how much you get, because the limits are not comparable without reading each vendor's page. They are listed in an order that rotates daily. Here is how that order is derived. There is no top slot here to sell.

Why trust this data? Every free tier is verified against the vendor's pricing page with dates tracked. We monitor 513 pricing changes and flag vendors that have reduced or removed free tiers. Rankings start every offer at zero and can only demote. There is no signal a vendor can acquire, lobby for, or buy — there is nothing to add. A record reaches a function page when its category names the function or when it carries a subtype label that names the function. Adding a label to a record publishes it here; removing one withdraws it. No page holds a list of vendors. See all 15 cloud iaas offers →

Azure stable

Free Tier

65+ always-free services: Functions (1 million requests/month, Consumption plan), Container Apps (180,000 vCPU seconds, 360,000 GiB seconds, 2 million requests), SQL Database (10 serverless databases, 100,000 vCore seconds and 32 GB each a month), Cosmos DB (1,000 RU/s, 25 GB), App Service (10 apps), Entra ID (50,000 objects), DevOps (5 users). 12 months for new customers: B2pts v2 and B2ats v2 VMs (750 hours each), Database for PostgreSQL and Database for MySQL (750 hours each of a B1MS Flexible Server, 32 GB storage), Blob Storage (5 GB), Disk Storage (2 64 GB P6 SSDs). $200 credit for 30 days, spending limit on by default; move to pay-as-you-go to continue.

Full profile Alternatives azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/purchase-options/azure-account ↗

Floci stable

Open Source

Open-source AWS service emulator — the leading community replacement for LocalStack CE. 20+ AWS services supported with 408/408 SDK tests passing. 90 MB Docker image (vs LocalStack's 1.0 GB), 24ms startup (vs 3.3s). MIT license, no auth token required. v1.0.4 released March 2026. The page we cite for Floci states in words that it is free, which confirms the price — the limits stated here come from our own record rather than from that page.

Full profile Alternatives github.com/hectorvent/floci ↗

AWS stable

Free Tier

Always-free tier includes Lambda (1M invocations/mo), DynamoDB (25 GB), CloudWatch. New accounts get $100 credit at sign-up + up to $100 more via activities, free plan for 6 months

AWS's Free Tier FAQ says most new customers need no payment method to sign up. AWS may ask for one to verify identity. (From aws.amazon.com/free/free-tier-faqs, read 2026-10-23.)
The sign-up without a card is Sign up for AWS (new), launched September 16, 2026, but AWS's docs say it is still being released to a limited number of customers, so a new customer may not be able to use it yet. (From docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/sign-in-new.html, read 2026-10-23.)
Anyone who has or has had an AWS account is not eligible for AWS's Free plan or Free Tier credits. They must give payment information and go on the Paid plan. (From aws.amazon.com/resources/create-account, read 2026-10-23.)
On the paid plan of Sign up for AWS (new), each project can have a monthly spend limit starting at $20. AWS pauses the project when spend reaches it. Advanced sign-up accounts have no spend limits. (From aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-reimagines-the-getting-started-experience, read 2026-10-23.)

Recorded, but does not affect rank:

effective 2026-01-03 — pricing restructured: EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML GPU prices increased ~15% across regions. p5e.48xlarge went from $34.61 to $39.80/hr (US East) and $43.26 to $49.75/hr (US West N. California) Source ↗

Full profile Alternatives aws.amazon.com/free/ ↗

Oracle Cloud caution 2026-06-12 reduced

Always Free

Always Free includes 2 AMD VMs (1/8 OCPU, 1 GB each), Arm Ampere A1 at 2 OCPUs and 12 GB total across 1-2 VMs, 200 GB block volumes, 20 GB object storage, 2 Autonomous Databases, Load Balancer Note — 2026-06-12: Oracle halved the Always Free Ampere A1 allowance. Oracle's Always Free documentation changed between 2026-06-05 and 2026-06-12, and Oracle announced the new allocation on 2026-07-21. The AMD micro VMs, storage and databases did not change. Source ↗

Oracle may reclaim Always Free compute instances if CPU utilization is less than 20% for 95% of the time, network utilization is less than 20%, and memory utilization is less than 20% (A1 shapes only) during a 7-day period. (From docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm, read 2026-10-10.)
An account left idle for 30 days or more may be deemed abandoned and become eligible for suspension or termination. (From oracle.com/cloud/free, read 2026-10-10.)
Oracle accepts credit cards and debit cards that function like credit cards, but not debit cards with a PIN, virtual, single-use, or prepaid cards. The card check places a temporary authorization hold that is not a charge. (From oracle.com/cloud/free, read 2026-10-10.)
The $300 trial ends after 30 days or when the credit is used up. An account that does nothing keeps its Always Free services. (From oracle.com/cloud/free, read 2026-10-10.)
Always Free compute instances must be created in the tenancy's home region. (From docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm, read 2026-10-29.)
An "out of host capacity" error means a temporary lack of Always Free shapes in the home region. Try another availability domain, or wait and try again. Upgrading to Pay as You Go gives access to more compute types. Oracle does not charge for Always Free resources after the upgrade, only for usage above the Always Free limits. (From docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm, read 2026-10-29.)
Always Free includes one standalone MySQL HeatWave DB system with a single-node HeatWave cluster in the home region. It has 50 GB of storage for data and logs and another 50 GB for backups. (From docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm, read 2026-10-29.)
One Oracle Cloud Free Tier account is permitted per person. Creating multiple free accounts is prohibited. (From oracle.com/cloud/free/faq, read 2026-10-29.)
Oracle Cloud Free Tier does not include SLAs. Customers using only Always Free resources are not eligible for Oracle Support. Community support is available through Oracle's forums. (From oracle.com/cloud/free/faq, read 2026-10-29.)

Recorded, but does not affect rank:

effective 2026-06-12 — limits reduced: Oracle halved the Always Free Ampere A1 allowance. Oracle's Always Free documentation changed between 2026-06-05 and 2026-06-12, and Oracle announced the new allocation on 2026-07-21. The AMD micro VMs, storage and databases did not change. Source ↗

Full profile Alternatives www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ ↗

Google Compute Engine stable

Always Free

Always Free: 1 non-preemptible e2-micro VM (us-west1, us-central1, or us-east1), 30 GB standard persistent disk, 1 GB of outbound data transfer a month from North America to all destinations except China and Australia. GPUs/TPUs excluded.

Google Cloud's Free Tier requires a billing account. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-10-07.)
A new Google Cloud user gets the billing account by signing up for the Free Trial, which requires a credit card or other payment method. Google uses it to verify identity and reduce fraud. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-10-23.)
Usage beyond the Free Tier's monthly limits is billed at standard rates. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-10-07.)
The e2-micro instance limit is by time, not by instance: all e2-micro instances together are free for the number of hours in the month. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-10-04.)
An external IPv4 address in use on a VM, including the free e2-micro, costs $0.005 an hour. The free tier covers one hour a month. A VM running all month pays about $3.65 for it. External IPv6 addresses are free. (From cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing, read 2026-10-11.)
The free tier covers 30 GB-months of standard persistent disk. A disk created in the Google Cloud console defaults to balanced persistent disk, which the free tier does not cover. Choose Standard persistent disk, or create the VM with the gcloud CLI, which defaults to standard. (From docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/persistent-disks, read 2026-10-11.)
If you do not upgrade to a Paid billing account by the end of the 90-day trial or after spending the $300 credit, your Free Trial billing account closes and all its resources stop, including a free e2-micro VM. They are permanently deleted after a 30-day grace period without an upgrade. After upgrading, the Free Tier still applies. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-11-02.)
The Free Tier has no end date. Google may change or eliminate its usage limits with 30 days' advance notice. (From docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features, read 2026-11-02.)

Full profile Alternatives docs.cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features ↗

Demoted — and exactly why

These offers reach this page too and rank below the list above. Each one names the recorded fact behind it. A recorded limit reduction, pricing restructure or new restriction is shown on every surface where the offer appears, with its date and summary — but it does not move rank. We have change records for only 16% of vendors, and disproportionately for well-known ones, so ranking on them would demote the vendors we happen to watch most closely.

−1

Vultr

Free

Free Tier Program: a free cloud instance (1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB SSD, IPv4 address) in Miami, Seattle or Frankfurt, for applicants Vultr admits. Vultr calls it early access in limited quantities and admits eligible applicants at random, weighted by a score built from what they say about themselves and their intended use. New customers can also claim promotional credit, up to $300, with codes on Vultr's coupons page; it applies to select products only, cannot be combined with other offers, and expires. Paid Cloud Compute starts at $2.50/mo for 1 vCPU, 512 MB and 10 GB SSD on IPv6 only (New Jersey and Atlanta), $3.50/mo for the same plan without the IPv6-only restriction (New Jersey), and $5/mo for 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM and 25 GB SSD. Billed hourly. We could not read the page we cite for this offer when we last looked, on 2026-11-01, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

Admission to the free instance is not guaranteed: Vultr grants it at random to eligible applicants in limited quantities, weighted by a score, and does not explain why an account was not admitted. (From vultr.com/free-tier-program, read 2026-10-06.)
Coupon credit is for new customers only, applies to select products only, and cannot be combined with any other offer. (From vultr.com/coupons, read 2026-10-06.)
A card or PayPal account must be linked to sign up and to be eligible for any promotion, Vultr allows one promotion per user, and promotional credit expires; the pages for the $200, $250 and $300 codes state no expiry period. (From vultr.com/faq, read 2026-10-06.)
A stopped instance is still billed, because its CPU, RAM, storage and IP addresses stay reserved; only destroying it ends billing. (From docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/are-stopped-instances-still-billed-on-vultr, read 2026-10-07.)

−1 stale_verification We cannot confirm this offer: 1 consecutive re-check attempt has failed (most recently 2026-11-01 — HTTP 403), never confirmed since it was indexed. This is our inability to verify, not a change by the vendor. (a limit of ours, not a change by the vendor)

Full profile Alternatives Compare Compare www.vultr.com/free-tier-program/ ↗

−1

CloudDev

Open Source

Open-source LocalStack alternative for running AWS services locally. Supports S3, DynamoDB, Lambda, SQS, and API Gateway in one command. Written in Go. Very early stage (launched March 2026, 8 GitHub stars). Single binary, no Docker required. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-10, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

−1 stale_verification Our last read of the vendor's pricing page, on 2026-10-10, could read no amount, tier or rate on the page. This is our confidence in the record, not a change by the vendor. (a limit of ours, not a change by the vendor)

Full profile Alternatives Compare Compare github.com/Jeffrin-dev/CloudDev ↗

−1

Vera AWS

Open Source

Open-source local AWS emulator. v0.1 supports 89 resource types including VPCs, EC2 instances, security groups, and EBS volumes — EC2 emulation is unique among LocalStack alternatives. Includes awscli drop-in wrapper and terlocal terraform wrapper. No AWS account or Docker required. Runs entirely on your machine. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-10, so we cannot confirm these terms today.

−1 stale_verification Our last read of the vendor's pricing page, on 2026-10-10, could read no amount, tier or rate on the page. This is our confidence in the record, not a change by the vendor. (a limit of ours, not a change by the vendor)

Full profile Alternatives github.com/project-vera/vera-aws ↗

−2

Amazon Lightsail stable

Credits

Virtual private servers billed by the hour, up to a fixed monthly price per bundle. No free trial for new customers: AWS replaced Lightsail's free trials (up to 90 days on select bundles) with the AWS Free Tier, whose credits ($100 at sign-up and up to $100 more) pay for Lightsail like any other service. Linux bundles with a public IPv4 address start at $5/mo for 2 vCPUs, 0.5 GB RAM, 20 GB SSD and 1 TB transfer, then $7/mo (1 GB RAM, 40 GB SSD, 2 TB) and $12/mo (2 GB RAM, 60 GB SSD, 3 TB). IPv6-only Linux bundles start at $3.50/mo (512 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 1 TB), and Windows bundles at $9.50/mo. Inbound and outbound transfer both count toward a bundle's allowance; outbound transfer beyond it costs from $0.09/GB, and bundles in Mumbai, Sydney, Jakarta, Malaysia, Hong Kong and São Paulo get half the allowance.

Lightsail's own free trials are closed to new customers. A trial started before AWS removed them runs to the end of its period, and the resources then bill monthly. (From docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html, read 2026-10-06.)
An instance or managed database is charged until it is deleted, including while it is stopped. (From docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html, read 2026-10-06.)
A static IP is free only while attached to an instance: AWS charges $0.005 an hour for one left unattached for more than an hour, and an IPv6-only instance cannot take one. (From docs.aws.amazon.com/lightsail/latest/userguide/amazon-lightsail-frequently-asked-questions-faq-billing-and-account-management.html, read 2026-10-06.)

−2 time_limited_offer Tier "Credits" is a credit grant that runs out, not an ongoing free tier.

Full profile Alternatives aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/ ↗

−2

Akamai Cloud stable

Credits

Akamai Cloud, formerly Linode: a new user who signs up through a referral link gets a $100, 60-day credit, applied once a valid payment method is on the account. Shared CPU plans start with the Nanode 1 GB at $5/mo in most regions (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 25 GB of storage, 1 TB transfer); the next plan, 2 GB RAM, is $12/mo.

The $100 is a 60-day credit, applied only after a valid payment method is added to the new account. (From techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/referral-program, read 2026-10-06.)
Every service on the account is billed even while powered off or unused; only removing it stops the charges. (From techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/understanding-how-billing-works, read 2026-10-07.)

−2 time_limited_offer Tier "Credits" is a credit grant that runs out, not an ongoing free tier.

Full profile Alternatives Compare Compare techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/referral-program ↗

−2

DigitalOcean stable

Credits

New accounts get a $5 signup credit, applied automatically to the first team and expiring 90 days after signup; a payment method is required before creating resources. Basic Droplets from $4/mo (1 vCPU, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB SSD). Per-second billing (min 60s or $0.01). App Platform: 3 free static sites (1 GiB outbound/mo each). Functions: 90,000 GiB-seconds/mo free. Spaces: 250 GB + 1 TB transfer for $5/mo. Managed databases start at $15/mo (not free). No perpetual free compute tier

A powered-off Droplet is still billed, because its resources stay reserved; only destroying it ends billing. (From docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/details/pricing, read 2026-10-07.)

−2 time_limited_offer Tier "Credits" is a credit grant that runs out, not an ongoing free tier.

Recorded, but does not affect rank:

effective 2026-05-13 — restriction: As of 2026-05-13, DigitalOcean's startup credits exclude Dedicated and Serverless Inference, third-party AI models, Paperspace Machines, Cloudways and Bare Metal GPUs as well as GPU Droplets and H100 GPU products, the two exclusions its page stated before. The page also now puts the monthly credit limit at $10,000; its April capture mentioned a monthly limit without an amount. Source ↗
effective 2026-04-07 — limits reduced: DigitalOcean's new-account credit fell from $200 for 60 days to $5 for 90 days. Its pricing page changed between the Internet Archive's 2026-04-05 and 2026-04-07 captures. The $200 offer page (try.digitalocean.com/freetrialoffer/) was still up on 2026-05-15 and now redirects to the homepage. Source ↗

Full profile Alternatives Compare Compare www.digitalocean.com/pricing ↗

−2

OVHcloud stable

Credits

Public Cloud free trial: a €200 credit (US$200 on its international site) for a first Public Cloud project, valid for one month after activation; a payment method is required. VPS from €4.49/month ex-VAT without commitment (VPS-1 2027: 2 vCores, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe; €3.81 on 12 months). This is the range OVHcloud sells now. Discovery instances (d2-2) from ~€5/mo. Object Storage (S3-compatible). Managed Kubernetes (free control plane). 40+ regions across Europe, NA, APAC. From April 2026, OVHcloud raised VPS 2026 list prices 36-49% (VPS-1 €4.49 to €6.49). The VPS 2027 range launched after that rise. Public Cloud, Private Cloud and Bare Metal prices rose 9-11% on average for new deployments.

−2 time_limited_offer Tier "Credits" is a credit grant that runs out, not an ongoing free tier.

Recorded, but does not affect rank:

effective 2026-10-01 — pricing restructured: From 2026-10-01, OVHcloud bills the local storage and public IPv4 address of its Gen3 Public Cloud instances (B3, C3 and R3) as separate lines: local storage at €0.0001458 per GB an hour (about €109 per TB a month) and an IPv4 address at €0.0027 an hour (about €1.97 a month). Instance hourly prices do not change, so total bills rise 1.4% to 21.9% depending on size, most for small instances. Block, Object and File Storage prices do not change. Source ↗
effective 2026-04-01 — pricing restructured: OVHcloud raised prices on its VPS 2026 range from 2026-04-01. Its announcement of 2026-03-05 lists euro list prices up 36-49%, with VPS-1 from €4.49 to €6.49 a month and VPS-4 from €24.99 to €36.99; existing services moved at the end of their current term. New orders had moved already: the US page's 12-month price for VPS-1 went from $4.20 to $6.46 between captures of 2026-02-23 and 2026-03-04. Source ↗
effective 2026-04-01 — pricing restructured: OVHcloud Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Bare Metal prices increased 9-11% for deployments made 2026-2028. Pre-2025 deployments see smaller 2-6% increase depending on equipment age. IPv4 pricing also increased. Driven by same DRAM/NVMe cost surge as VPS increases. Source ↗

Full profile Alternatives Compare Compare www.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/ ↗

Not on our ranked list

3 of the 15 offers matching this query are not on our ranked list — 1 requires an application or qualification, 2 have ended. Here is how that order is derived.

Recompute today's order yourself. The order above is a permutation seeded only on the UTC date and the query key — no vendor name, slug, id or offer field is an input. The algorithm is published, so anyone can reproduce this page's order without asking us.

date: 2026-11-14
query_key: best-of:Cloud IaaS
seed: 6b6d087b51566a94de50e07f9236b36a4b8d5a7e5dac58ea6fe66b3c3939267b
tie_count: 5

Quick Comparison

Vendor	Free Tier	Key Limits	Durability	Read / catalogue date
Azure	Free Tier	65+ always-free services: Functions (1 million requests/month, Consumption plan), Container Apps (180,000 vCPU seconds, ...	stable	2026-10-28
Floci	Open Source	Open-source AWS service emulator — the leading community replacement for LocalStack CE. 20+ AWS services supported with ... not confirmed · page states a free price · 2026-10-31	stable	2026-10-31
AWS	Free Tier	Always-free tier includes Lambda (1M invocations/mo), DynamoDB (25 GB), CloudWatch. New accounts get $100 credit at sign...	watch effective 2026-10-07	2026-11-05 / 2026-08-22
Oracle Cloud	Always Free	Always Free includes 2 AMD VMs (1/8 OCPU, 1 GB each), Arm Ampere A1 at 2 OCPUs and 12 GB total across 1-2 VMs, 200 GB bl...	watch effective 2026-06-12	2026-10-24
Google Compute Engine	Always Free	Always Free: 1 non-preemptible e2-micro VM (us-west1, us-central1, or us-east1), 30 GB standard persistent disk, 1 GB of...	stable	2026-11-02

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free cloud iaas tool in 2026?

We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 5 free cloud iaas offers that clear our bar, each listed with the terms we publish and the date we last read them. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.

Which of these free cloud iaas tiers have held their terms?

5 offers meet our criteria for this category. Of those, 3 carry no recorded change to the terms we publish, and 2 a recorded narrowing. The Durability column below says which offer is in which group, and links the dated record behind every change. We do not rank these by how much you get, because the limits are not comparable without reading each vendor's page.

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