Changes to bundled licensing for Microsoft Windows
As of today there are changes to bundled licensing for Microsoft Windows images. The pricing changes do not affect
customers providing their own licenses.
Previously, Windows licenses were provided on an hourly basis but a recent review has found Catalyst Cloud may not be
permitted by Microsoft to offer them this way. Therefore, Catalyst Cloud will be applying a new set of rules for
bundled licenses from 1 October 2025.
Bundled Windows licenses will be based on a strict calendar month regardless of total time a compute instance that uses
a bundled license was running during the calendar month. The license will not apply to instances that are shelved for
the entire month, but will apply for the whole month if unshelved for any time at all. Each compute instance using a
bundled license needs its own license; they are not provided from a pool that is consumed on-demand. Only the license
is charged on a monthly basis, compute hours remain charged on an hourly basis.
At the same time, we’re simplifying the way licenses are calculated. Previously a bundled license fee was specific to
each size and type of compute instance. Under the new bundled license system, the type of compute will no longer affect
the price, and bundled licenses will always be based on the same amount for each 2 vCPUs a compute instance has (with a
minimum of 2 vCPU). Similar changes are being applied to images containing Microsoft SQL Server.
Please refer to the bundled licensing section on the Catalyst Cloud website for details on pricing for running
Windows and SQL Server images.
