Upcoming updates to Open Plan access and terms
IBM Quantum™'s mission is to bring useful quantum computing to the world, by deploying the best hardware and software available to our offerings. We added to our fleet utility-scale systems and made error suppression and mitigation features easy to use by embedding them directly into Qiskit Runtime.
Next, starting on or around September 26th, some of the systems with larger qubit counts will become accessible via the IBM Quantum Open Plan. Usage and capabilities on these systems may be limited for Open Plan users, but will provide the opportunity to learn while exploring more advanced technology. The IBM Quantum End-User License Agreement will also be updated on or around September 26th with new terms applicable to the Open Plan. The update will also include additional country restrictions. As a result of these changes, the Open Plan will no longer be available to users located in or ordinarily resident in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong), Cuba, Egypt, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macau, Moldova, Mongolia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
More details about changes to the Open Plan will be provided in a forthcoming announcement; however, we want to convey the following information now regarding the upcoming retirement of various quantum systems under the Open Plan. On or around September 26th we plan to retire ibmq_lima, ibmq_belem, ibmq_quito, ibmq_manila, ibmq_jakarta, and ibmq_guadalupe quantum systems. Later, on or around November 28th we plan to retire: ibm_perth, ibm_lagos, and ibm_nairobi quantum systems.
Once these systems are retired, they will no longer accept or process jobs. If any jobs are queued on the systems at the time of their retirement, they will not execute.
We suggest retrieving any job data from important past jobs before the system is retired, although this may still be possible for some time after retirement. Please refer to the following documentation for more information on retrieving jobs from a retired system.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to post in the #ibm-quantum-platform channel in the Qiskit Slack workspace.