Do you or your finance team ever wish you could save money on your Oracle support renewals instead of seeing that number go up by 4%, 8%, 10% or even 15% per year? As we approach the May 31st Oracle fiscal year-end, many of you will be looking at your support invoices, and pondering this very thing. Well, here is the handy guide you have been looking for!
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House of Brick has helped thousands of Oracle customers reduce their annual support payments by 1) understanding their Oracle license entitlement, including applicable agreement terms and conditions, 2) monitoring their Oracle software usage to determine their current-state compliance status, and 3) reallocating entitlement to optimized usage to create a cost-saving license position. We want to share some of our experience with you so you can save money too!Â
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Oracle Renewal Strategies: What to Know About Support Terminations
If you have ever asked an Oracle rep about the possibility of reducing support on unused licenses, you probably got a response like this, “Sorry, but if you cancel support, the license agreement just allows us to reprice the support fees for all your other licenses, so you could even end up paying more than you are now!” While there are some snippets of truth in that response, it is overall misleading and untruthful. Let’s explore how support terminations work, and what you can do:
Oracle publishes a document called Technical Software Support Policies. On the top of page 7 is a section entitled “Pricing Following Reduction of Licenses or Support Level.” There are some key policies in this paragraph that are important to understand:
Oracle Policy Statement
“In the event that a subset of licenses on a single order is terminated…support for the remaining licenses on that license order will be priced at Oracle’s list price for support in effect at the time of termination…minus the applicable standard discount.” (emphasis added)
House of Brick Interpretation
Oracle does indeed have the right to reprice support on unterminated licenses, but it is limited to the licenses in a single order (most people identify orders by CSI numbers).Â
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Support terminations cannot impact the price of licenses in a separate order. Oracle does not define what “standard discount” is, but it should be at least 10% to 25% below list price.Â
Oracle Policy Statement
“Such support price will not exceed the previous support fees paid…for both the remaining licenses and the licenses being terminated or unsupported…”
House of Brick Interpretation
Your support payment cannot go higher by simply terminating support on a subset of licenses in that order.
Oracle Policy Statement
“[Such support price] will not be reduced below the previous support fees paid for the licenses continuing to be supported.”
House of Brick Interpretation
The per-license support fees (total support amount for that product divided by the quantity of licenses in that order) cannot go down as a result of terminating support on unused licenses.
Unspoken Oracle Renewal Rules That Impact Your Support Costs
There are some very important things to understand based on this policy statement that are not specifically called out:
- This policy of re-pricing support on remaining licenses only applies when you terminate “a subset of licenses on a single order.” If you cancel support payments on whole orders, Oracle does not have the right to reprice support on licenses in any other orders!
- Since Oracle cannot go above list price (minus some undefined discount), it is important to check how your current support fees compare to list price support. If you purchased your licenses originally at a 50% discount, and the support payments have been going up by 8% per year, then any licenses that are at least 10 years old cannot be repriced whether they were a subset of licenses in the order or not.
- Once support is dropped on a subset of licenses of a particular product (Oracle database, for example), you may no longer use those unsupported licenses. As the policy document states under Matching Service Levels, “You may not support a subset of licenses within a license set; the license set must be reduced by terminating any unsupported licenses.” If you want to run your licenses without support, you must terminate support on all licenses in that license set (products using the same code base, such as all Oracle database editions and all enterprise options and packs).
How to Reduce Oracle Renewal Costs: Key Recommendations
Following are some steps you can take to determine if you can save money on your annual support renewal, and ways that House of Brick can help:
Step 1: Evaluate Entitlements to Improve Oracle Renewals
Calculate your per-license support cost and compare it to Oracle’s list price support. Are you paying near or above list price? If so, there is no risk of repricing support on remaining licenses in a subset of a single order.
Step 2: Check Usage to Support Oracle Renewal Decisions
Ensure that your licenses, with appropriate license metrics, are applied to all Oracle deployment environments. This includes sufficient licensing for the physical processor cores where the Oracle “Programs are installed and/or running.” (Oracle License Definitions and Rules Booklet, Processor definition.) You should also check any Oracle software in a public cloud environment, and ensure proper license containment for virtualized environments.
Step 3: Align Your License Position Before Oracle Renewals
Are you short licenses in some areas, while having too many in others? If so, you are like the vast majority of customers we have worked with. Determine if any shortfall was intentional, or accidental. If you really need those licenses, this is the right time of year to negotiate a purchase with Oracle. If they are not needed, consider processes and guardrails to ensure that usage is stopped and does not continue. Optimizing the deployment environment to reduce the number of processor cores or cloud vCPUs that require a license is a great way to limit this exposure.
Step 4: Model Cost Savings Ahead of Oracle Renewals
For any unused licenses (shelfware), do the calculations outlined above to determine how much you could save by terminating support, and how much Oracle could reprice the remaining licenses, if they can at all. You may be surprised at how much you could reduce this annual expense. For customers that use House of Brick for compliance and optimization solutions, it is not uncommon for us to reduce annual support payments by 50% or more!
Opscompass Simplifies Oracle Renewals and Support Strategy
You can, of course, do all this on your own. Oracle reps may not be the best source for asking questions, but this post, and many others from House of Brick can help your sort through the confusion. If you are open to considering a cost-optimizing solution from House of Brick, our Opscompass software is just what you are looking for.
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Opscompass is an Asset Intelligence Platform that takes raw data on your database, application, and platform assets, and transforms that into the actionable intelligence you need to make critical decisions such as reducing annual support costs for your Oracle licenses. Opscompass monitors your entitlement, all the supporting documentation (license agreements, ordering documents, support renewals, etc.), and your software usage to proactively alert you to any conditions that could put you out of compliance.
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Reach out to us if you would like to see a demo of Opscompass, or talk with a House of Brick expert to discuss your opportunity in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can reduce Oracle renewal costs by identifying unused licenses (shelfware), evaluating your current entitlement against actual usage, and understanding Oracle’s support repricing rules. Tools like Opscompass help model cost-saving scenarios and validate which licenses can be terminated without triggering unnecessary repricing.
Oracle may reprice support for the remaining licenses in the same order (identified by CSI), but they cannot raise support costs beyond list price minus standard discounts. If the licenses are old or from different orders, repricing may not apply at all. Understanding these nuances is key to reducing your Oracle renewal expenses safely.
Oracle’s Technical Support Policies state that support for remaining licenses may be repriced if only a subset is terminated—within the same order. However, if you cancel support for entire orders or for old licenses already near or above list price, repricing often doesn’t apply. This makes targeted terminations a strategic option.
Compare your current per-license support cost to Oracle’s published list prices. If your support cost has increased steadily over the years, especially on licenses originally bought at a discount, you might be paying more than necessary. An entitlement review using Opscompass can quickly surface these gaps.
Yes. Opscompass tracks your license entitlements, Oracle usage, and documentation to provide real-time intelligence around compliance and renewal risks. It helps you identify unused licenses, model cost-saving scenarios, and stay audit-ready—all crucial for making smarter Oracle renewal decisions.
