Licence Cost In Cloud Calculator

Work out licence cost in cloud instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Licence Cost In Cloud Calculator

Per-core licensing is charged on physical cores, which on hyperthreaded instances is half the vCPU count — a distinction worth tens of thousands a year. Per-socket models are cheaper still on large instances but many vendors have abandoned them precisely because core counts grew. Licence cost frequently exceeds the compute cost it runs on.

Formula

Licence units

physical cores = ceil(vCPUs / 2); units = vCPUs, physical cores, or ceil(cores / cores per socket) depending on the model; cost = units x price

Worked example

With the default values below, Licence Cost In Cloud Calculator returns Annual licence cost of $121,600.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

vCPUs to licenseminimum 1: 64
Licence modelone of Per physical core, Per vCPU, Per socket: Per physical core
Licence price per unit per yearminimum 0: 3,800
Cores per socketminimum 1: 32

Results

Annual licence cost: $121,600.00
Licensable units: 32
Monthly licence cost: $10,133.33
Physical cores behind the vCPUs: 32

Step by step

1Values used
2Licence units
3Annual licence cost= 121,600.00
4Licensable units= 32
5Monthly licence cost= 10,133.33
6Physical cores behind the vCPUs= 32

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the cloud provider's licensing count differently?

Sometimes. Some vendors count vCPUs regardless of hyperthreading in public cloud, which effectively doubles the cost. Check the vendor's cloud-specific terms rather than the on-premises ones.

How is licence cost reduced?

Consolidate onto fewer, larger instances where per-socket licensing applies, use licence-included instance pricing where it is cheaper, and migrate to open-source alternatives where feasible.