Estimate your VMware licensing cost under Broadcom per core pricing, including the 16 core per CPU minimum, the 72 core minimum order and the vSphere Standard 512 core cap, then see what right sizing the bundle or a well timed renewal could recover. No sign up, nothing leaves your browser.
Last updated July 2026
Enter your VMware estate. The calculator runs entirely in your browser, so none of these figures are sent anywhere.
Defaults are indicative public list estimates in USD per core per year. For a real picture, replace them with the per core rate on your own quote and set the discount above to nil. Non USD totals use an indicative conversion of 1 USD to 0.75 GBP or 0.87 EUR.
A note on availability. Broadcom has withdrawn vSphere Foundation (VVF) in some regions, so the VVF option here may not be something you can actually license where you are. If VVF is the tier on your quote, or the one you were hoping to move to, drop us a line and we will confirm what is available to you and what it changes for your renewal.
This tool gives a directional estimate. A free consultation goes further: we check your real core utilisation, confirm the correct bundle for what you actually run, and model staying and renegotiating against moving on the same basis. With Standard capped at 512 cores and VVF withdrawn in some regions, many estates are pushed to VCF with no cheaper tier to fall back on, so the discount you negotiate and the timing of your renewal become the levers that matter. We negotiate these renewals from years on the vendor side, so we know where the give is. Often staying and renegotiating wins because the cost of moving outweighs the increase, and when moving is right we structure the exit so you are not left over a barrel at the next renewal. We have recovered an average of 37% for clients. Engage us early, before the renewal clock takes your leverage.
Prefer email? Reach us directly at hello@c4cgroup.co.uk.
Broadcom licenses VMware per core on subscription, not per CPU or per host, and three rules shape the bill. There is a minimum of 16 cores for every physical CPU, so a CPU with fewer than 16 cores is still charged as 16. There is a minimum subscription order of 72 cores, so small environments are billed for at least 72 cores. And vSphere Standard is available only up to 512 cores, above which you must use vSphere Foundation or VMware Cloud Foundation.
The billable core count is your hosts multiplied by CPUs per host multiplied by the greater of your cores per CPU or 16, then raised to 72 if it falls below that floor. That count is multiplied by the per core annual price of your bundle, reduced by any discount, and multiplied by the term.
The part most quotes gloss over is the bundle. The three tiers differ enormously:
The right sizing insight in the results shows the difference between the bundle you have been quoted and the tiers beneath it. If your workloads do not use the networking and full storage capabilities VCF brings, you may be paying a large premium for capability you will never deploy. That gap is exactly what an independent review sets out to confirm and recover.
There is a catch the tiers hide, though. vSphere Standard is capped at 512 cores, and Broadcom has withdrawn vSphere Foundation in some regions, so for a larger estate the cheaper tiers are frequently not genuinely available. Many organisations find they are pushed to VMware Cloud Foundation whether the full suite fits their workloads or not. When you cannot right size the bundle, two levers remain, and both are time sensitive: the discount you negotiate, and whether you renew or exit. That is why engaging before the renewal clock starts is the single most important decision on this page.
Broadcom does not publish a universal price list, but the indicative public list figures widely reported for the three subscription tiers are set out below, quoted per core per year. Discount, region, term and volume move the real number considerably, and the calculator above lets you apply your own discount and switch to pounds or euros.
| Bundle | Indicative list price, USD per core / year |
|---|---|
| VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) | around $400 |
| vSphere Foundation (VVF) | around $155 |
| vSphere Standard | around $55 |
Reviewed July 2026. These are indicative list figures, not a quote. VVF has been withdrawn in some regions, and vSphere Standard is capped at 512 cores, so the tier you can actually license is not always the one you would choose.
Broadcom licenses VMware per core on subscription, not per CPU or per host. The billable core count is your number of hosts multiplied by CPUs per host multiplied by the greater of your actual cores per CPU or 16. That figure is then subject to a 72 core minimum order, multiplied by the per core annual price of the bundle, and by the term length.
Broadcom bills a minimum of 16 cores for every physical CPU. If a CPU has fewer than 16 cores, you are still charged as if it had 16. On smaller hosts this can inflate the bill well beyond the actual core count.
Yes. Broadcom applies a minimum subscription order of 72 cores. Smaller environments are billed for at least 72 cores regardless of their actual core count.
Yes. vSphere Standard is available up to 512 cores. Environments above 512 billable cores cannot be licensed on vSphere Standard and must use vSphere Foundation or VMware Cloud Foundation.
Broadcom has withdrawn vSphere Foundation in some regions, so it may not be available to license where you are. If your quote names VVF, or you were hoping to move to it, speak to us and we will confirm what you can actually buy and how it affects the numbers.
Broadcom does not publish a universal price list, but indicative public list figures are widely reported at around 400 US dollars per core per year for VMware Cloud Foundation, around 155 for vSphere Foundation, and around 55 for vSphere Standard. What you actually pay depends on your discount, region, term and volume, so use the calculator above with your own quote for a realistic figure.
Often yes. Right sizing the bundle to the features you actually run, confirming real core utilisation, negotiating the discount, and choosing the correct term can recover meaningful cost. An independent audit before signing is the highest leverage step.