add: iaas category

Author: Pratiyush

categories/iaas.md

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+# Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
+
+> Cloud infrastructure free tiers from major providers.
+
+| Service | Free Tier | Limits | Rate Limits | Verified | Link |
+|---------|-----------|--------|-------------|----------|------|
+| Oracle Cloud Always Free | Permanent free tier (most generous) | 4 ARM Ampere A1 cores, 24 GB RAM (split across up to 4 VMs), 2 AMD VMs (1/8 OCPU + 1 GB each), 200 GB block storage, 10 TB/month outbound, 2 autonomous databases | ARM instances may face capacity constraints in popular regions due to high demand | ✅ 2026-04 | [oracle.com/cloud/free](https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/) |
+| GCP Always Free | Permanent free tier | 1 e2-micro VM (2 vCPU shared, 1 GB RAM) in us-west1/central1/east1, 5 GB Cloud Storage, 1 TB BigQuery queries/month, 2M Cloud Functions invocations, 180K vCPU-seconds Cloud Run, 120 build-min/day | Billing account required but no charges within limits; limits shared across all projects per billing account | ✅ 2026-04 | [cloud.google.com/free](https://cloud.google.com/free) |
+| AWS Always Free | Permanent free tier (30+ services) | Lambda: 1M invocations + 400K GB-sec/month, DynamoDB: 25 GB, S3: 5 GB, CloudFront: 1 TB + 10M requests, SNS: 1M publishes | No free compute (EC2) on always-free tier; EC2 t2.micro is 12-month trial only | ✅ 2026-04 | [aws.amazon.com/free](https://aws.amazon.com/free/) |
+| AWS 12-Month Free | 12-month trial (new accounts) | EC2 t2.micro 750 hrs/month, RDS 750 hrs/month, S3 5 GB, ELB 750 hrs/month | **Expires after 12 months** -- converts to pay-as-you-go. Post-July 2025: new credit-based Free Plan ($200 credits) | ✅ 2026-04 | [aws.amazon.com/free](https://aws.amazon.com/free/) |
+| Azure Always Free | Permanent free tier (65+ services) | Functions: 1M executions/month, Blob Storage: 5 GB LRS, Cosmos DB: 1,000 RU/s + 25 GB, App Service: 10 web/mobile/API apps | No always-free VM; B1S VM is 12-month trial only. $200 credit for first 30 days on new accounts | ✅ 2026-04 | [azure.microsoft.com/pricing/free-services](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-services) |
+| Azure 12-Month Free | 12-month trial (new accounts) | B1S Linux VM 750 hrs/month, SQL Database, Blob Storage 5 GB, Bandwidth 15 GB | **Expires after 12 months** -- auto-converts to pay-as-you-go unless deprovisioned | ✅ 2026-04 | [azure.microsoft.com/pricing/free-services](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-services) |
+| IBM Cloud | Lite plan (permanent, 40+ services) | Watson APIs free tier, Cloud Functions, Cloudant (lite), Db2 (lite), Object Storage (25 GB) | Quota resets monthly; hitting quota suspends service for remainder of month. $200 credit for 30 days on new Pay-as-you-go accounts | ✅ 2026-04 | [ibm.com/cloud/free](https://www.ibm.com/products/cloud/free) |
+| Hetzner | No free tier | **No permanent free tier.** Referral programs may offer EUR 20 credit. Cheapest plan: EUR 3.49/month (CX23: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) | Not applicable -- included for completeness as frequently asked about | ✅ 2026-04 | [hetzner.com/cloud](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/) |
+
+## Notes
+
+- **Oracle Cloud Always Free** is the clear winner for free compute: 4 ARM cores + 24 GB RAM permanently is unmatched by any other provider.
+- **GCP** is the only major provider offering a permanent free VM (e2-micro), though it is very small (1 GB RAM, shared CPU).
+- **AWS** does not offer any always-free compute -- the popular t2.micro is 12-month trial only. Post-July 2025, new accounts get a $200 credit-based Free Plan instead.
+- **Azure** similarly has no always-free VM; B1S is 12-month trial. Both AWS and Azure 12-month offers auto-convert to paid -- set billing alerts.
+- **IBM Cloud** Lite plan is permanent but limited; Watson AI APIs are the main draw.
+- **Hetzner** has no free tier but is included because it is frequently asked about. At EUR 3.49/month, it is the cheapest paid option for real compute.
+- For always-free production workloads, combine **Oracle Cloud** (compute + storage) with **AWS/GCP** (serverless functions + CDN).