VMware Licensing 2026: Pricing, Subscriptions & Core Rules

Before renewing licenses or buying VMware ESXi server support, you need the current rules, because VMware licensing under Broadcom no longer resembles the model most environments were bought under. Perpetual licenses are gone, editions have been collapsed into two bundles, and every quote is counted in physical cores with a per-CPU floor. This page documents the model as it stands.

Subscription only: perpetual sales ended

Broadcom ended the sale of VMware perpetual licenses, along with Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for perpetual products, effective with the portfolio announcement of December 11, 2023. The change is documented in Broadcom's announcement, VMware by Broadcom Dramatically Simplifies Offer Lineup and Licensing Model, and in the follow-up End of Availability of Perpetual Licensing and SaaS Services post.

Practical consequences:

• Existing perpetual keys remain valid, but no new SnS support contracts sell against them. A host on a perpetual license runs without vendor support and without entitlement to new versions.
• All new purchases are term subscriptions, typically quoted at 1-, 3-, or 5-year terms per core. Multi-year terms price lower per core per year than one-year terms.
• At the end of a subscription term there is no fallback right. Non-renewal means the software is no longer licensed.

The current product lineup

The portfolio consolidated into two primary offers, described in Broadcom's license changes and upgrade paths post:

Additional vSAN capacity above the included entitlement is purchased separately per TiB. Add-ons such as vDefend (firewall), Avi Load Balancer, and Live Recovery attach to VCF subscriptions.

What happened to vSphere Standard and Enterprise Plus

vSphere Standard and vSphere Enterprise Plus survived the 2023 consolidation as lower-cost subscription SKUs, but their position ended with the vSphere 9 release cycle: vSphere 9 ships only inside VVF 9 and VCF 9. Standard and Enterprise Plus subscriptions are capped at the vSphere 8 branch (8.0 Update 3 and its patches), and during 2026 Broadcom removed the standalone Standard and Enterprise Plus SKUs from sale through the channel. Customers on those SKUs renew into VVF or VCF to stay on supported, current-version software. Confirm SKU availability for your region with your Broadcom distributor via the Broadcom support portal and its linked partner locator, because availability has changed several times since the acquisition.

Per-core counting and the 16-core minimum

All current SKUs license physical cores across ESXi hosts. The counting rules are published in Broadcom knowledge base article Counting Cores for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation:

• Count every physical core on every CPU in every ESXi host covered by the subscription. Hyper-threading does not change the count; vCPUs are irrelevant.
• 16-core minimum per CPU. A CPU with fewer than 16 cores is counted as 16. A host with two 8-core CPUs licenses as 2 × 16 = 32 cores, not 16.
• Totals are summed across all hosts to set the subscription quantity.

Separately from the per-CPU floor, minimum order quantities at the distributor level have changed more than once since 2024. The per-CPU 16-core rule above is the one written into Broadcom's licensing documentation; order minimums are a channel policy and should be confirmed on the quote.

Pricing

Broadcom does not publish a public price list for VCF or VVF. All pricing is quote-based, per core per year, issued through authorized distributors and resellers. The variables that move a quote:

• Term length. 3- and 5-year commitments price below 1-year terms per core per year.
• SKU. VCF costs a multiple of VVF per core, offset partly by its larger vSAN entitlement and included NSX.
• Core count tier. Larger commitments negotiate lower unit rates.
• Add-ons. vSAN capacity beyond the entitlement, vDefend, Avi, and Live Recovery are separate line items.
• Renewal versus new. Renewal quotes after the acquisition have commonly landed at multiples of the prior SnS cost, because a perpetual+SnS baseline and a subscription baseline are not comparable line items.

Numbers circulating on third-party blogs are estimates or leaked quotes and change by region and quarter. Treat any per-core dollar figure that does not appear on your own quote as unreliable.

Free ESXi status

The free standalone hypervisor, discontinued in early 2024, returned with ESXi 8.0 Update 3e. Broadcom documents it in VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 3e now available as a Free Hypervisor. Terms: the embedded free license runs unlimited VMs within hardware limits, supports up to 2 physical CPUs per host and 8 vCPUs per VM, cannot connect to vCenter Server, exposes no write API access, and carries no Broadcom support. It is a standalone-host option for labs and test environments, not a substitute for a licensed cluster.

Options at renewal

A renewal event under this model is a re-quote, not a rollover. The workable options:

• Renew on VVF or VCF. Match the SKU to what you actually run: paying for VCF while using only vSphere and vCenter buys NSX and automation components that sit idle. VVF covers the common compute-virtualization case.
• Downsize the core footprint before the quote. Because licensing is per core with a per-CPU floor, consolidating VMs onto fewer, denser hosts and retiring or repurposing the rest directly cuts the subscription quantity. Do the consolidation before the renewal date; the quote is based on the cores you declare.
• Migrate off. Proxmox VE, Hyper-V, XCP-ng, and Nutanix AHV are the usual destinations. The comparison, migration tooling, and effort estimates are covered in VMware alternatives. Migration takes months for a production estate, so the decision belongs at the start of the final subscription year, not the final quarter.
• Run out perpetual licenses unsupported. Viable only for static, isolated workloads. No security patches beyond the entitled version and no vendor escalation path. Third-party VMware support can cover operational break-fix on such hosts, but it does not restore patch entitlement.

Reference documents

• VMware by Broadcom offer lineup and licensing model — news.broadcom.com
• End of Availability of perpetual licensing — VMware Cloud Foundation blog
• Counting cores for VCF and VVF — Broadcom KB 313548
• Free ESXi 8.0 Update 3e — Broadcom KB 399823
• License changes and upgrade paths — VMware Cloud Foundation blog
• Broadcom support portal (entitlements, downloads, partner locator)

FAQ

How much does a VMware license cost?

There is no public price list. VCF and VVF sell as per-core, per-year subscriptions quoted through Broadcom distributors, with a 16-core minimum per CPU. Cost depends on SKU, term length, core count, and add-ons. Get quotes for both VVF and VCF against your actual core inventory before assuming either number.

Can I still buy vSphere Standard or Enterprise Plus?

The standalone SKUs were withdrawn from sale during 2026 and are capped at the vSphere 8 branch. vSphere 9 is available only inside VVF 9 and VCF 9. Existing Standard/Enterprise Plus subscribers renew into VVF or VCF.

Are perpetual VMware licenses still valid?

Yes, existing perpetual keys keep working at the versions they entitle. But support contracts no longer renew against them, so they receive no patches beyond entitled versions and no vendor support.

Is there still a free version of ESXi?

Yes. ESXi 8.0 Update 3e ships with an embedded free hypervisor license: unlimited VMs, up to 2 physical CPUs per host, 8 vCPUs per VM, no vCenter connectivity, no Broadcom support.