Oracle's Always Free Ampere A1 allowance was 4 OCPUs and 24 GB of RAM for years. On 2026-06-15 it was halved to 2 OCPUs and 12 GB, and this is not a soft limit: enforcement began August 18, and instances still sized above the new cap are automatically terminated, not throttled.
The dangerous case is an existing VM created back when 4/24 was legal. It kept running through June and July, which read as a grandfather clause. It wasn't — it was an enforcement lag.
If you still have an A1 instance above 2 OCPU / 12 GB, resize it down now (Compute -> Instance -> Edit -> shape). A resize is a reboot; a termination is a rebuild.
The split still works the same way below the cap: one 2-core/12 GB VM, or two 1-core/6 GB VMs. Storage (200 GB) and egress (10 TB/month) were not cut.
Current numbers and the full setup walkthrough: https://toolfreebie.com/oracle-free-arm-vps/
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