What Does an IBM i OS License cost?

If you’re looking to add another IBM i (AS/400) operating system license to your Power systems box, here’s a rough guide for what you might expect to pay for your new OS from IBM.

• For P10 boxes, an OS licenses should be less than $20K, with one year of maintenance (this includes 720 boxes, the most popular Power systems hardware for IBM i)
• For P20 boxes, it should be less than $50K, with one year of maintenance (these are the mid-size boxes, usually the 740 and 750s)
• For P30 boxes, less than $60K, with one year of maintenance (these are the big boxes IBM sells you for server consolidation, including the 770s)

YMMV. Contact IBM or your business partner for exact pricing. But I suspect you can get a better price with a little wrangling with IBM. I’ve seen P10 box licensing go for as low as $15K and P20s go for $45K, but your actual pricing will depend on what you can get from your business partner. So ask for discounts.

Also, be careful if you buy an OS license and add it to your lease. If you buy it with cash, you should be able to move it to another serial number if you change machines.  If you add it to your lease, there will be a question as to whether you or the leasing company owns the license. So think about ownership before you just add a new license to a lease.

Finally, consider that you only get one year of maintenance with your new license. So after the first year, you’ll have to purchase maintenance from IBM for the remaining time you own your machine and keep it in productive use.

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