Oracle Autonomous Database Technical Overview 

Hi Rob! It helps to separate your thinking about the technical and commercial aspects of this capability. Technically, auto-scaling is literally instant because all the CPU you require up to 3x your baseline is always available to you. Commercially, you only get billed for your baseline usage plus any additional CPU between baseline and the limit of 3x baseline. This analogy might help: Imagine a car rental company with a difference. Although you rent a car with three seats in it, you only pay for the seats that are occupied. When you’re driving solo, you only pay for the one seat in use-the driver’s seat. If you pick up a passenger, you pay for an additional seat while that person is in the car. If you pick up an additional passenger, you’ll be paying for the maximum of three available seats while all three are occupied. Drop them both off at some intermediate destination and the meter is immediately back down to running at the single-occupant level. docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/paas/autonomous-database/adbsa/autonomous-add-resources.html#GUID-DA72422A-5A70-42FA-A363-AB269600D4B0 Thanks, Team Oracle