IBM has introduced the Quantum Flex Plan, a new access and pricing model aimed at supporting project-based quantum computing research with greater flexibility, simplicity, and lower cost. The Flex Plan is designed for researchers and organizations whose quantum workloads don’t follow a steady monthly cadence. Instead of committing to long-term subscriptions or managing usage caps, users pre-purchase quantum compute minutes that can be used as needed over the contract term.
Ideal for startups, academic researchers, enterprise R&D teams, and educators, Flex Plan supports bursty, time-sensitive workloads — such as experiments ahead of major conference deadlines, classroom-scale learning initiatives, and targeted use-case exploration.
Highlights of the Flex Plan include access to all of IBM’s public quantum computing systems as well as premium software tools, support, and early feature releases. It provides a 25% discount versus the Pay-As-You-Go plan with runtime pricing that starts at $72/minute versus $96/minute for the Pay-as-You-Go plan. However to receive this, the plan requires a minimum purchase commitment of $30,000 (at least 400 minutes). Flex Plan participants who make larger purchase commitments are also eligible to join the IBM Quantum Network which includes additional support services, networking opportunities, and events.
This new Flex Plan can be seen as a complement to the aforementioned Pay-As-You-Go plan and the large-scale capacity Premium Plan which provides an even lower usage charge of $48/minute for larger and more continuous usage. There is also an Open Plan which provides free access to a few of their quantum processors for light users, including students and hobbyists, for up to 10 minutes per month.
Additional details about this new Flex pricing plan are available in a blog posted on the IBM website here, an overview page showing the available plans here, and also an access options page which provides a comparison of IBM’s various plans here.
In other news, IBM announced that it will be investing $150 billion in the United States over the next five years with $30 billion of that slated to expand their mainframe and quantum computing operations. The investment will be used to expand both R&D as well as manufacturing. It is not known how much of that $30 billion will be allocated to quantum computing versus mainframe processors or how much of that money will be used for R&D versus manufacturing expansion. However, in an interview with Fox Business, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna did indicate that some of that money will be used to expand their quantum data center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
For more about this investment, you can access IBM’s press release announcing the investment here as well as view the Arvind Krishna interview where he answers questions about this investment here.
May 5, 2025
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