{"rid":"compute/ibm-cloud","card":{"rid":"compute/ibm-cloud","eid":"ibm","topic":"compute","slug":"ibm-cloud","provider":"IBM Cloud","url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","domain":"ibm.com","category":"cloud VM","tier":null,"verdict":"trial-only","vorder":2,"grp":"trial","confidence":"documented","binding":"volume-quota","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"stated","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":0,"needs_id":0,"needs_institution":0,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":null,"egress_metered":null,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-24T03:21:02.824Z","verified_basis":"live","checked_on":"2026-10-25","stale_on":"2026-11-24","n_evidence":6,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"The free page states: 'You get credit for your first USD 200 of apps and services on us. Try any IBM Cloud product with this credit, available for 30 days.' ...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":9},"record":{"topic":"compute","slug":"ibm-cloud","provider":"IBM Cloud","url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","category":"cloud VM","free_tier":{"stated":"The free page states: 'You get credit for your first USD 200 of apps and services on us. Try any IBM Cloud product with this credit, available for 30 days.' The account itself is Pay-As-You-Go from registration: 'Even though you provide your credit card information for account security and identity verification purposes, you can still use IBM Cloud for free by selecting products in the catalog that offer Free and Lite pricing plans.'","unit":"mixed","metered_on":"none","source_url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free","read_on":"2026-10-23","notes":"the USD 200 is a 30-day offset, not a perpetual free tier"},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not applicable","bytes":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","notes":null},"retention":{"stated":"not applicable","days":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","notes":null},"egress":{"terms":"not stated","metered":false,"free_allowance":null,"price_per_tb":null,"source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts"},"interface":["unknown"],"interface_detail":"inferred from the tooling the provider documents; not probed","tooling":"not stated","chaining":"Nothing composes. The USD 200 credit on a new Pay-As-You-Go account is a 30-day trial, and it is spent on billed services rather than held as a free tier.","limits":[{"kind":"volume-quota","value":"USD 200 of usage over 30 days","source":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free"}],"limits_note":"the card is required before the balance is usable, and no catalog Free plan is a virtual server","binding":"volume-quota","binding_note":"the 30-day window ends the USD 200; the card is required before the balance is usable","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"card required to create the account; a temporary verification hold is reversed within 24 to 72 hours, and its amount is not published on the account FAQ; debit accepted only if it is a Visa or Mastercard and not a disposable or one-time-use number, so virtual and prepaid-style cards are refused; email first, then card","country":null},"reliability_note":"no reliability event recorded","confidence":"documented","evidence":[{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"docs last updated 2026-04-17: registration produces a Pay-As-You-Go account with a credit card required for identity verification; Lite accounts are only those created before 25 October 2021, quoted"},{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accounts","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"the only card-free account is a Trial, which requires institution credentials via ibm.biz/academic and expires after 30 days"},{"url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free","date":"2026-10-22","proved":"vendor states a nominal hold of typically about USD 1.00 is placed on the card, and Lite service instances are deleted after 30 days of no development activity"},{"url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free","date":"2026-10-23","proved":"'You get credit for your first USD 200 of apps and services on us. Try any IBM Cloud product with this credit, available for 30 days.', quoted; the same page lists 40 or more always-free Lite products and five promotion codes with a 2026-12-31 expiry"},{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accountfaqs","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted: 'For identity verification, a credit card is required when you create a new account. A debit card is acceptable if it is from Visa or Mastercard, and it is not a disposable card or one-time use card number.'"},{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accountfaqs","date":"2026-10-24","proved":"quoted, the hold: 'As part of the authorization process, you might see a temporary hold on your credit card for verification and security when creating an account. This credit card hold is reversed within 24 to 72 hours.'"}],"verdict":"trial-only","verified_at":"2026-10-24T03:21:02.824Z","notes":"This record refutes the claim that IBM Cloud offers a free account with no card and no end date: registration produces a Pay-As-You-Go account with a card, and the Lite accounts described in old tutorials are only those created before 2021-10-25. The free balance is USD 200 for 30 days. The academic trial remains the institution door. What would reopen the refutation is a catalog Free plan for VPC Virtual Server Instances, which does not exist on 2026-10-23. PAYMENT CORRECTION 2026-10-24: the corpus table gives IBM a hold of 'about USD 1.00, published as typically around'. The account FAQ publishes no amount, only the 24-to-72-hour reversal, so the USD 1.00 figure is not confirmed here and is left as a dash. The card-type rule is documented and is the material one: disposable and one-time-use numbers are refused, which is how IBM phrases its prepaid and virtual exclusion.","extras":{"wave2":{"class":"refutation-no-free-vm","free_tier_kind":"one-time-credit","shape":null},"hourly_usd":{"bx4_4x16_derived":0.183208,"bx4_2x8_derived":0.091604},"component_rates":{"usd_per_63_vcpu_hours":1.7626,"usd_per_450_gb_hours":2.0054},"rate_basis":"derived on 2026-10-23 from IBM's component rates; no per-profile rate is published and the console estimator was not reached","payment_methods":{"card_at_signup":"yes","debit":"accepted-with-condition","prepaid":"refused","virtual":"refused","hold_amount":null,"hold_detail":"temporary hold reversed within 24 to 72 hours; amount not published on the page read","identity":"email, then a card used for identity verification","source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-accountfaqs","read_on":"2026-10-24"}},"confidence_note":"Payment facts re-read on 2026-10-24: the card types, the hold and the identity gate each come from a first-party page quoted in evidence[]."},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:volume-quota","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.egress.metered","egress-unknown"],["$.egress.terms","not-stated"],["$.interface","interface-unknown"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","process"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-applicable"],["$.reliability_note","none-observed"],["$.retention.notes","process"],["$.retention.stated","not-applicable"],["$.tooling","not-stated"]],"history":[{"hid":"history/2026-10-23T080500Z/credit-ladder-corrected.md","when":"2026-10-23T08:05:00Z","status":"corrected","title":"The credit ladder was re-read, and eight claims moved"}],"drift":[]}