Ubuntu Pro: What It Covers, Pricing & ESM

Before you buy a subscription or third-party Ubuntu server support, you need to know what Ubuntu Pro actually contains, what it costs, and when the free tier is enough. This page documents the subscription as published by Canonical. Ubuntu Pro is Canonical's security and compliance subscription for Ubuntu; the enterprise offering was previously sold as Ubuntu Advantage, which was rebranded into Ubuntu Pro when the expanded subscription entered general availability in early 2023 (the Infra-only tier corresponds to the former Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure, with no price change).

What Ubuntu Pro is

Ubuntu itself is free. Ubuntu Pro is a per-machine subscription that adds extended security maintenance, kernel patching automation, compliance tooling, and (optionally) Canonical support on top of a standard Ubuntu installation. It applies to LTS releases and does not change the OS you run — the same packages, plus additional security repositories and services enabled by an attachment token. Details are on ubuntu.com/pro.

What is included

The free personal tier

Canonical's published policy: Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use on up to 5 physical machines, and up to 50 machines for official Ubuntu Community members. The free tier carries the same ESM and Livepatch entitlements; it does not include Canonical support. Registration is at ubuntu.com/pro/subscribe.

Pricing

Published per-machine list prices from ubuntu.com/pricing/pro:

Weekday (business-hours) support is priced at 50% of the corresponding 24/7 support tier. Canonical also lists managed services on the same page — for example Managed Landscape at $3,099 per year per VM or $9,470 per physical machine, and managed infra/apps/full-stack tiers per physical server — but those are operations contracts, not the Pro subscription itself.

Support add-ons

The base Ubuntu Pro subscription is security maintenance only; break-fix support is a paid add-on. Two dimensions apply: coverage hours (weekday vs 24/7) and scope (infra support covers the base OS and infrastructure components; full support adds the application layer). Support includes break-fix and bug-fix handling by Canonical engineers under the Ubuntu Pro + Support tiers.

Attaching a machine

After purchasing or claiming a subscription, each machine is attached with a token from the Pro dashboard:

sudo pro attach TOKEN

The client then enables the entitlements (esm-infra, esm-apps, livepatch) permitted by the subscription; individual services can be enabled or disabled with pro enable and pro disable. On older systems the client was named ua (ubuntu-advantage-tools); current documentation is at documentation.ubuntu.com. Cloud images on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud are available with Pro built in and billed through the marketplace, with no manual attach step.

When Ubuntu Pro matters

• An LTS past standard support. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS left its 5-year standard window in April 2025; without ESM it receives no security fixes. Pro extends it to 2030. The same applied to 16.04 and 18.04 earlier. Release windows are listed in Ubuntu versions.
• Universe packages in production. Standard support only guarantees fixes for main. If your stack depends on universe packages (most application stacks do), ESM-Apps is the only Canonical-backed patch source for them, even during the first 5 years.
• Compliance requirements. FIPS 140, CIS, DISA-STIG and PCI-DSS obligations are covered by the Pro tooling rather than by base Ubuntu.
• Reboot windows are constrained. Livepatch removes the forced reboot for high and critical kernel CVEs between maintenance windows.

Alternatives

Two alternatives to paying for ESM exist. The first is upgrading the OS: moving to the current LTS restarts the 5-year standard support clock at no license cost, and is usually the correct choice when the application stack permits it — see Ubuntu LTS for the release cadence. The second is third-party managed support: Linux server support contracts cover patching, monitoring and break-fix on Ubuntu without a Canonical subscription, though they cannot substitute for ESM package fixes on an end-of-life release. For Canonical's own sales path, the contact form is at ubuntu.com/pro/subscribe or through Canonical sales on ubuntu.com/pro.

FAQ

Is Ubuntu Pro free?

For personal use, yes — up to 5 physical machines (50 for Ubuntu Community members). Commercial use is $25 per workstation per year or $500 per server per year at list, support excluded.

Is Ubuntu Pro the same as Ubuntu Advantage?

Ubuntu Advantage was the previous name for Canonical's paid subscription. The Infra-only Pro tier corresponds to Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure; the rebrand accompanied Ubuntu Pro's general availability in early 2023.

How long does Ubuntu Pro extend support?

To 10 years per LTS release via ESM-Infra and ESM-Apps, with an optional Legacy add-on extending the commitment to 15 years.

Does Ubuntu Pro include support?

Not in the base subscription. Phone/ticket support is an add-on: weekday or 24/7, infra-scope or full-stack, priced per machine per year as listed above.