Windows Server Core Licensing Calculator
Estimate physical-core licensing for one server or a whole fleet. Compare 2-core and 16-core packs, see per-server edition suggestions, and review Standard and Datacenter totals side by side.
01 / One machine
Single server specification
Enter this server’s hardware and VM count to see its physical-core estimate and edition suggestion.
Server hardware & workload
Each value can be edited independently.
Physical processor sockets populated
Physical cores in each processor
Virtual machines running Windows Server
Suggested edition: Windows Server Standard
0 VMs is below the calculator’s 10-VM Datacenter heuristic.
Cores to license
16
Windows Server Standard
2-core packs
8
rounded up for this server
- Physical cores
- 2 × 8 = 16
- Base minimum
- 16 cores
- Standard stacking sets
- 1
- Core entitlement
- 16 × 1 = 16
02 / A fleet
Multiple servers
Specify each machine separately. Recommendations are made per server, then valid fleet totals are grouped by edition.
| Server | Processors per serverPhysical processor sockets populated | Cores per processorPhysical cores in each processor | Windows Server VMsVirtual machines running Windows Server | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server 1 |
One line per server. Add more lines using Add server; the combined results update below.
Fleet view
Recommended edition totals
Windows Server Standard
16 cores
8 × 2-core packs · servers recommended Standard
Windows Server Datacenter
0 cores
0 × 2-core packs · servers recommended Datacenter
Pack purchases are rounded up per server before totals are summed. A zero here means no servers currently fall into that recommendation group.