Red Hat licensing

Red Hat licensing is the way Red Hat, Inc. charges for its enterprise open source software. Red Hat does not sell licences in the usual sense. The software itself is made available under open source licences, and Appendix 1 states that “there are no fees associated with the Red Hat Software licenses”.^[1] What customers buy are term Subscription Services: access to the software, maintenance, updates and support. These are counted in Units such as the Socket-pair, the Core-pair or the Managed Node. Red Hat has been a subsidiary of IBM since 2019 and continues to sell its own products and subscriptions under the Red Hat name.^[12]

The contract is the Red Hat Enterprise Agreement. Together with the Product Appendices and any Order Forms, it forms what Red Hat calls “the Agreement”. It defines a Unit as the basis on which Fees are determined, as set out in a Product Appendix or Order Form.^[2] Product Appendix 1, Software and Support Subscriptions, holds the table of Units, the Supported Use Cases and the rules on Development and Production Use. Red Hat publishes the current documents on its agreements hub.^[1][5] For a software asset manager the key fact is that the obligation follows deployment. Every system where subscribed software runs must be covered, whether or not the software would run without a subscription.

Editions

Red Hat publishes no price list in its agreements. Appendix 1 groups products into Exhibits, each with its own Units:^[1]

Within each family, variants differ by Supported Use Case, service level and add-on eligibility rather than by Unit. Appendix 1 requires the subscription type to match the use. Its own example is that a RHEL Desktop subscription used on a server obliges the customer to buy a RHEL Server subscription.^[1] Red Hat also offers no-cost developer subscriptions with limits on use and support. These are described in RHEL subscription variants.

Metrics

The catalog holds each Appendix 1 Unit under Red Hat’s own name. The most used are:

• Socket-pair: up to two occupied CPU sockets. RHEL Server is sold per Socket-pair for each Physical Node or for two Virtual Nodes, regardless of virtual sockets.^[1]
• Core-pair: two physical cores or four vCPUs, aggregated across all OpenShift compute nodes in the clusters being entitled.^[4] Appendix 1 expresses the same idea as “2 Cores or 4 vCPUs”, and within Exhibit 1.B one Core equals two vCPUs with hyper-threading active.^[1]
• Bare Metal Node: one physical server for OpenShift, a Socket-pair with up to 128 Cores for subscriptions bought after 2025-01-01 at the new list prices.^[1]
• Managed Node: each Node managed, directly or indirectly, by Ansible Automation Platform or Satellite during the subscription term.^[1]
• AI Accelerator, System, FTE, IBM Z IFL / Power IFL, User and Deployment cover the remaining products. Metered cloud offerings use vCPU hours and core hours.^[9]

Red Hat publishes no conversion between Socket-pairs, Core-pairs and Managed Nodes, and no rule that two vCPUs equal one socket for RHEL.

Counting / floors

Every Unit, from first use. While a customer has a subscription, it must buy subscriptions equal to the total number and capacity of Units from the start of use, including non-Red Hat products that Subscription Services are used to support.^[1] If it deploys more Units than it has paid for, it must promptly report the extra Units and the dates of use.^[2] A subscription begins on the earlier of purchase or first use, unless an Order Form says otherwise.^[1]

RHEL. Socket-pairs stack: a two-socket server needs one subscription, a four-socket server two and an eight-socket server four. A one-socket server still needs a whole Socket-pair, and one subscription cannot be split across two physical systems.^[3]

OpenShift. Only compute nodes that run application workloads are counted. Control plane nodes, and infrastructure nodes that run only qualifying cluster services, are included. Compact three-node clusters and single-node OpenShift count every core.^[4]

Ansible. The Managed Node count is cumulative over the term. Customer Portal article 3331481 names cycling or rotating nodes through automation controller, or clearing its database, as prohibited ways of staying under the entitlement.^[10]

Use-case floors. The HPC Use Case needs at least four Physical Nodes per Cluster, and the Academic Site Subscription at least 1,000 FTEs.^[1]

Support and service levels

Support is part of every paid subscription, at a service level bought per subscription. Appendix 1 lists Self-support, Base, Standard and Premium, depending on the product, as set out in the Production Support Terms of Service.^[1] Standard covers standard business hours. Premium adds 24x7 coverage for Severity 1 and 2 issues, with a one-hour initial response target for Severity 1.^[7] Customers must buy “the highest Service Level that you use or request”, and if a Cluster needs the highest level, every node in it must have it.^[1] Self-support subscriptions cannot be stacked, are not intended for production and cannot be used with Cloud Access.^[3]

Subscriptions renew automatically for the same term unless either party gives written notice at least 30 days before expiry.^[2] When a subscription ends, the customer loses updates and support but keeps its rights under the open source licences. Appendix 1 treats use of Subscription Services without paying for them as a breach of the Agreement that does not affect those licence rights.^[1] Every RHEL subscription includes Red Hat Lightspeed, formerly Red Hat Insights.^[3][14]

Virtualization & partitioning

Red Hat counts virtual machines as Virtual Nodes rather than looking at the host. A RHEL Server Socket-pair subscription covers two Virtual Nodes. RHEL for Virtual Datacenters covers unlimited Virtual Nodes on a subscribed Socket-pair host but includes no entitlement for the host operating system.^[1] When Virtual Datacenters subscriptions are pooled, the subscription guide requires every host in the cluster to be subscribed at the same service level, unless the hypervisor can restrict RHEL workloads to a subset of hosts.^[3] On IBM Z and LinuxONE, only the cores used by RHEL need to be entitled.

For OpenShift, Core-pair subscriptions are mandatory on virtual machines. OpenShift Virtualization Engine is licensed only per Bare Metal Node and allows unlimited virtual machines, but it does not include RHEL entitlements for the guests.^[4] Physical and virtual portability also applies to RHEL: a physical two-socket subscription can be used for two virtual instances without contacting Red Hat.^[3]

Cloud / BYOL

There are two routes to public cloud. Under Cloud Access, a customer deploys subscriptions it has already bought in a participating Vendor’s Cloud. The subscriptions must not have Units based solely on physical attributes, and their start date and duration do not change.^[1] The customer pays Red Hat for the subscriptions and the cloud provider for infrastructure.^[8] Red Hat may end a Vendor’s participation with sixty days’ notice, and the customer may then use its subscriptions on another Vendor’s cloud or on premises for the rest of the term.^[1]

Under pay-as-you-go On-Demand offerings, the customer buys through a cloud marketplace and is billed for metered use recorded in vCPU hours or core hours.^[9] On hyperscalers, four vCPUs always equal one OpenShift Core-pair.^[4] Providing Subscription Services to third parties, for example for hosting or managed services, is Unauthorized Subscription Services Use under end-customer subscriptions.^[1] See Red Hat Cloud Access and pay-as-you-go cloud subscriptions.

Programs

Audit and compliance

Section 10 of the Enterprise Agreement, titled Review, allows Red Hat or its designee to inspect a customer’s facilities and records to verify compliance while the Agreement is in effect and for one year afterwards. On-site visits need at least ten days’ written notice. Noncompliance or underpayment must be resolved within fifteen days of notice, and if the underpayment exceeds five percent the customer also reimburses the cost of the inspection.^[2]

In practice Red Hat’s compliance activity runs through two programs. Under SEAP, if usage exceeds subscriptions, “a subscription true-up will be initiated”, which includes buying the additional subscriptions within a 45-day period.^[6] Under SCALE, Deloitte compares deployment data with the customer’s subscriptions, and any true-up must be completed within 45 days of the final results.^[11] The subscription model FAQ adds that buying support from a third party does not remove the need to subscribe every installation for customers with active Red Hat subscriptions.^[6] The Enterprise Agreement also forbids creating multiple Red Hat accounts to avoid Fees or Unit limits.^[2]

Recent licensing changes

• 2019-07-09. IBM completed its acquisition of Red Hat.^[12]
• 2025-01-01. OpenShift Bare Metal Node subscriptions bought after this date at the new list prices cover a Socket-pair with up to 128 Cores, up from 64, including virtual nodes hosted on OpenShift Virtualization on the server.^[1]
• 2025-04-01. Real Time components were included in RHEL subscriptions generally.^[3]
• OpenShift Virtualization Engine. A virtualization-only edition licensed per Bare Metal Node.^[4]
• February 2026 Version of Appendix 1. Adds units such as the IBM Spyre Accelerator. A customer who does not accept a revised Appendix keeps the previous one for existing subscriptions until the end of their current term.^[1]
• Red Hat Lightspeed. Red Hat Insights was renamed Red Hat Lightspeed.^[14]

Deal details are on the acquisitions page.

Guides

The articles on Red Hat licensing, in reading order:

1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift subscription licensing: the Appendix 1 Units and how they are counted.
2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription variants: Server, Virtual Datacenters, SAP, Workstation, developer and lifecycle add-ons.
3. Red Hat OpenShift editions, node roles and core counting: which nodes count, Virtualization Engine and accelerators.
4. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Satellite managed-node licensing: the term-long Managed Node count.
5. Red Hat Cloud Access and pay-as-you-go cloud subscriptions: bringing subscriptions to cloud, and metered marketplace offers.
6. Red Hat Enterprise Agreement, Appendix 1 terms and support levels: renewal, counting obligations, review and service levels.

Out of scope

• Product Appendix 4 Online Services (managed OpenShift services and hosted offerings) beyond their consumption measures.
• Regional versions of the Enterprise Agreement other than North America English.
• List prices, discounts and partner program terms, including the Certified Cloud and Service Provider terms.
• IBM programs, including IBM products that bundle Red Hat software under IBM terms.