HashiCorp licensing is the set of terms under which HashiCorp, now an IBM company, licenses its infrastructure and security automation software: Terraform, Vault, Consul, Nomad, Boundary, Packer, Waypoint and Vagrant, and the hosted HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) services built on them. Purchases of cloud-based and self-managed HashiCorp products, and of related support and professional services, are governed by a set of General Terms and Conditions together with a Cloud-Based Product Supplement, a Self-Managed Product Supplement and, for pay-as-you-go customers, a PAYG Supplement.[1] The contracting party in those documents is International Business Machines Corporation.[2] IBM completed its acquisition of HashiCorp on 2025-02-27.[13] The deal is recorded on the acquisitions page. Alongside the commercial products, HashiCorp publishes free “community” editions of its core products under the Business Source License 1.1 (BSL), which it adopted for new releases in August 2023.[6] For the general models, see subscription and consumption licensing and open-source software licensing.
Editions
HashiCorp sells each product in up to three forms. The pricing page groups them as Pay-as-You-Go cloud services, Flex single- and multi-year plans, and “Enterprise Self Managed” plans priced by quote.[8]
| Product | Community edition | HCP (cloud) tiers on the pricing page | Self-managed edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terraform | Terraform Community Edition (BSL)[6] | HCP Terraform Essentials, Standard, Premium; HCP Terraform Europe[8] | Terraform Enterprise, custom pricing, Premium support included[8] |
| Vault | Vault Community Edition (BSL)[6] | HCP Vault Dedicated Development, Essentials, Standard; HCP Vault Radar[8] | Vault Enterprise Essentials, Standard, Premium[8] |
| Consul | Consul Community Edition (BSL)[6] | None listed | Consul Enterprise Standard and Premium[8] |
| Nomad | Nomad Community Edition (BSL)[6] | None listed | Nomad Enterprise, custom pricing[8] |
| Boundary | Boundary Community Edition (BSL)[6] | HCP Boundary Essentials, Standard[8] | Boundary Enterprise, custom pricing[8] |
| Packer | Packer (BSL)[6] | HCP Packer Essentials, Standard[8] | None listed |
Self-managed editions bought from IBM through Passport Advantage Online carry IBM part numbers. The Vault documentation lists IBM Vault Self-Managed Essentials (D1015ZX), Standard (D101FZX) and Premium (D101AZX), a PKI Certificate Add-On (D1406ZX) and two Platform Standard installs (D15FQZX, and D155LZX with KMIP).[14] Terraform Enterprise appears in Passport Advantage as IBM Terraform Self-Managed Premium.[15] For the IBM side of these purchases, see IBM Passport Advantage.
Metrics
The General Terms define no licence metric of their own. “Entitlements” are “the metrics and quantities under which the Products are licensed or provided to Customer under each applicable Order Form.”[2] The metric therefore comes from the Order Form, and for HCP services from the published billing definitions:
| Product | Metric (catalog row) | Billing unit |
|---|---|---|
| HCP Terraform, Terraform Enterprise | Managed resource (Resource Under Management), Hourly Peak Managed Resources | Per resource per hour[10] |
| Vault Enterprise | Vault client; Vault PKI certificate issued | Order Form Entitlements |
| HCP Vault Dedicated | HCP Vault Dedicated Cluster, HCP Vault Dedicated Client | Cluster hour plus client per month[10] |
| HCP Boundary | HCP Boundary User | User per month[10] |
| HCP Packer | HCP Packer Image Bucket, HCP Packer Request | Bucket hour plus request[10] |
| HCP Vault Radar | HCP Vault Radar Active Contributor | Active contributor per month[10] |
| Consul Enterprise, Nomad Enterprise | Consul billable node and service instance, Nomad billable client node | Reported utilization counters; contract metric on the Order Form |
Each HCP service has one or more billable metrics, metered by count or by time and priced per hour or per month. The unit price also depends on attributes such as edition or cluster size.[10] Details are in HCP Terraform and Terraform Enterprise licensing, HashiCorp Vault licensing and HashiCorp Consul, Nomad, Boundary and Packer licensing.
Counting / floors
The General Terms make the customer responsible for staying within Entitlements. The customer must report promptly to IBM if it exceeds its Entitlements under an Order Form. Unless the Order Form says otherwise, the Entitlements are then increased, invoiced and co-termed to that Order Form. Pricing is then-current IBM list pricing unless the Order Form states otherwise.[2] This is a contractual true-up without a separate audit procedure. The customer must keep accurate records to verify compliance and hand them to IBM within ten business days of a written request.[2] Catalog rules: Report and true-up usage above Entitlements, Keep records and supply them within ten business days.
Self-managed products also send usage data back to the vendor. Vault Enterprise reports licence utilization data to IBM, automatically about every 24 hours or by manual upload. The licence agreement may require reporting at a set cadence.[17] Terraform Enterprise, Consul Enterprise and Nomad Enterprise have equivalent reporting, described in the product articles.
Floors are product-specific. The HCP Terraform Free plan is capped at 500 managed resources.[16] The HCP Vault Dedicated Development edition allows at most 25 clients per month.[10] Flex Multiyear has a minimum contract size, which the documentation does not state.[11]
Virtualization & partitioning
HashiCorp’s metrics count managed objects (resources, clients, certificates, users) rather than processors, so no virtualization or partitioning rules appear in the General Terms or supplements. The Self-Managed Product Supplement lets the customer install the software “on premises or in a cloud environment of its choosing”, solely for internal business purposes and within the Order Form Entitlements.[3] Where the reported counters are per node or per core (Consul and Nomad), the Order Form decides how they are measured.[2]
Cloud / BYOL
HCP services are subscriptions to a vendor-hosted service, not licences that can be moved. IBM makes each service available during the Subscription Term “solely for Customer’s internal use” and within the Service Entitlements in the Order Form.[4] Self-managed licences may run in any cloud the customer chooses, so no separate bring-your-own-licence policy is needed.[3] The General Terms forbid acting as a service provider of a Product to third parties unless agreed in writing or in the Order Form.[2]
Programs
Self-managed subscriptions. The Self-Managed Product Supplement grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence for the License Subscription Term. The grant depends on the customer buying a Support Subscription.[3] Support runs monthly but is billed annually in advance. The customer may deploy and use the software only while it keeps an active Support Subscription.[3] A Support Subscription can be cancelled for convenience on 30 days’ notice. Prepaid support is then refunded pro rata, but licence fees for the related License Subscriptions stay due and are not refunded.[3]
Pay-as-you-Go. PAYG is a no-commitment model at list prices, started by adding a credit card to an HCP organization.[9] Under the PAYG Supplement, the sign-up web page takes the place of an Order Form. Fees are paid monthly in arrears by credit card, and the account renews monthly until either party gives 30 days’ notice.[5] Support is on a reasonable-efforts basis with no service level objective.[5] Services can be suspended at 30 days past due. At 60 days past due, the account can be terminated and deleted.[5]
Flex Multiyear. Flex is a committed-spend contract at a discount to list prices. The customer commits an amount upfront and has up to three years to use it. The balance is drawn down as HCP services are consumed.[11] It covers HCP Terraform, HCP Packer, HCP Vault Dedicated and HCP Boundary. An activated contract cannot be undone or reassigned to another HCP organization.[11] When the balance runs out or the contract ends without a renewal, the organization moves to PAYG.[11] See also consumption credits and prepaid capacity.
Trial credits and trial products. A new HCP organization receives USD 500 in trial credits that expire after six months. In trial status it may run only one Vault Dedicated cluster and at most three resources of each other service type.[9] Trial, evaluation and beta products may be used only in a non-production capacity for internal evaluation, for 30 days unless IBM sets another period.[2]
Support lifecycle. HashiCorp offered Long-Term Support (LTS) releases with a two-year support window for some commercial products released before April 2026. Releases between March 2025 and April 2026 receive fixes and security patches under a support lifecycle addendum. All versions released after April 2026 follow IBM’s Support Cycle-2 (SC2).[12] The last LTS versions are Terraform Enterprise v1.2, Consul Enterprise v1.21, Vault Enterprise v1.19, Nomad Enterprise v1.10.x and Boundary Enterprise v0.21. LTS support for them ends between April and December 2027.[12]
Community editions. BSL 1.1 allows non-production use, and production use other than hosted or embedded offerings that compete with HashiCorp’s paid versions. Each version converts to the Mozilla Public License 2.0 after four years.[7] The commercial agreements exclude these free “Community Versions” from the purchased Products,[2] and using IBM support for a Community Version is a material breach.[3] See HashiCorp Business Source License.
Out of scope
This article does not cover the text of signed enterprise agreements, which the online terms say remain unaffected.[1] It does not cover prices for self-managed editions, which HashiCorp does not publish,[8] or IBM programmes other than Passport Advantage delivery. Also excluded are Waypoint and Vagrant commercial terms, HashiCorp Cloud Platform Europe contract plans, the Data Protection Addendum and security exhibit, and support service levels published by IBM.