Since September 2025, Oracle Base Database Service offers a new edition: Developer - or better: Enterprise Edition Developer. For those who need OS-level access to the database system for file transfers, SYSDBA or other administrative permissions, local database exports, or more than one tablespace (unlike Autonomous Database Shared) - the Base Database Service covers it all. No PDB count limitation of 3, Enterprise Features included.

And the best part: License included! You only pay for the underlying resources like storage.

Technical documentation: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/paas/base-database/about/index.html#GUID-1DF6ECD3-A865-47B4-9C18-0D307113A507

Important note: This edition is not recommended for production. It fit’s best for development and testing. But why?

There are some technical Limitations

• Logical Volume only
• Single-Node only
• Maximum of 2 threads and 8 GB memory per PDB.
• Maximum of 20 GB database size and 30 sessions per PDB (not verified)
• Shape is Ampere A1

Supported Oracle Versions

• Oracle AI Database 26ai
• Oracle Database 23ai
• Oracle Database 19c

Provisioning

The path to provisioning a Base Database Service is straightforward: a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) and a Service Gateway for routing to local OCI services must exist. Otherwise, the provisioning will fail and display an error indicating missing or incorrect configuration. You can scale the OCPU count up to your tenancy limit, which in this case is 12 OCPUs.

In the storage section, you can choose between balanced or higher performance, with up to 8192 GB of storage. Note that the storage volume performance cannot be downgraded once selected.

Other settings such as SSH key management, network configuration, hostname, creating a CDB and PDB, encryption keys and character set are the same as in the regular Base Database Service.

Detail list of all available versions as per 04.12.2025:

Backup to Object Storage is the only option available. Backup retention can be configured for up to 60 days. If you need to set up prerequisites, click the blue link in the warning box to see the required steps.

Example error when access to Object Storage is not properly configured:

Provisioning time is about 15-20mins.

Under the Hood

Logged in as the OS user oracle with the provided private SSH key, you can view the services currently running on the listener using:

[oracle@dbsys-dev01 ~]$ . oraenv
ORACLE_SID = [DBDEV01] ? 
The Oracle base has been set to /u01/app/oracle
[oracle@dbsys-dev01 ~]$ lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 23.26.0.0.0 - for Oracle Cloud and Engineered Systems on 04-DEC-2025 18:56:17

Copyright (c) 1991, 2025, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=dbsys-dev01.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com)(PORT=1521)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 23.26.0.0.0 - for Oracle Cloud and Engineered Systems
Start Date                04-DEC-2025 18:43:39
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 12 min. 37 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP                      OFF
Listener Parameter File   /u01/app/oracle/product/23.0.0/dbhome_1/network/admin/listener.ora
Listener Log File         /u01/app/oracle/diag/tnslsnr/dbsys-dev01/listener/alert/log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=dbsys-dev01.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com)(PORT=1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcps)(HOST=dbsys-dev01.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com)(PORT=2484)))
Services Summary...
Service "415a9962cf781feae06345e0606400fb.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "DBDEV01", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "DBDEV01XDB.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "DBDEV01", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "DBDEV01_PDBDBDEV01.paas.oracle.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "DBDEV01", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "DBDEV01_wh8_zrh.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "DBDEV01", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "pdbdbdev01.sndatabasepubli.vcndatabase.oraclevcn.com" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "DBDEV01", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

Metrics

Only a few basic Oracle Cloud Infrastructure metric are available. If you need more metrics, use your own tools. OCI Diagnostics & Management cannot be enabled at the moment.

• CPU Utilization
• Memory Utilization
• Memory Utilization
• Memory Utilization
• Memory Utilization

Swingbench Short Run

An Order Entry run with server-side PL/SQL and 50 users. Credits to Dominic Giles (dominicgiles.com) for the latest relase with the web frontend!

Pricing

Cost items / SKU numbers for A1 with balance storage:

For an office-hours database (Monday to Friday, 7 AM to 5 PM) running with 2 OCPUs and 100 GB of balanced storage, the cost is about $10 per month — amazing! And again, no license costs!

To enable auto-start and stop to save money, the database system can be added to the OCI integrated Resource Scheduler.

Wrap-up

Besides some limitations (similar to those we know from the Free offering), Oracle Base Database Service Developer Edition is a great option for building applications in the cloud with minimal cost and maximum flexibility. It gives you OS-level access, control over CDB/PDB creation, and the ability to scale resources as needed — all without license fees.

With features like up to 8192 GB of storage, integrated backups to Object Storage, and straightforward provisioning it’s a developer-friendly solution for testing, learning, and building proof-of-concept environments.

If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to experiment with Oracle Database in OCI, this is worth trying out.