Setting up the IBM Cloud account

As an IBM Cloud account owner or administrator, you sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and set up payment for services in the IBM Cloud account.

These steps describe the typical tasks for an IBM Cloud account owner to set up the account for an organization:

Sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
Update your IBM Cloud account to add or update billing information.
(Optional) Configure restrictions for the account.

You can sign up for a free version of Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and provision Lite plans of the core services. The core services are Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, watsonx.ai Runtime, IBM Knowledge Catalog, Watson OpenScale, plus Cloud Object Storage.

If you already provisioned an instance of watsonx.ai Studio or IBM Knowledge Catalog, sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service with the same IBM Cloud account to create Lite plans of the remaining core services.

Go to Try Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
Select the service region.
Agree to the terms, Data Use Policy, and Cookie Use.
Log in with your IBMid (usually an email address) if you have an existing IBM Cloud account. If you don't have an IBM Cloud account, click Create an IBM Cloud account to create a new account.
After the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service core services finish provisioning, open up the dashboard by clicking Go to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

With a Lite account, you can try out Cloud Pak for Data as a Service with limited compute resources and functionality. To access the full functionality of Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, upgrade to a billable account and then upgrade the services to an appropriate plan.

Step 2: Set up a billable IBM Cloud account

You must have a billable IBM Cloud account to provision paid service plans and to work with the complete functionality of the services. The two types of billable IBM Cloud accounts are Pay-As-You-Go and Subscription.

Pay-As-You-Go accounts

IBM Cloud accounts that are paid by credit card are called Pay-As-You-Go accounts. You pay only for billable services that you use, with no long-term contracts or commitments. You can provision plans for all services in the IBM Cloud services catalog, including plans in the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service services catalog.

To set up a Pay-As-You-Go account:

Log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and click Upgrade in the header or choose Administration > Account and billing > Upgrade service plans from the main menu.
On the Upgrade service plans page, click Enter credit card information in the Pay-As-You-Go section.
Enter the information about your account, including your payment information.
Click Create account to submit your information.

After your payment information is processed, your account is upgraded and you can access the full IBM Cloud catalog, including Cloud Pak for Data as a Service services. For billable services that you use beyond any free allowances, you receive a monthly invoice.

Subscription accounts

With subscriptions, you commit to a minimum spending amount for a certain period and receive a discount on the overall cost. Subscriptions are limited to service plans in the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service catalog. To purchase plans for other IBM Cloud services, set up a Pay-As-You-Go account.

Subscription credits are activated using a unique code that you receive by email. To activate the subscription, you apply the subscription code to an account. Be careful when you select the account, because after you apply the subscription to an account, you cannot undo it.

To purchase subscription credits for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, contact IBM Sales by filling out the subscription form. Click here to open the form: Subscription form.

If the form is not available, you can also open it from the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service dashboard:

Log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and then click Upgrade in the header or choose Administration > Account and billing > Upgrade service plans from the main menu.
On the Upgrade service plans page, click Contact sales.

Complete and submit the form to communicate with IBM Sales that you want to set up a subscription account for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service. An associate from IBM Sales will contact you to set up a subscription. When your subscription is ready, you receive an email from IBM containing a unique subscription code.

Follow these steps to apply the subscription code to your account:

Locate the unique code from the email that you received from IBM.
Navigate to your IBM Cloud account, and select Manage > Account from the header. Be sure to select the correct account.
Select Account settings and locate the Subscription and feature codes section on the page.
Click Apply code.
Copy and paste the code from the email into the Apply a code field and click Apply.

Your subscription account is active and you can provision billable services from the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service service catalog.

Step 3: (Optional) Configure restrictions for the account

Complete these optional tasks to secure your account:

Restrict the scope of resources that are available in Cloud Pak for Data as a Service to the current account. See Set the scope of resources.
Restrict access to specific IP addresses to protect the IBM Cloud account from unwanted access from unknown IP addresses. See Allow specific IP addresses.

Next steps

Parent topic: Setting up the platform for administrators