IBM Cloud Pricing — IBM Cloud Virtual Servers, IBM Cloud Object Storage, IBM Cloud Databases & Egress Costs (2026)
IBM Cloud sells hybrid-cloud integration rather than raw price: the same Red Hat OpenShift tooling runs on-premises and in IBM data centers, and the Kubernetes service never bills for the control plane on any tier. Every figure below is computed from IBM published rates by the same engine as the live estimator.
- Deep enterprise integration with Red Hat OpenShift and hybrid-cloud tooling.
- IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service never charges for the control plane.
What a IBM architecture costs
Four reference architectures, priced for IBM Cloud alone by the same engine that powers the live estimator — list prices in USD, us-east-1 baseline, on-demand unless noted.
SaaS Starter MVP
Ideal for early-stage startups and production web apps with up to 25k monthly active users.
- Virtual Machines / Compute
- $107.75/mo
- Object & Block Storage
- $11.35/mo
- Managed Relational Database
- $64.12/mo
- Networking & Data Egress
- $156.17/mo
High-Traffic E-Commerce
Engineered for high concurrent checkouts, product catalogs, and intensive flash sales.
- Virtual Machines / Compute
- $601.81/mo
- Object & Block Storage
- $46.10/mo
- Managed Relational Database
- $434.88/mo
- Networking & Data Egress
- $762.34/mo
Enterprise Microservices (K8s)
Multi-service containerized architecture with managed Kubernetes clusters and service mesh.
- Object & Block Storage
- $115.20/mo
- Managed Relational Database
- $869.76/mo
- Networking & Data Egress
- $1134.71/mo
- Managed Kubernetes
- $1069.89/mo
AI / ML Inference & Pipeline
Compute and memory-optimized instances designed for low-latency LLM serving and vector retrieval.
- Virtual Machines / Compute
- $1292.68/mo
- Object & Block Storage
- $184.00/mo
- Managed Relational Database
- $749.76/mo
- Networking & Data Egress
- $1368.54/mo
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers instance pricing
Every published shape in the catalog, priced at 730 hours/month in USD list rates.
| Instance | Shape | On-demand | 1-year reserved | 3-year reserved | Spot / preemptible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
cx2-2x4 Compute (cx2) | 2 vCPU / 4 GB | $53.87/mo | $40.44/mo | $32.34/mo | Not offered |
bx2-2x8 Balanced (bx2) | 2 vCPU / 8 GB | $66.87/mo | $50.15/mo | $40.15/mo | Not offered |
bx2-4x16 Balanced (bx2) | 4 vCPU / 16 GB | $133.74/mo | $100.30/mo | $80.23/mo | Not offered |
bx2-8x32 Balanced (bx2) | 8 vCPU / 32 GB | $267.47/mo | $200.60/mo | $160.45/mo | Not offered |
cx2-16x32 Compute (cx2) | 16 vCPU / 32 GB | $430.92/mo | $323.17/mo | $258.57/mo | Not offered |
mx2-16x128 Memory (mx2) | 16 vCPU / 128 GB | $743.21/mo | $557.43/mo | $445.96/mo | Not offered |
bx2-32x128 Balanced (bx2) | 32 vCPU / 128 GB | $1069.96/mo | $802.49/mo | $641.96/mo | Not offered |
IBM Cloud Object Storage storage tiers
| Hot / standard | $0.0220/GB-mo $22.00 per TB-month · $0.0040/10k reads · $0.0500/10k writes |
|---|---|
| Cool / infrequent | $0.0129/GB-mo $12.90 per TB-month · $0.0100/10k reads · $0.1000/10k writes |
| Cold | $0.0071/GB-mo $7.10 per TB-month · $0.0500/10k reads · $0.1300/10k writes |
| Archive | $0.0026/GB-mo $2.60 per TB-month · $0.5000/10k reads · $0.3000/10k writes |
IBM Cloud Databases pricing
| bx2-db-2x4 (2 vCPU / 4 GB) | PostgreSQL $52.12/mo · MySQL $52.12/mo · SQL Server Not offered Storage $0.1200/GB-mo · multi-AZ multiplies the instance rate by 2× |
|---|---|
| bx2-db-4x16 (4 vCPU / 16 GB) | PostgreSQL $242.21/mo · MySQL $242.21/mo · SQL Server Not offered Storage $0.1200/GB-mo · multi-AZ multiplies the instance rate by 2× |
| bx2-db-8x32 (8 vCPU / 32 GB) | PostgreSQL $484.43/mo · MySQL $484.43/mo · SQL Server Not offered Storage $0.1200/GB-mo · multi-AZ multiplies the instance rate by 2× |
| bx2-db-8x64 (8 vCPU / 64 GB) | PostgreSQL $649.99/mo · MySQL $649.99/mo · SQL Server Not offered Storage $0.1200/GB-mo · multi-AZ multiplies the instance rate by 2× |
Networking & egress
| Internet egress | $0.0900/GB (first 10 TB) Then $0.0850/GB up to 40 TB. No standing free allowance. |
|---|---|
| Load balancer | $18.25/mo |
| Static IPv4 address | $2.92/mo |
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service
| Control plane (first cluster) | Free Billed at $0.000/hr; the first cluster is waived. |
|---|
Where IBM ranks
- Entry-level compute: #9 of 10 ($53.87/mo (cx2-2x4))
- Egress at 20 TB/month: #9 of 10 ($1792.00/mo)
Full ranked tables live in the cost guides.
Lowering a IBM bill
IBM Cloud Hybrid Tooling
Deep Red Hat OpenShift integration lets you run the same Kubernetes stack on-prem and in IBM Cloud, simplifying hybrid and multi-cloud governance.
IKS never bills for the control plane, on any tier.
- IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS) never charges a control-plane fee, even on multi-zone clusters.
- Consolidate load balancers per region — IBM prices them individually with no bundled allowance.
Compare IBM with other providers
Cost guides featuring IBM
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IBM Cloud pricing — frequently asked questions
How does IBM Cloud pricing compare with the hyperscalers?
Compute rates land between the hyperscalers and the developer clouds, and the reference workload totals below show where that puts a specific architecture. IBM’s argument is rarely the lowest bill: it is that the managed Kubernetes service carries no control-plane fee at any tier — free even for multi-zone clusters — and that the hybrid tooling reduces the cost of running the same platform in two places.
What is the cheapest way to run a workload on IBM Cloud?
Run more than one cluster: with no control-plane fee on any tier, the per-cluster management cost that dominates small Kubernetes deployments elsewhere simply does not exist here. Consolidate load balancers per region rather than per service, since IBM prices each one individually with no bundled allowance. Note that there is no spot or preemptible tier, so interrupted batch work has no discount path.
Who is IBM Cloud the right choice for?
Regulated enterprises and hybrid estates: organizations that need the same Kubernetes and OpenShift platform across a private data center and a public cloud, with the compliance paperwork to match. Teams choosing purely on infrastructure price will usually find IBM Cloud in the middle of this comparison rather than at the front.
What does the cheapest comparable instance cost on IBM?
For a 4 vCPU / 16 GB Linux instance at 730 hours a month on demand, the engine matches IBM Cloud Virtual Servers to bx2-4x16 at $133.74/month. Instance shapes differ between providers, so the matched shape matters as much as the price — the compute table below lists every published shape with its reserved and spot rates.
How does IBM charge for data transfer?
Internet egress is metered from the first gigabyte — there is no standing free transfer allowance. Load balancers bill at $18.25/month and static IPv4 addresses at $2.92/month in this catalog, both metered hourly.
What storage tiers and managed database engines does IBM offer?
Object storage is available in 4 tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive) — see the storage table for per-GB rates. Managed databases cover POSTGRES, MYSQL (SQL Server is not offered as a managed service). The managed Kubernetes control plane is free on the first cluster.
Provenance for every figure on this page is listed on the methodology page.