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Nutanix Cloud Platform licensing

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This article is about licensing Nutanix Cloud Platform software (NCI, NCM, NUS, NDB and their Edge and VDI variants) under the Nutanix License and Services Agreement. It does not cover Nutanix hardware support or Nutanix SaaS offerings beyond NC2.

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Nutanix Cloud Platform software is licensed by Nutanix under the Nutanix License and Services Agreement (October 2024). The agreement defines two license types. A Term Based License is “portable between hardware nodes” and lasts for a fixed Subscription Term. A legacy Life of Device License is tied to the hardware node it was first installed on.[1] The current Cloud Platform packages are capacity-based. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) and Nutanix Database Service (NDB) are licensed per physical CPU core, and Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) per usable TiB. NCI-Edge is licensed per powered-on VM and NCI-VDI per concurrent user. Term licenses run from 6 to 60 months and can move across hardware platforms and public clouds.[2][3]

Editions

Package Editions Metric Notes 
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Starter, Pro, Ultimate Physical CPU cores Starter: max cluster size 12, on-premises only. 1 TiB NUS Pro included per cluster 
NCI-D (Data) / NCI-C (Compute) Starter, Pro, Ultimate Cores NCI-D excludes Nutanix compute and networking 
Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) Starter, Pro, Ultimate Physical CPU cores  
Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP) bundles Starter (NCI Pro + NCM Pro); Pro (NCI Ultimate + NCM Pro); Ultimate (NCI Ultimate + NCM Ultimate) Cores  
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) Starter, Pro Usable TiB Mixed mode or dedicated mode 
Nutanix Database Service (NDB)  Cores (per cluster) or vCPUs (per VM)  
NCI-Edge Starter, Pro, Ultimate Powered-on VMs Up to 25 VMs, 96GB each 
NCI-VDI Starter, Pro, Ultimate Peak concurrent users Dedicated VDI cluster 

Sources: Software Options (modified 2026-09-04) and the NCI datasheet.[2][3][11] NCI add-ons are Advanced Disaster Recovery, Security, Cloud Native (NKS) and Nutanix Data Services for Kubernetes (NDK). The NCI SKU format is SW-NCI-[EDITION]-[SUPPORTLEVEL], for example SW-NCI-PRO-PR.[3]

Metrics

Six catalog rows. The Agreement’s definition of Usage Capacity lists “raw CPU cores”, “raw total flash drive capacity in tebibytes”, “used tebibytes”, “named users or concurrent users”, “VMs or VM packs”, “per node” and “vCPU” among its metrics.[1]

Nutanix name Catalog row Unit Used by 
Core (physical CPU core) Core Core NCI, NCI-C, NCI-D, NCM, NCP, NDB per cluster, NKP Full Stack 
Usable TiB Usable TiB Other NUS and its add-ons, Data Lens 
vCPU vCPU vCPU NDB per VM, NKP on VMs 
Concurrent user Concurrent user User NCI-VDI 
Powered-on VM Powered-on VM Other NCI-Edge 
Node (legacy node-based license) Node (legacy node-based license) Other Legacy AOS and Prism licenses 

For a comparison of core-based metrics across vendors, see Processor and core licensing.

Counting / floors

Full-cluster core coverage (NCI datasheet, modified 2026-05-21). “NCI is priced on a per core basis and licensing must cover the entire number of cores for full capacity of the cluster being licensed.”[3] The NCM datasheet (modified 2026-08-28) says the same for NCM on-premises, and the NCI-C datasheet for NCI-C.[4][12] The License Manager Guide (2026-09-14) says capacity-based licenses “are based on the core count and flash TiB count within your cluster configuration. The quantity of nodes in your environment does not impact these licenses.”[9] Catalog: License all cores for the full capacity of the cluster, proof NCI per core, entire cluster capacity.

Tier per cluster. “NCI editions are determined at the cluster level, clusters with mixed licensing will default to the lowest tier.” You cannot mix NCI and legacy AOS licenses in one cluster. You can mix them under one Prism Central, provided each cluster is entirely on one or the other.[3] Catalog: Edition set per cluster; mixed licensing defaults to lowest tier.

Term length. SKUs are “configurable for any duration between 6-60 months” for NCI, NCM, NCI-Edge and NCI-VDI, and 12–60 months for NCI-C and NCI-D.[3][11][12] Catalog: Term licenses configurable for 6–60 months.

No published per-processor minimum. The retrieved documents give no minimum number of cores per processor or per node for NCI or NCM. Unlike Broadcom’s 16-cores-per-Processor floor (see VMware vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation licensing), the rule Nutanix states is to cover all cores of the cluster.

Disaster recovery. “Disaster Recovery sites require separate licensing” for NCI and NCI-Edge. NCI-VDI lists “No additional license cost for DR site”.[3][2] Catalog: Disaster recovery sites require separate licensing.

NUS capacity. “NUS is priced per TiB of usable capacity available to clients and applications.” Capacity tiered to the cloud or to another objects cluster is licensed at the source. For example, 200 TiB on the primary plus 300 TiB tiered means licensing 500 TiB on the primary.[5] Replication needs NUS licenses on both the source and target clusters.[2] Catalog: NUS tiered and replicated capacity licensing.

NDB. Per cluster: “License all physical cores on a cluster”, with NCI Ultimate functionality included. Per VM: “License all vCPUs of virtual machines (VM) managed by NDB”, with NCI licensed separately. You can split licenses between the two modes and switch them at any time. Included NUS for NDB log backup is capped at 200 GiB per NDB core.[2] Catalog: NDB per cluster (all physical cores) or per VM (all vCPUs).

NCI-Edge and NCI-VDI. NCI-Edge is priced by “the maximum number of concurrently powered-on VMs”. It is limited to 25 such VMs of up to 96GB memory each, on a dedicated cluster with no core-based licensing. Nutanix system VMs (CVM, PCVM, FSVM) are not counted. Non-Nutanix system VMs such as vSphere vCLS are.[6][2] NCI-VDI is priced on “the peak number of concurrent user sessions”. It runs on a dedicated VDI cluster that can include up to 16 extra infrastructure VMs.[7] Catalog: NCI-Edge: 25 powered-on VMs, 96GB per VM, dedicated cluster, NCI-VDI: dedicated VDI cluster, no mixing with non-VDI workloads.

Legacy conversion. Legacy node-based licenses convert to capacity-based licenses “based on the core-to-node ratio”. For example, 96 cores across three nodes means each node license becomes a 32-core license. AOS Starter, Pro and Ultimate map to NCI Starter, Pro and Ultimate. Prism Pro maps to NCM Starter, and Prism Ultimate to NCM Pro.[9] A license key can cover more cores than the cluster needs. You only rebalance when the cluster needs more than the key supports.[9] Catalog: Legacy node-based to capacity-based conversion by core-to-node ratio.

Usage Capacity, certification and expiry. You must not exceed the Usage Capacity or use the Products after the Subscription Term expires. Nutanix may ask, “not more than once per year”, for written certification of your deployment, and may run reasonable audits with notice.[1] Subscriptions renew automatically unless you give 90 days’ written notice. If you renew late, backdated fees apply from the end of the previous term.[1] When an NCI or AOS license expires, you lose support, cluster expansion and storage-container changes from day zero. From day 60 you lose Prism Element logon, AOS upgrades and security patches.[9] Catalog: Do not exceed Usage Capacity; annual certification and audits, Expired licenses: support loss at day 0, lock-out at day 60.

Virtualization & partitioning

Nutanix counts physical cores across the whole cluster. The retrieved documents publish no rule for sub-capacity or partitioned counting of NCI cores. The rules that depend on virtualization concern cluster type and VM placement:

  • NUS dedicated mode. In dedicated mode, “a max of 1 user/application VM is allowed per node in the cluster excluding any system VMs (CVM and FSVMs)”. More application VMs need mixed mode, where the cluster also has NCI or NCP licenses.[2] Catalog: NUS dedicated mode: one user VM per node; mixed mode needs NCI.
  • NDB per VM counts the vCPUs assigned to NDB-managed VMs. NKP on VMs counts worker-node vCPUs, and control plane nodes do not need licenses.[2]
  • Hypervisor choice. NCI-D delivers data services without Nutanix compute and networking, for use with other hypervisors.[2]

For how other vendors handle partitioning, see Virtualization and partitioning.

Cloud / BYOL

Where the software may run. The Agreement prohibits installing the Software on “any hardware other than Certified Hardware and Nutanix authorized public cloud-based service offerings”, and on grey-market hardware.[1] Term licenses can move across “Nutanix appliances, OEM platforms, third-party servers, and public cloud platforms”.[3] Catalog: Certified Hardware and authorized public clouds only, Term Based License portable between nodes; Life of Device License tied to node.

Edition minimums on public cloud. NCI and NCI-D need at least Pro edition, because Starter “is not eligible for deployment on public cloud”. NCI-VDI needs Ultimate.[3][11][7] Catalog: Public cloud deployment requires Pro edition or higher.

NC2. Nutanix Cloud Clusters can be bought pay-as-you-go, with monthly billing on “the physical cores and storage capacity consumed” metered hourly. Alternatively, Multi-Year License Portability lets you bring existing on-premises term licenses to “any supported Nutanix environment in the public cloud”. Usage above the planned license capacity falls back to the subscription plan you selected. You pay the cloud provider directly for the bare-metal instances.[8] Catalog: NC2 BYOL of on-premises term licenses, NC2 Multi-Year License Portability. See also Cloud BYOL.

Programs

Term Based License. This is the standard subscription wrapper: portable, fixed term, and renewing automatically (§2.1, §13.2).[1] Catalog: Term Based License. For how term licensing compares with consumption models, see Subscription and consumption licensing.

Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Partner (NESPP) consumption model. The Agreement bars service-bureau and commercial-hosting use “unless as agreed with Nutanix in Your capacity as a Service Provider”.[1] Under the SP consumption model, licenses are paid on a recurring basis, not tied to a specific SKU, over a 12–60 month term with a monthly minimum commitment. Usage is metered hourly with Nutanix Pulse and billed from a fixed rate card: per core for NCI, NCM, NCP and NDB, per VM for Edge, per user for VDI, and per TiB for NUS. Overage is billed monthly in arrears at the same rate, and unused commitment does not carry forward.[10] Catalog: Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Partner (NESPP) consumption model, No service bureau or commercial hosting unless as a Service Provider.

Out of scope

  • List prices. NC2 hourly prices are published but not recorded here. No on-premises list prices were retrieved.
  • Per-processor or per-node core minimums. None are published in the retrieved documents.
  • Nutanix Software License and Support Agreement. None of the documents retrieved for this page has that title. The agreement published at nutanix.com/legal/eula is the License and Services Agreement cited here.
  • Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP), Nutanix Enterprise AI (NAI) and Data Lens. They are mentioned where they share a metric, but have no catalog rows of their own.
  • Hardware Support Services for NX-branded hardware (Agreement Appendix 1).
  • Legacy node-based pricing details and Life of Device SKUs beyond the conversion rule.

Catalog rows

References

  1. Nutanix License and Services AgreementOctober 2024 (footer); PDF created 2025-02-21; same text as nutanix.com/legal/eulaEffective 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  2. Nutanix Licensing and Cloud Platform Software OptionsPage modified 2026-09-04Effective 2026-09-04. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  3. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) datasheetPage modified 2026-05-21Effective 2026-05-21. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  4. Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) datasheetPage modified 2026-08-28Effective 2026-08-28. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  5. Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) datasheetPage modified 2024-05-29Effective 2024-05-29. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  6. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI-Edge) datasheetPage modified 2025-11-05Effective 2025-11-05. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  7. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (NCI-VDI) datasheetPage modified 2026-09-04Effective 2026-09-04. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  8. Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) Pricing & Licensing OptionsPage modified 2026-04-07Effective 2026-04-07. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  9. License Manager GuidePDF created 2026-09-14 (portal Last Updated 2026-09-14)Effective 2026-09-14. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  10. Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Consumption ModelPage modified 2026-08-13Effective 2026-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  11. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure - Data (NCI-D) datasheetTerms 12–60 months; public cloud requires ProRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  12. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure-Compute (NCI-C) datasheetPer core; terms 12–60 monthsRetrieved 2026-09-26.

See also

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