# Overprovisioned OCI Block Volume Performance Level Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/overprovisioned-oci-block-volume-performance-level OCI Block Volume bills performance separately from capacity. Each block or boot volume is charged per GB-month for storage plus a number of volume... By: PointFive Updated: 2026-09-28 [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) The short version OCI Block Volume bills performance separately from capacity. PointFive Research Cloud cost research at PointFive OCI service [OCI Block Volume](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/oci-block-volume) Category [Storage](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/storage) Reference CER-0550 Type Overprovisioned Resource ## Explanation Why the waste happens and who it affects. Each block or boot volume is charged per GB-month for storage plus a number of volume performance units (VPUs) per GB-month set by its performance level: 0 for Lower Cost, 10 for Balanced, 20 for Higher Performance and 30 to 120 for Ultra High Performance. Volumes are often raised to Higher or Ultra High Performance for a migration, a load test or a database launch and not lowered afterwards, so they keep paying two to twelve times the Balanced VPU charge for IOPS and throughput they no longer use. A related case: large block volumes that serve sequential, throughput-oriented work such as streaming, log processing or data warehouse files stay on the default Balanced level, when Lower Cost, with no VPU charge, is Oracle's recommended level for that I/O pattern. Performance can be changed on an existing volume without re-creating it, so both cases can be corrected in place. ## Billing model The pricing dimensions that drive this cost. Performance is priced per GB, so the VPU charge grows with volume size as well as with the performance level. Block Volume Storage Billed per GB of provisioned capacity per month for block and boot volumes Volume performance units Billed per VPU per GB per month; Balanced is 10 VPUs/GB, Higher Performance 20, Ultra High Performance 30 to 120 Lower Cost level 0 VPUs/GB, storage cost only, available for block volumes but not boot volumes Performance-based auto-tuning Adjusts a volume between a Default VPUs/GB floor and a Maximum VPUs/GB ceiling based on monitored performance ## How to detect 5 checks to find it in your estate. - List block and boot volumes whose vpusPerGB is 20 or more (oci bv volume list and oci bv boot-volume list return vpusPerGB for each volume), grouped by compartment and attached instance - For each, compare VolumeReadOps plus VolumeWriteOps and VolumeReadThroughput plus VolumeWriteThroughput in the oci\_blockstore namespace with VolumeGuaranteedIOPS and VolumeGuaranteedThroughput over several weeks, including peaks; sustained use far below the guarantee means the level is higher than needed - Check VolumeThrottledIOs before lowering a level: volumes with throttled I/O are using their performance and are not candidates - Flag Ultra High Performance volumes whose attachments are not multipath-enabled or whose instance shape does not support UHP, since multipath-enabled attachments are required for UHP performance - Find large block volumes on Balanced that serve sequential, throughput-bound workloads (streaming, log processing, data warehouse files) and could use Lower Cost ## How to fix 5 ways to remove the waste. - Lower vpusPerGB on overprovisioned volumes from the volume's Edit panel or with oci bv volume update --vpus-per-gb (0, 10, 20 or 30 to 120); the change applies to the existing volume without re-creating it - For volumes with occasional peaks, enable performance-based auto-tuning with a low Default VPUs/GB floor and a Maximum VPUs/GB ceiling, so the higher level is used only when monitored performance needs it - Move sequential, throughput-bound block volumes to Lower Cost after testing, noting that the IOPS performance SLA does not apply at Lower Cost and latency can be higher and more variable - Keep boot volumes at Balanced unless a measured need exists, since boot volumes cannot use Lower Cost and are created at Balanced by default - Enable detached volume auto-tuning on volumes that are periodically detached so they drop to Lower Cost while detached ## Documentation Vendor references for pricing and configuration. - [Block Volume Performance docs.oracle.com](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Block/Concepts/blockvolumeperformance.htm) - [Changing the Performance of an Existing Block Volume docs.oracle.com](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Block/Concepts/update-performance-block-bv-volume.htm) - [Dynamic Performance Scaling docs.oracle.com](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Block/Tasks/create-autotunepolicies-bv-volume.htm) - [Block Volume Metrics Reference docs.oracle.com](https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Block/References/volumemetrics-reference.htm) - [Cloud Price List oracle.com](https://www.oracle.com/cloud/price-list/#pricing-storage) ## Related inefficiencies [Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) - OCI Block Volume CER-0208 ### [Unattached Block Volume (Non-Boot)](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unattached-block-volume-non-boot) Block volumes that are not attached to any instance continue to incur charges. These often accumulate after instance deletion or reconfiguration. Unlike boot volumes, unattached data volumes may be harder to track if not labeled or tagged... Storage - OCI Block Volume CER-0199 ### [Unattached Boot Volume](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/unattached-boot-volume) When a Compute instance is terminated in OCI, the associated boot volume is not deleted by default. If the termination settings don't explicitly delete the boot volume, it persists and continues to generate storage charges. Because boot... Storage - OCI Block Volume CER-0551 ### [Excessive OCI Block Volume Backup Retention](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/excessive-oci-block-volume-backup-retention) OCI Block Volume backups are stored in Object Storage and billed at Object Storage prices for as long as they are retained. The Oracle-defined Bronze, Silver and Gold backup policies are a one-click choice, but their retention is fixed and... Storage --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.