What’s included

50+ free tier services

Once your credit card is verified, your access is extended to more than 50 free tier services. You’ll only be charged for billable services used beyond the maximum free tier thresholds.

USD 200+ credits

After verification, you’ll receive a USD 200 credit to use in your account. You’ll also get access to limited-time and -quantity promotional codes to save even more.

350+ products

Use any Lite or production-ready instances from our catalog of more than 350 products including services and software. Pay only for what’s used, and manage consumption and billing with notifications to avoid surprises.

Benefits

Full access to innovation

Test drive the products you’ve always wanted, for little or no cost.

Pilot your big ideas with little risk

Build proofs of concept or fit-for-production use cases with minimal cost.

You call the shots

Opt out anytime. Use custom notifications to avoid surprise charges.

Featured offers on IBM Cloud

Explore some of the popular products available to you with a Pay-As-You-Go account. Use the USD 200 credit in addition to any of these offers.

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service

Free 30-day trial
1 cluster

IBM Cloud Key Protect

Free – first 20 keys

IBM Cloud Object Storage

Free – no expiration
25 GB per month

IBM Watson® Assistant

Free – no expiration
10,000 API calls per month

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect DBaaS for PostgreSQL

Free 30-day trial
1 GB memory
2 GB data storage

IBM Watson Studio

Free – no expiration
1 authorized user

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect DBaaS for MongoDB

Free 30-day trial
1 GB memory
2 GB data storage

View all free tier services

See all

Limited-time and limited-quantity offers on select services for Pay-As-You-Go accounts only. Current IBM employees excluded.

IBM Cloud VPC

USD 500 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloud® Virtual Server for VPC
IBM Cloud Block Storage for VPC
IBM Cloud Image Service for VPC
Promo code VPC500
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud VPC

USD 1,500 credit. Valid for 180 days:
IBM Cloud Block Storage for VPC
IBM Cloud Virtual Server for VPC
IBM® Virtual Private Network for IBM Cloud VPC
IBM Cloud Network Load Balancer for VPC
IBM Virtual Private Cloud offerings  
Promo code 1500VPC
Expires 31 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions

USD 500 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions
Promo code FREE500VM
Expires 30 June 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services

USD 3,120 credit. Valid for 30 days:
IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services
Promo code HPCRYPTO30
Expires 31 December 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services

USD 3,120 credit. Valid for 60 days:
IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services
Promo code HPCRYPTO30PLUS
Expires 31 December 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Databases

USD 600 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloudant®
IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL
IBM Cloud Databases for MongoDB
IBM Cloud Databases for Elasticsearch
IBM Cloud Databases for Redis
*Excludes Cloudant on Transaction Engine and MongoDB Enterprise plan
Promo code DBFREE601
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloudant

USD 600 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloudant on Transaction Engine plan
Promo code CLOUDANT_TXE_FREE
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Databases for EnterpriseDB

USD 1,500 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloud Databases for EnterpriseDB
Promo code EDBFREE1500
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Databases for DataStax

USD 1,500 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloud Databases for DataStax
Promo code DSEFREE1500
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

IBM Cloud Databases for MongoDB

USD 1,500 credit. Valid for 90 days:
IBM Cloud Databases for MongoDB Enterprise plan
Promo code MONGOFREE1500
Expires 1 July 2021

Redeem now

Frequently asked questions

Where is my USD 200 credit?

To view the USD 200 credit, go to the usage page in the IBM Cloud console. Or, you can go to the account settings page to view your active promotions. Your promotional credit of USD 200 is automatically applied, but might take a few hours to appear in your account. The credit is available for first-time Pay-As-You-Go accounts only, and cannot be used with third-party offerings.

Does the promotional credit expire?

The USD 200 credit is valid for 30 days after you upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go account, and your usage is automatically deducted from the credit amount.

How do I upgrade from an existing Lite account?

To upgrade to a Pay-As-You-Go account, complete the following steps:

  1. In the console, go to Manage > Account.
  2. Select Account settings, and click Add credit card.
  3. Enter your payment information, click Next, and submit your information.

After your payment information is processed, your account is upgraded and you can explore and access the full IBM Cloud catalog. For any billable services that you use beyond any free allowances, you’ll receive a monthly invoice.

What are the differences between the account types?

IBM Cloud has three different account types: Lite, Pay As You Go, and Subscription. You get a free Lite account as soon as you sign up. Pay As You Go and Subscription are billable account options and each offers different features. Compare each account type and choose the one that best suits your needs.

How do I apply promotional codes?

Perform the following steps in the console to apply promo codes to your account and services.

  1. Go to Manage > Billing and usage, and select Promotions.
  2. Enter your promo code, and click Apply.
  3. Review the promotion details, and click Apply. After the promo code is applied, a success message is displayed.

Explore more information on applying promo codes.

Next steps

Upgrade your Lite account

Create a new Pay-As-You-Go account

Contact us