{"rid":"storage/ibm-cloud-object-storage-standard-plan-free-tier","card":{"rid":"storage/ibm-cloud-object-storage-standard-plan-free-tier","eid":"ibm","topic":"storage","slug":"ibm-cloud-object-storage-standard-plan-free-tier","provider":"IBM Cloud Object Storage — Standard plan Free Tier","url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free/storage","domain":"ibm.com","category":"iaas","tier":null,"verdict":"fails-quota","vorder":6,"grp":"rejected","confidence":"reported","binding":"retention-clamped","identity_kind":"card","identity_basis":"defaulted","needs_card":1,"needs_phone":null,"needs_id":null,"needs_institution":null,"country":null,"crypto":null,"interfaces":"s3-compatible,rclone","egress_metered":1,"per_object_bytes":null,"retention_days":30,"verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","verified_basis":"inherited","checked_on":"2026-10-21","stale_on":"2026-11-04","n_evidence":3,"usd_month":null,"usd_per_tb_month":null,"summary":"5 GB/month of Smart Tier storage, 2,000 Class A + 20,000 Class B requests, 10 GB/month retrieval, 5 GB/month egress — for 12 months. The separate Lite plan (...","duplicate_of":null,"n_unknown":6},"record":{"topic":"storage","slug":"ibm-cloud-object-storage-standard-plan-free-tier","provider":"IBM Cloud Object Storage — Standard plan Free Tier","url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free/storage","category":"iaas","free_tier":{"stated":"5 GB/month of Smart Tier storage, 2,000 Class A + 20,000 Class B requests, 10 GB/month retrieval, 5 GB/month egress — for 12 months. The separate Lite plan (always-free, never expires) does not carry a published storage allowance on the current pages.","unit":"GB","metered_on":"stored-bytes","source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create","read_on":"2026-10-21","notes":null},"per_object_cap":{"stated":"not stated","source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create","notes":"not stated"},"retention":{"stated":"Lite-plan instances are deleted after 30 days of no development activity.","days":30,"source_url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create","notes":"not stated"},"egress":{"terms":"5 GB/month egress inside the Free Tier; beyond that it is metered per GB. Not free egress at any useful scale.","metered":true,"free_allowance":"5 GB per month"},"interface":["s3-compatible","rclone"],"interface_detail":"s3","tooling":"IBM COS S3 API — rclone 's3' provider name 'IBM COS S3'; HMAC or IAM keys; pre-signed URLs (docs note the UI does not generate them, use Cyberduck/clients).","chaining":"One Lite instance per service per org; quota limits are per ORG, not per instance ('New instances that are created in the same org reflect any usage from previous instances'), which deliberately blocks instance multiplication inside an org.","limits":[{"kind":"retention-clamped","value":"deleted after 30 days","source":"https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create"}],"limits_note":"5 GB storage / 5 GB egress / 12 months. Reaching any quota 'suspends the service for that month'. Lite-plan instances are deleted after 30 days of no development activity.","identity_cost":{"kind":"card","detail":"inferred from the category 'iaas'; the source record states no identity cost, so this is a class assumption, not evidence","country":null},"reliability_note":"Service suspends at quota rather than billing overage — no surprise bills, but no headroom either. Lite instances vanish after 30 idle days.","confidence":"reported","confidence_note":"One page read moves it to documented.","evidence":[{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'Free Tier allowance: Storage up to 5GB/month ... Up to 5GB/month of egress'"},{"url":"https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-object-storage?topic=cloud-object-storage-provision","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'5GB of free monthly usage for up to 12 months from the sign-up date'"},{"url":"https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free","date":"2026-10-21","proved":"'After 30 days of no development activity, your service instances with Lite plans are deleted'; 'Quota limits are per org, not per instance'"}],"verdict":"fails-quota","verified_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000Z","notes":"5 GB/month of Smart Tier storage, 2,000 Class A + 20,000 Class B requests, 10 GB/month retrieval, 5 GB/month egress — for 12 months. The separate Lite plan (always-free, never expires) does not carry a published storage allowance on the current pages.","extras":{"dead_end":{"failure_class":"retention","why":"5 GB/month of Smart Tier storage, 2,000 Class A + 20,000 Class B requests, 10 GB/month retrieval, 5 GB/month egress — for 12 months. The separate Lite plan (always-free, never expires) does not carry a published storage allowance on the current pages.","retry_when":null,"first_recorded":"2026-10-21"}},"binding":"retention-clamped","binding_note":"a clock, not a quota: bytes leave whether or not the client is finished with them"},"claims":[{"path":"$.free_tier.stated","kind":"free-quota","num":5,"unit":"GB","per":"month","currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"ok"},{"path":"$.limits[0].value","kind":"limit:retention-clamped","num":null,"unit":null,"per":null,"currency":null,"usd":null,"fx_date":null,"parse":"unparsed"}],"unknown":[["$.extras.dead_end.retry_when","process"],["$.free_tier.notes","process"],["$.identity_cost.kind","identity-defaulted"],["$.per_object_cap.notes","not-extracted"],["$.per_object_cap.stated","not-extracted"],["$.retention.notes","not-extracted"]],"history":[],"drift":[]}