Oracle is making its GraalVM Java virtual machine and Java Development Kit (JDK) with advanced compiler technology available for free.

Developers and organizations can use and redistribute Oracle GraalVM without needing a click-through license agreement. The company announced on June 13 that Oracle GraalVM for JDK 17 and JDK 20 and subsequent releases are being offered free of charge, including all quarterly security updates. These releases will be available under the GraalVM Free Terms and Conditions (GFTC) license, permitting free use even for production deployments. Redistribution is permitted if not for a fee. For long-term support (LTS) releases such as GraalVM for JDK 17, Oracle will provide free GFTC releases until one year after the subsequent LTS release.

GraalVM compiles Java applications ahead of time into standalone binaries that start up faster and use less memory and CPU than applications running on the standard OpenJDK JVM. Runtimes or implementations of GraalVM are available for other languages including Python, JavaScript, R, and Ruby. Programs compiled to the WebAssembly binary instruction format also can be run via GraalVM.

Oracle said it will continue to provide GPL-licensed GraalVM Community Edition releases under the same terms as Oracle builds of OpenJDK.