VPS Free Ubuntu
Oracle and Google offer ongoing compute allowances. Azure for Students and AWS offer conditional, limited credit. Your card, region, architecture and public IP needs determine which route can fit.
On this page
Start with the condition you cannot change
Open the route that describes your project, then check the other requirements too. A candidate is an option to verify, not an approved account or a reserved server.
I need an ongoing allowance, not just trial credit
Start with Oracle AMD micro or Ampere A1, or Google e2-micro in the eligible US regions. Check resources and architecture, then the full configuration cost. Oracle requires eligible home-region capacity; Google public IPv4 is chargeable. None guarantees a permanent VM.
I cannot provide a payment card
For eligible educational use, check Azure for Students. Otherwise, AWS’s new signup experience is a conditional, time-limited candidate: rollout and identity checks may still prevent a no-card signup. See eligibility and deadlines. We have not verified an ongoing no-card public VM for an unrestricted general audience.
I am a student working on an educational project
Check Azure for Students: no card, academic verification, $100 for 12 months. Student status alone does not permit every use; confirm the project fits the programme. Region, compatible Ubuntu VM and available quota remain account checks. For an unrelated commercial service, this is not the matching route.
The server must be in Europe
Google’s ongoing e2-micro allowance is excluded: its eligible regions are in the US. Oracle is a candidate only with an eligible European home region and capacity. Trial or student resources require their own region check. An unknown or assigned signup region is not confirmed compliance with your location requirement.
My application requires x86 / amd64
Exclude Oracle Ampere A1: it is Arm. Compare Oracle AMD micro and Google e2-micro if their memory, region and access costs fit. For AWS or Azure credit, verify the exact machine and Ubuntu image in the account. An x86 requirement does not establish that a small shared-CPU instance can run your complete application.
I need public IPv4 with a $0 ongoing budget
Oracle’s documented AMD micro configuration includes public IPv4 and can be a candidate inside the applicable allowances, subject to verification and capacity. Google’s normal in-use IPv4 address charge conflicts with a $0 ongoing budget after credit. Include storage, traffic and independent copies; if any required item is chargeable, this shortlist has not established a $0 configuration.
For a short evaluation, compare Oracle and Google trial credit or the conditional student and AWS routes. If the region, architecture, remaining quota or signup eligibility is unknown, leave that requirement unconfirmed.
Compare the ongoing compute allowances
Programme documentation checked on 13 October 2026. These are published allowances, not accounts provisioned for this comparison. Verify remaining quota, eligible images and availability in your account.
| Option | Compute and architecture | Eligible location | Conditions to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle AMD micro | Up to two VM.Standard.E2.1.Micro VMs; 1 GB RAM each; AMD x86. Fractional shared CPU. | Account home region | Capacity and verification. Public IPv4 is included in the documented micro configuration; storage and network limits still apply. |
| Oracle Ampere A1 | 1,500 OCPU-hours and 9,000 GB-hours monthly: equivalent to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB continuously. Arm. | Account home region | Shared monthly pool across A1 instances; capacity required. Exclude if the application needs x86. |
| Google e2-micro | Non-preemptible VM; hours equivalent to one VM per month. 1 GB RAM; x86, fractional shared CPU. | us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1 | Active billing account; usage combined across eligible regions and the billing account. External IPv4 is a separate charge. |
Google e2-micro exposes two vCPUs but supplies a fractional shared allocation; Oracle AMD micro also supplies a fraction of an OCPU. These are not dedicated-core equivalents or measurements of application capacity.
Select an eligible Ubuntu image matching the machine architecture. For Arm, verify native extensions, container images and commercial software. The provider’s image catalogue and any software licence charge must be checked separately.
Can you get an Ubuntu VPS without a credit card?
There are conditional routes to check. Neither route below establishes a permanent free VM for everyone. Verify the offer shown in your own signup flow before planning a deployment.
| Programme | Who can check it | Credit and deadline | What can prevent a match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure for Students | Eligible full-time students at an accredited degree-granting institution; academic verification required. No credit card required. | $100 credit for 12 months. Annual renewal requires continued eligibility. | For education, teaching, noncommercial research, and related development, testing or demonstrations. Not a general-purpose commercial production offer. Confirm available VM sizes, region and Ubuntu image. |
| AWS Free Plan — new signup experience | New customers who have not previously had an AWS account. The current FAQ says most new customers can sign up without a payment method. | $100 at signup, with up to $100 more earned through qualifying activities. The Free Plan lasts up to six months or until credits run out, whichever comes first. | The new signup experience has a limited rollout. AWS may request a payment method or other verification. Region is assigned from contact information in this flow; confirm it, eligible EC2 resources and the Ubuntu image before deployment. |
No card, no eligible student status, and no qualifying AWS signup route? We have not verified a suitable option in this shortlist. If you need a public VM, revise the requirement or wait for an eligible programme. A local Ubuntu VM can cover learning tasks, but it does not supply public VPS hosting.
Azure credit exhaustion can disable the subscription unless you upgrade; review renewal before the 12-month deadline. AWS Free Plan expiry suspends access unless you move to a paid plan. Export your application and data before either deadline; do not treat a later recovery window as your backup plan.
We checked the programme documentation, not approval in your account. A credit balance does not verify that the selected machine, storage and network configuration will remain inside it.
Keep introductory credit separate from ongoing allowances
| Programme | Credit | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle standard Free Trial | US$300 for eligible services | Up to 30 days or credit exhaustion |
| Google Cloud Free Trial | US$300 for eligible services | Up to 90 days or credit exhaustion |
A VM paid for by credit does not automatically become an eligible ongoing free VM. Oracle can continue eligible Always Free resources; paid trial resources face reclamation unless you upgrade. Google stops resources when a trial ends without an upgrade. Paid billing can charge for usage beyond remaining credits and allowances. Special promotions may have different conditions.
The AWS Free Plan and Azure student offer have their own deadlines and eligibility. Record the expiry shown in your actual account and use the exit checklist before it arrives.
Free compute is not the same as a $0 public server
Google external IPv4: $3.60 for 30 days
720 hours × $0.005 per hour = $3.60
Example: one standard in-use external IPv4 address on an eligible e2-micro VM in us-central1, kept for 30 continuous days. This is the address charge alone, before tax and excluding credits or discounts. Compute eligibility does not remove it; disks, traffic and backups can add to the bill.
| Item | Oracle Always Free | Google Cloud Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Compute and account use | The AMD and A1 allowances are account limits, subject to eligible resources and capacity. | Eligible e2-micro hours are combined across the billing account and the three allowed US regions. |
| Disk and copies | 200 GB combined boot/block storage in the home region and five volume backups. Shared totals, not per-VM allocations. | 30 GB-month of standard persistent disk. A different disk class is not interchangeable; snapshot storage has its own pricing. |
| Public access and traffic | The documented AMD micro configuration includes a public IPv4 address. Check network services and remaining applicable transfer allowances separately. | Standard in-use external IPv4 is chargeable. The compute offer includes 1 GB outbound transfer from North America to eligible destinations, excluding China and Australia; verify the network tier and route. |
| Remaining credit | Trial credit temporarily pays for eligible usage outside the ongoing allowance. | A trial credit can cover an IP charge today; the charge remains relevant after the credit ends. |
External IPv6 has no Google address fee, but an IPv6-only deployment does not automatically serve IPv4-only visitors or provide your required SSH route. A proxy, NAT gateway or load balancer can introduce a separate bill. Removing an address changes connectivity; it is not just a price toggle.
Check the estimate against existing account usage, disk type, address, egress, backup retention and the actual credit expiry date. A reserved static Google IPv4 address can remain chargeable when the VM is stopped. Use the full cost example and resource cleanup checklist before creating or retiring a machine.
What does “free” actually give you?
| Offer | What you receive | Can it be a lasting public Ubuntu server? |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing VM allowance | A defined compute quota, such as Oracle Always Free or eligible Google e2-micro hours. | Potentially, within all applicable limits. No guarantee of forever-free operation, account approval, capacity or uninterrupted service. |
| Trial or student credit | A limited balance for eligible services, with a deadline and programme conditions. | Only while the offer and usage allow it. Plan export or a funded continuation before expiry. See the credit tables below. |
| Money-back offer | A paid order with a conditional refund policy. | It requires payment upfront. Refund windows, excluded charges and eligibility do not make it a zero-upfront VPS. |
| Google Cloud Shell | An interactive command-line environment, with temporary underlying compute. | Not a 24/7 application host. Inactivity can end a session after 40 minutes; a session is limited to 12 hours. Files outside the home directory are not preserved when the underlying VM is terminated. |
| Ubuntu ISO or Ubuntu Pro offer | Operating-system software, or additional security and support services under their own terms. | Neither supplies the VM, storage and public network connection by itself. An Ubuntu Pro trial is not a VPS trial. |
What to do when the free route does not work
A quota does not reserve capacity. Oracle documents temporary shortages and possible reclamation of idle Always Free instances. Accounts using only Always Free resources do not receive its paid support service.
| Situation | Next action | Effect on the free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Verification was rejected | Check the required identity, contact and payment information through the provider’s official account process. Correct legitimate errors or check another programme for which you qualify. | Approval is not guaranteed. Do not use false details, repeat accounts or assume a different email creates eligibility. |
| No eligible capacity | For Oracle, check another eligible availability domain within the home region if offered, or wait. Consider AMD only if its resources and architecture fit. | A paid upgrade can expose other instance types; it does not guarantee A1 availability or make those other types free. |
| The account allowance is already in use | Inventory running machines, volumes, backups and usage across the relevant account. Export anything needed before deleting unused resources; wait for quota release where applicable. | A new project does not create a fresh account-level allowance. Check current totals before another launch. |
| Credit or time is running out | Set an earlier export date. Save application data, configuration and deployment notes outside the account, and choose an eligible continuing allowance, a funded plan, or shutdown. | Oracle may reclaim paid trial resources; Google stops resources without an upgrade; AWS Free Plan access is suspended at its end. Azure credit exhaustion can disable the subscription. An upgrade changes billing obligations. |
| The service must stay available | Check whether the application can tolerate capacity shortages and interruption. If it cannot, compare a paid plan’s terms, support, recovery and complete cost. | There may be no suitable free option. Neither artificial activity to avoid reclamation nor a paid price alone establishes dependable service. |
Use the backup and restore guide for a recovery plan, and the cost and cleanup guide to close a deployment. Save data before removing disks, copies or accounts.
Check eligibility before creating the server
Oracle generally requires a phone number and payment card for verification. Google’s Free Tier requires an active billing account in good standing, and its trial has separate new-customer and payment verification conditions. Available signup regions and promotions vary.
- Record the programme, permitted use, required region and architecture.
- Confirm account eligibility, exact machine, Ubuntu image and remaining allowance.
- Check disk type, public address, transfer and backup costs, including after credit ends.
- Save the applicable limits, checked date, expiry and an export date with your resource inventory.
- Stop before confirmation if the selected configuration has an unexplained charge.
After choosing Oracle AMD micro, use the Ubuntu VPS creation and SSH walkthrough. Its specific setup is not a universal recipe for AWS, Azure, A1 or Google.
Check the application before committing data
Start with a disposable copy. Verify login, a database operation, uploads and background jobs; check restart behaviour and restore a small data sample separately. Record observed errors, memory use and disk growth rather than inferring visitor capacity from CPU labels.
Move to another configuration if a required architecture, location, resource, support or recovery condition cannot be met. The hosting comparison helps assess those requirements; the Ubuntu image guide covers release and architecture choices. No new application benchmarks were run for this programme comparison.
Free Ubuntu VPS questions
Can I get a free Ubuntu VPS forever?
No programme reviewed here guarantees a VM forever. Ongoing allowances differ from trial credit, but still depend on programme rules, account status, eligible resources and capacity. Oracle can reclaim idle Always Free instances. Keep a recovery plan outside the instance.
Can I get one without a credit card?
Eligible students can check Azure for Students for permitted educational use. AWS’s new signup experience is another conditional, temporary route; it is not available to everyone and can require a payment method for verification. Oracle and Google generally require payment verification. See the no-card table above for conditions.
Is a Google e2-micro public server completely free?
Not automatically. The compute allowance does not remove the usual external IPv4 fee. At $0.005 per hour, one in-use address costs $3.60 for 720 hours before credits, discounts and tax. Storage, transfer and backups must also be checked.
Can a free Ubuntu VPS host a real website?
It can, if the full configuration fits the programme and the application tolerates its limits. Include public connectivity, backups and ongoing maintenance in the decision. A free compute allocation alone is not a complete hosting specification.
Can I guarantee signup or available capacity?
No. Account checks and available infrastructure are controlled by the provider. An allowance does not reserve capacity or guarantee signup. Keep deployment notes and a restorable data copy outside the instance so you can rebuild in another suitable environment if needed.
Does free Ubuntu mean all Ubuntu hosting is free?
No. The operating system and the infrastructure running it are separate. Compute, storage, connectivity, backups and support can have distinct conditions and charges.
Documentation and scope
Programme, credit and address-pricing documentation checked on . The comparison uses published conditions; signup approval, current capacity and your complete configuration are not verified.
- Oracle Cloud: Always Free Resources, Free Tier and Free Trial documentation.
- Google Cloud: Free Program features, VPC external IP pricing, and Cloud Shell quotas and limits.
- Microsoft: Azure for Students offer and Azure Education Hub FAQ.
- AWS: Free Tier FAQ, signup-experience comparison, new signup instructions and supported-services documentation.
AWS’s FAQ describes no-card signup for most new customers, while its account documentation says the new experience has a limited rollout. We retain that restriction instead of promising universal availability. Check the actual offer and expiry in your account. Programme limits can change.