Oracle Processor vs Named User Plus (NUP): metrics, minimums & cost (2026)

Oracle Database is licensed by one of two metrics: Processor or Named User Plus (NUP). Picking the wrong one — or miscounting either — is where a lot of Oracle exposure starts. Here is how each works and how they convert.

Processor licensing

A Processor license covers the cores a database runs on, adjusted by the Oracle core-factor table. You multiply physical cores by the core factor for that chip (for example, most Intel and AMD x86 cores carry a 0.5 factor), then round up to whole licenses. Processor licensing suits internet-facing or large/unknown user populations where counting users isn’t practical.

Named User Plus licensing

NUP licenses count the humans and devices that access the database, and they carry a minimum of 25 Named User Plus per processor for Enterprise Edition (Standard Edition 2 uses a per-server minimum). The minimum matters: even with few actual users, a multi-core server can force a NUP floor well above your headcount.

How they convert

Because the NUP minimum is expressed per processor, the two metrics are linked: the processor count (cores × core factor) sets the floor on how many NUP licenses you must hold. Compare your NUP entitlement against that floor and you can see whether NUP or Processor is the cheaper, compliant choice for a given database.

Getting the count right

The number is deterministic once you know the cores, the chip, and the metric — but across a large estate it’s easy to misapply the core factor or forget the NUP minimum. RenewalIntel applies the current core-factor table to your real core inventory per database and converts NUP entitlements to processor-equivalents, so the Processor-versus-NUP position is computed from your estate rather than estimated.