IBM Power Hardware Pricing
What should you pay
for IBM Power hardware?
Compare IBM Power8 through Power11 hardware before you buy. The Power Value Index weighs price and performance against support life so you can see which server earns its place in your budget.
How the Power Value Index Scores IBM Power Hardware
The score compares performance and capacity with useful life, market price, and value retention. It is an independent hardware value model you can check line by line.
| Generation | PVI Score | Rank | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power8 |
40/100
|
4 | Legacy / retire or extend-support only |
| Power9 |
54/100
|
3 | Value-zone / short-window refresh candidate |
| Power10 |
76/100
|
2 | Best current value / secondary market forming now |
| Power11 |
86/100
|
1 | Highest overall index / full lifecycle ahead |
IBM Power Hardware by Generation
Compare Power8 through Power11 server prices, Power Value Index scores, and support life.
IBM Power8 Hardware Value Profile
IBM Power8 hardware is cheap to acquire, but standard IBM service ended across the line by October 2024. Its short support runway keeps it last in the Power Value Index.
PVI 54/100IBM Power9 Hardware Price and Value
Current IBM Power9 hardware prices show why the model name is not enough. The machine type, processor feature, memory, storage, and entitlement paperwork change the value.
PVI 76/100IBM Power10 Hardware Value Profile
IBM Power10 hardware now sits in the useful middle between discounted acquisition cost and meaningful support life. That balance makes it the current Power Value Index value pick.
PVI 86/100IBM Power11 Hardware Price and Quote Guide
IBM Power11 hardware is configured to order and priced by workload. A useful quote identifies the model and processor feature before software, support, and migration are added.
IBM Power Hardware Pricing and Buying Guides
IBM Power Hardware Prices
Acquisition cost ranges by generation and market condition.
How Hardware Changes IBM i Cost
See how the server model and processor choice set the software tier.
IBM Power Hardware Ownership Cost
A five-year cost model across generations.
IBM Power Hardware Upgrade Economics
Compare keeping the current server with used Power10 and new Power11.
Used IBM Power Hardware
How secondary-market server pricing actually forms.
IBM Power Hardware by Workload
Find the generation that fits the workload you need to run.
From the IBM Power Hardware Library
How IBM Power Hardware Support Life Changes the Budget
Use the Power8 and Power9 support record to plan the useful life of Power10 and Power11 hardware before IBM announces their end dates.
How IBM Power Hardware Changes IBM i Tier Cost
IBM i tier rates do not change by hardware generation. Faster IBM Power hardware can change how many cores the workload needs and which tier you pay for.
Why Power10 Hardware Became the Value Pick When It Stopped Being New
IBM withdrew Power10 hardware from new-unit marketing on 31 July 2026. That change opened the price window that makes it the current value pick.
IBM Power Hardware Questions
What is the Power Value Index (PVI)?
The Power Value Index is this site's own independently developed 0-100 composite score ranking IBM Power8 through Power11 on six weighted inputs: performance (25%), remaining useful life (20%), capacity (15%), software economics (15%), market price (15%), and value retention (10%). It is not an IBM-published metric. See the Power Value Index page for the full methodology and every generation's score.
Which IBM Power hardware generation has the best value right now?
By the Power Value Index, Power10 currently scores highest on hardware value even though Power11 scores highest on raw capability. Power10 has entered the secondary market while it still carries useful support life. That balance gives it the strongest current value score.
Should I buy used Power9 hardware or a new Power11?
It depends on your time horizon. A used Power9 scores well on acquisition cost and current performance, but its standard IBM support already ended for scale-out models (31 January 2026), so you are buying a short, defined runway at a discount. A new Power11 costs more up front but starts a full support lifecycle with no announced end date. For a workload you plan to keep 5+ years, Power11 (or Power10) usually wins; for a 1-3 year bridge or a small, non-critical partition, a used Power9 can be the more rational buy.
How much does IBM i software cost per core?
IBM i licensing is set by software tier (P05 through P50), independent of which Power generation you run it on. As of the most recent reporting, P05 runs about $2,356/core/year on subscription or $3,315/core as a one-time perpetual purchase; P20 runs roughly $14,500-$16,000/core/year on subscription. See IBM i Tier Economics for the full tier table and how the hardware generation you choose changes how many cores you actually need to license.
At what point does keeping a Power8 system cost more than replacing it?
Power8's standard IBM maintenance ended across the full line by October 2024, so any Power8 still in production today is on extended or third-party support, which typically escalates faster than standard-support pricing and carries growing parts-availability risk. Combined with Power8's bottom-ranked Power Value Index score (40 of 100, driven mainly by near-zero remaining useful life), most Power8 workloads are past the rational keep-vs-replace breakeven point already. See Upgrade Economics for the decision framework.
Is the Power Value Index an official IBM metric?
No. The Power Value Index is an independently developed analytical framework built by this site, not an IBM-published or IBM-endorsed metric. Every input is sourced where a public figure exists (IBM benchmark data, IBM end-of-service announcements, third-party pricing reporting); inputs without a citable public source are explicitly labeled as a Krisada Estimate on the Power Value Index page.
IBM Power Hardware Pricing Glossary
- Annualized Ownership Cost ... The modeled per-year cost of owning a system over a defined hold period: amortized hardware, maintenance, and software licensing combined.
- Book Value / Depreciation ... The accounting value a system carries on your books as it ages, versus what it would actually fetch on the secondary market.
- Breakeven Point (Upgrade Economics) ... The point at which the ongoing cost of keeping an older Power generation in service (maintenance, risk, software) exceeds the cost of replacing it.
- Configuration Efficiency (Diminishing Returns) ... The point at which adding more cores, memory, or storage to a configuration stops producing proportional economic value.
- Cost per CPW ... Acquisition or ownership cost divided by CPW capacity delivered -- the core cost-efficiency measure used across this site's Market Price analysis.
- Cost per Useful Year ... Annualized ownership cost divided by remaining useful life -- what a generation actually costs per year of IBM-supported service you get out of it, not just its sticker price.
- CPW ... Commercial Processing Workload, IBM's relative-performance benchmark for IBM i systems, used to compare processor options across Power generations.
- End of Marketing (Withdrawal from Marketing) ... The date IBM stops selling a given Power model new; existing units remain supported until their separate end-of-service date.