Java version licensing matrix: 8 through 21.
Every release, every licence.

There is no single answer to "is Oracle Java free?" because Oracle has used three different licences across the modern Java versions, and each one grants different rights. Whether a given Java install costs money depends on its version, its update level, its vendor, and — for two of the three licences — when the binary was downloaded relative to a moving deadline. This article is the complete licensing matrix for Oracle Java SE 8 through 21, so you can place any version in your estate correctly.

The three licences

Every modern Oracle Java binary is governed by one of three licences. Knowing what each grants is the foundation for reading the matrix.

• BCL — Binary Code License. The historic licence. Granted free general-purpose use, including production. This is why Java was "free" for two decades. Retired for new Java 8 builds in April 2019.
• OTN — Oracle Technology Network License Agreement for Java SE. The restrictive licence. Free only for development, testing, prototyping, and demonstration. Production use requires a paid Java SE subscription.
• NFTC — Oracle No-Fee Terms and Conditions. Introduced September 2021. Grants free use including production and commercial use — but free updates run only for a limited window tied to the release cycle.

One licence is generous (BCL), one is restrictive (OTN), and one is conditionally generous (NFTC). The whole matrix is the story of which release fell under which.

The full licensing matrix

The table below covers Oracle's own JDK builds for each version. LTS (long-term support) releases are the versions enterprises standardise on; non-LTS releases were short-lived feature releases.

Three eras are visible. The BCL era (Java 8 through 10) was free. The OTN era (Java 11 through 16) was paid for production. The NFTC era (Java 17 onward) is free again, with a condition. Each deserves a closer look.

The BCL era: Java 8, 9, 10

Java 8, 9, and 10 were all released under the BCL, which granted free general-purpose production use. For Java 9 and 10 — both short-lived non-LTS releases — that BCL status held for their whole lives, because they reached end of life before the licensing regime changed. They are free.

Java 8 is the complicated one. It started under the BCL, but Oracle moved new Java 8 updates to OTN from 8u211 in April 2019. The last free BCL build is 8u202. So Java 8 spans two rows of the matrix, and the dividing fact is the update number: 8u202 and earlier are free; 8u211 and later are OTN-licensed and require a subscription for production.

The OTN era: Java 11 through 16

Every Oracle JDK release from Java 11 through Java 16 was issued under the OTN licence. None of them was ever free for production from Oracle. This is the matrix's hardest block to remember, because it sits between two free eras and intuition says "Java is mostly free". For these six versions, it was not.

The practical exposure concentrates on Java 11, the LTS of this group, because it is the version enterprises actually standardised on and kept in production for years. Java 12 through 16 were non-LTS feature releases that most enterprises skipped or used only briefly. But any Oracle JDK 11–16 binary running in production is, by licence, a paid-subscription question.

The NFTC era: Java 17 through 21

In September 2021, with Java 17, Oracle introduced the NFTC, restoring free production use for its own JDK. Java 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 are all NFTC releases. Under NFTC you may run the Oracle JDK in production, commercially, at no charge.

The condition is the update window. Under NFTC, free updates for a given release continue only until one year after the next LTS ships. After that, continued use of new updates on the old version reverts to OTN terms — meaning a subscription. The binaries already obtained under NFTC stay free to use; it is the post-window patches that change.

This is why the matrix marks Java 17 "free within the NFTC window". Java 21 shipped in September 2023, and the next LTS shipped in September 2025 — so Java 17's free-update window closed around September 2024. Oracle JDK 17 updates issued after that point are OTN-licensed. Java 21's own free-update window runs until roughly one year after the LTS that follows it. The lesson: NFTC is free if you keep moving forward, and becomes a subscription question if you freeze on an old release and keep patching.

The column the matrix above leaves out

Everything above describes Oracle's own JDK builds. There is a parallel reality that changes the picture entirely: OpenJDK builds from other vendors. For every version in the matrix — 8, 11, 17, 21, all of them — free OpenJDK builds exist from Eclipse Temurin, Amazon Corretto, Azul Zulu, Microsoft, Red Hat, and others. These builds are released under the GPL with the Classpath Exception, are free for production and commercial use, and carry no OTN window and no NFTC window. Many provide free security updates for old versions — including Java 8 and 11 — for far longer than Oracle does.

So the true matrix has two halves. The Oracle-JDK half is the messy one above. The OpenJDK half is simple: free, every version, no expiry. For any release where the Oracle JDK creates a cost or a window to manage, an OpenJDK build of the same version removes both.

Using the matrix on your own estate

To apply this to a real environment, four facts must be captured for every Java install: the version, the update level (decisive for Java 8), the vendor (Oracle JDK versus an OpenJDK build), and — for NFTC versions — whether updates were taken after the free window closed. With those four facts, every install lands cleanly in one of three buckets: free, paid, or needs-investigation. Across our 340+ Java engagements, building this version-by-version picture is always the first step — and it routinely surfaces exposure that was entirely invisible to the organisation, as well as the migration path that has helped clients save more than $180M on Java.

Conclusion

Oracle Java licensing is not one rule but three, applied across three eras. BCL made Java 8–10 free. OTN made Java 11–16 paid for production. NFTC made Java 17–21 free again, but only within a moving update window. The version number alone never settles the question — update level, vendor, and timing all matter. And the OpenJDK half of the matrix is the consistent escape hatch: free, every version, no conditions.

Our Java compliance assessment builds this matrix against your actual estate and identifies exactly where cost and exposure sit. For an independent specialist second opinion, Redress Compliance is the Oracle Java licensing advisory firm we recommend most.