Cloud Volumes ONTAP (CVO) is NetApp’s ONTAP software deployed on virtual machines and storage in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, and managed through the NetApp Console. NetApp offers “several licensing models”. Licences and subscriptions can be bought from cloud marketplaces, as annual subscriptions or pay-as-you-go (PAYGO), or from NetApp as bring-your-own licences (BYOL).[1] New customers are charged through capacity-based annual marketplace subscriptions or Keystone subscriptions. Some deployments, such as those in private mode, still have older node-based BYOL licences.[1] The cloud provider bills the underlying compute, storage and network separately. Freemium, for example, is free of NetApp charges only, and cloud provider charges still apply.[1]
Editions
Capacity-based licensing is sold in packages, chosen when a system is deployed and changeable afterwards.[1][5]
| Package | What NetApp includes | Catalog |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | All features free of NetApp charges; no licence or contract; no NetApp support; up to 500 GiB provisioned per system; up to 10 systems per NetApp account[1] | Freemium |
| Essentials | Pay by capacity for single-node or HA, primary or secondary (DR) data; data services extra[1] | Essentials |
| Professional | Any configuration; primary and secondary volumes at the same rate; unlimited volume backups with NetApp Backup and Recovery[1] | Professional |
Essentials is priced by deployment and volume type. From highest to lowest price the variants are Primary HA, Primary Single Node, Secondary HA and Secondary Single Node. Under a marketplace contract or private offer, the capacity charge is the same for all of them.[2] Professional still needs a PAYGO subscription for Backup and Recovery, although that service is not charged.[1]
Metrics
Provisioned TiB. Capacity-based packages charge per TiB. The licence belongs to the NetApp account, so several systems can draw on it while capacity remains. NetApp’s example is a single 20 TiB licence shared by four systems with a 5 TiB volume each.[1] Charging uses each volume’s provisioned size, “regardless of local, used, stored, or effective space within the volume”.[5] Metering is in GiB and TiB, although listings and quotes may say GB and TB.[1] Catalog: Cloud Volumes ONTAP capacity is pooled per NetApp account; Cloud Volumes ONTAP is charged on provisioned volume size.
Node-based licence. This is the previous-generation model, in which each node had a fixed capacity. It is not available to new customers.[1]
Counting / floors
What is charged. The charging page lists the following:[2]
- Additional data-serving storage VMs (SVMs) carry no extra licence cost, but each is subject to the minimum charge. Disaster recovery SVMs are charged on provisioned capacity.
- HA pairs are charged only for the provisioned capacity on one node. Data mirrored synchronously to the partner node is not charged.
- FlexClone volumes are not charged. FlexCache source and destination volumes are charged as primary data.
- All user-created data volumes are charged. ONTAP internal volumes, such as SVM root volumes, are not.
- For Essentials, a read-only DP volume that becomes read/write is charged as primary data for as long as it stays read/write.
Catalog: HA mirrors and FlexClone volumes are not charged.
4 TiB minimum. Each data-serving SVM with at least one read/write volume is charged at least 4 TiB. No minimum applies before any volume is provisioned. With Essentials, SVMs that hold only secondary (data protection) volumes are exempt. With Professional, the minimum applies whatever the volume type.[2] The Console usage report shows this as “charged capacity roundup”, and notes that the minimum “can vary by account”.[5] Many small SVMs can therefore cost more than their provisioned capacity suggests. Catalog: 4 TiB minimum charge per data-serving storage VM.
Freemium conversion. A Freemium system whose provisioned capacity exceeds 500 GiB is converted to Essentials, and minimum charging then applies. It cannot return to Freemium, even if capacity is later reduced.[1] Catalog: Freemium systems above 500 GiB convert permanently to Essentials.
System limit. Capacity-based licensing allows 24 Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems per NetApp Console organization. Each additional SVM counts as a system, but the default SVM does not.[2] Catalog: Capacity-based licensing allows 24 systems per Console organization.
Charging order and overages
The Console “always attempts to charge against a license first”. If no licence is available, it charges the marketplace subscription.[5] Marketplace hourly rates apply when usage exceeds the licensed capacity or the licence term expires.[2] The billing preference decides which comes first. Under “NetApp licenses first”, BYOL capacity is used and then marketplace contracts or PAYGO. Under “Marketplace subscriptions only”, unused licence capacity is ignored.[2] Overage on an Essentials package is first charged to spare capacity in a higher-priced Essentials licence the customer already holds, and only then at PAYGO rates.[2] Catalog: NetApp licences are charged before marketplace PAYGO.
Usage reports. The Console provides four downloadable point-in-time reports: high-level usage, package usage, storage VM usage and volume usage. Together they split consumed capacity into BYOL, marketplace contract and PAYGO portions, and show charged capacity per SVM and per volume.[5] These reports are the main evidence for reconciling marketplace invoices.
Virtualization & partitioning
Cloud Volumes ONTAP is not licensed by virtual CPU or instance size. The unit is provisioned volume capacity.[5] Partitioning has an effect in two ways. Each additional SVM brings its own 4 TiB minimum, and each counts towards the 24-system limit.[2] Tiering to object storage is not capped by the licence.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
Marketplace. Marketplace subscriptions are annual contracts or hourly PAYGO subscriptions bought in the cloud provider’s marketplace. Private-mode deployments cannot use marketplace subscriptions.[2] In AWS, changes to the AWS Enterprise Discount Program led NetApp to add a standalone Cloud Volumes ONTAP listing alongside the NetApp Intelligent Services (NIS) listing. The standalone listing supports only Essentials and Freemium, and NetApp recommends it for capacity billing after 2026-07-31.[3] Subscriptions must be associated with a Console organization before they can be used for charging.[9]
BYOL. A BYOL licence is bought from NetApp and can be used with any cloud provider. A BYOL customer must also subscribe to the PAYGO offering in the marketplace.[2] From 2025-06-25 NetApp restricted BYOL for all customers in AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. U.S. Public Sector customers and China region deployments are exempt. Support continues until the BYOL contract expires, but expired licences “will not be renewed or extended” and must be replaced with marketplace capacity licences.[3] Private-mode deployments are the main exception. Since 2026-09-21 they can use capacity-based BYOL Essentials packages, with the first 500 GiB of consumed capacity not counted.[3] Catalog: Cloud Volumes ONTAP BYOL restricted from 2025-06-25.
Keystone. A Keystone subscription can supply committed capacity for Cloud Volumes ONTAP HA pairs, but not single-node systems. Provisioned capacity per volume is compared periodically with the committed capacity, and any excess is charged as burst.[1] The Keystone Cloud Volumes ONTAP service level has a 4 TiB minimum per order, in 1 TiB increments, metered as logical capacity.[10] See NetApp Keystone storage-as-a-service.
Licence records in the Console. The management console formerly called BlueXP became the NetApp Console on 2025-10-06, and its “digital wallet” became Licenses and subscriptions.[7] Licences show automatically only when the Console account is linked to a NetApp Support Site (NSS) account. Otherwise, for example in private mode, they must be added and updated by hand, using the serial number or an uploaded NetApp license file.[6] A Console agent must be deployed to view subscriptions and BYOL licences.[8] Catalog: Licences appear automatically only with a linked NetApp Support Site account.
Programs
Node-based end of availability and conversion
Limited availability of node-based licences ended on 2024-11-11, and support for node-based licensing ended on 2024-12-31. A valid node-based contract may be used until it expires and must then move to capacity-based licensing. An expired node-based BYOL licence cannot deploy new systems, and its existing systems get no further support or updates. Exceptions, such as China regions, are limited to licences of at most one year.[1] Converting a capacity-based system back to node-based is not supported.[1] Catalog: Node-based Cloud Volumes ONTAP licences reached end of availability.
The Console’s conversion tool works in place and without disruption, and the node-based serial number is replaced in the NSS account. Several prerequisites apply. A capacity-based licence or marketplace subscription must exist. The destination package should match the account’s BYOL packages, or the excess is charged through the marketplace. If the capacity licence is too small and there is no marketplace subscription, “the conversion cannot occur”. In private mode the only destination is Essentials BYOL, with capacity similar to the node-based licence.[4] Catalog: Node-to-capacity conversion needs enough capacity or a marketplace subscription.
Out of scope
- Marketplace prices and private offer terms, and the Cloud Services Terms.
- NetApp data services billed alongside Cloud Volumes ONTAP: Backup and Recovery, Cloud Tiering, Ransomware Resilience and Disaster Recovery.
- Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files and Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, which were not analysed here.