Oracle core factor table 2026: multipliers, examples & how licenses are counted
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For Processor-metric licensing, the Oracle core-factor table is the multiplier that turns physical cores into required licenses. Get the factor wrong and every downstream number — license count, NUP minimum, exposure — is wrong with it.
How the core factor works
Required Processor licenses = physical cores × the core factor for that processor, rounded up to the next whole license. Oracle publishes and updates the factor per chip family.
- Intel and AMD x86 cores generally carry a 0.5 factor.
- SPARC T-series is typically 0.25; other SPARC families vary.
- IBM POWER is typically 1.0 — a core counts as a full license.
- If a processor isn’t on the table, the conservative assumption is a factor of 1.0 until confirmed.
A worked example
A server with two 32-core Intel CPUs has 64 physical cores. At a 0.5 core factor that is 32 Processor licenses (64 × 0.5). The same 64 cores on POWER at 1.0 would be 64 licenses — the chip choice doubles the requirement. This is why the table, not the raw core count, decides the number.
Applying it to your estate
The factors change as Oracle adds new chip families, and a mixed estate spans several of them. RenewalIntel applies the current core-factor table to your real core inventory per database, rounds the way Oracle does, and carries the result through to your Processor and NUP position — so the multiplier is never the thing that silently misprices your number.