Pricing Models¶
Complete guide to understanding Google Cloud Platform pricing models, structures, and cost calculation methods.
📚 Overview¶
GCP uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model with various discount options and pricing structures. Understanding these models is essential for cost optimization and budget planning.
Key Concepts: - Pay-as-you-go: No upfront costs, pay only for what you use - Per-second billing: Most services billed by the second - Sustained Use Discounts: Automatic discounts for consistent usage - Committed Use Discounts: Save up to 57% with commitments - Free Tier: Always-free and trial credits
💰 Core Pricing Principles¶
1. Pay-as-You-Go Model¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Pay-as-You-Go Benefits │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ No Upfront Costs: │
│ • No capital expenditure │
│ • No minimum commitments (unless CUD) │
│ • Start small, scale as needed │
│ │
│ Flexible Scaling: │
│ • Scale up during peak times │
│ • Scale down during off-peak │
│ • Pay only for actual usage │
│ │
│ Granular Billing: │
│ • Per-second billing (most services) │
│ • No rounding to hours │
│ • Precise cost tracking │
│ │
│ Example: │
│ VM running for 10 minutes 30 seconds │
│ • Billed: 630 seconds │
│ • Not rounded to 1 hour │
│ • Savings: ~83% vs hourly billing │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2. Per-Second Billing¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Per-Second Billing Example │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Scenario: n1-standard-4 VM
• Hourly rate: $0.19
• Per-second rate: $0.19 / 3600 = $0.0000528
Usage Patterns:
Pattern 1: Continuous (24/7)
• 30 days × 24 hours = 720 hours
• Cost: 720 × $0.19 = $136.80
Pattern 2: Business Hours (8 hours/day, 5 days/week)
• 20 days × 8 hours = 160 hours
• Cost: 160 × $0.19 = $30.40
• Savings: $106.40 (78%)
Pattern 3: Batch Jobs (2 hours/day)
• 30 days × 2 hours = 60 hours
• Cost: 60 × $0.19 = $11.40
• Savings: $125.40 (92%)
Pattern 4: Short Tasks (15 minutes each, 10x/day)
• 30 days × 10 × 0.25 hours = 75 hours
• Cost: 75 × $0.19 = $14.25
• With hourly billing: 300 hours = $57.00
• Savings with per-second: $42.75 (75%)
🎯 Discount Programs¶
1. Sustained Use Discounts (SUD)¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Sustained Use Discounts (Automatic) │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ How It Works: │
│ • Automatic discounts for consistent usage │
│ • No action required │
│ • Up to 30% discount │
│ • Applies to Compute Engine and GKE │
│ │
│ Discount Tiers: │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Usage % │ Discount │ Effective Rate │ │
│ ├──────────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ │ 0-25% │ 0% │ 100% │ │
│ │ 25-50% │ 20% │ 80% │ │
│ │ 50-75% │ 40% │ 60% │ │
│ │ 75-100% │ 60% │ 40% │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Example: VM running 24/7 for 30 days │
│ • Base cost: $136.80 │
│ • With SUD: $95.76 (30% savings) │
│ • Automatic - no commitment needed │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2. Committed Use Discounts (CUD)¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Committed Use Discounts │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Spend-Based CUD: │
│ • Commit to minimum spend amount │
│ • Flexible across machine types │
│ • 1-year: 25% discount │
│ • 3-year: 52% discount │
│ │
│ Resource-Based CUD: │
│ • Commit to specific vCPU and memory │
│ • Higher discounts │
│ • 1-year: 37% discount │
│ • 3-year: 55% discount │
│ │
│ Example: $10,000/month baseline usage │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Option │ Discount │ Monthly │ │
│ ├────────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ │ No CUD │ 0% │ $10,000 │ │
│ │ 1-year CUD │ 25% │ $7,500 │ │
│ │ 3-year CUD │ 52% │ $4,800 │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Annual Savings (3-year CUD): │
│ • $5,200/month × 12 = $62,400/year │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
3. Preemptible and Spot VMs¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Preemptible/Spot VM Pricing │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Discount: Up to 91% off on-demand pricing │
│ Limitation: Can be terminated anytime │
│ Max Runtime: 24 hours │
│ │
│ Example: n1-standard-4 │
│ • On-demand: $0.19/hour │
│ • Spot VM: $0.04/hour │
│ • Savings: $0.15/hour (79%) │
│ │
│ Monthly Comparison (24/7): │
│ • On-demand: $136.80 │
│ • Spot VM: $28.80 │
│ • Savings: $108.00 (79%) │
│ │
│ Best For: │
│ ✓ Batch processing │
│ ✓ Data analysis │
│ ✓ CI/CD workloads │
│ ✓ Fault-tolerant apps │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
💾 Service-Specific Pricing¶
1. Compute Engine¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Compute Engine Pricing Components │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ VM Instance: │
│ • Machine type (vCPU + memory) │
│ • Per-second billing (1 min minimum) │
│ • Varies by region │
│ • Example: n1-standard-4 = $0.19/hour │
│ │
│ Persistent Disk: │
│ • Standard (HDD): $0.040/GB/month │
│ • Balanced (SSD): $0.100/GB/month │
│ • SSD: $0.170/GB/month │
│ • Snapshots: $0.026/GB/month │
│ │
│ Network: │
│ • Ingress: Free │
│ • Egress (internet): $0.12/GB (first 1GB free) │
│ • Egress (same zone): Free │
│ • External IP: $0.004/hour (static) │
│ │
│ Example Monthly Cost: │
│ • n1-standard-4 (24/7): $136.80 │
│ • 100 GB SSD disk: $17.00 │
│ • 1 TB egress: $120.00 │
│ • Static IP: $2.88 │
│ Total: $276.68/month │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2. Cloud Storage¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Cloud Storage Pricing │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Storage Classes (per GB/month): │
│ • Standard: $0.020 │
│ • Nearline: $0.010 (30-day minimum) │
│ • Coldline: $0.004 (90-day minimum) │
│ • Archive: $0.0012 (365-day minimum) │
│ │
│ Operations (per 10,000): │
│ • Class A (writes): $0.05 │
│ • Class B (reads): $0.004 │
│ │
│ Network (per GB): │
│ • Ingress: Free │
│ • Egress (internet): $0.12 │
│ • Egress (same region): Free │
│ │
│ Retrieval (per GB): │
│ • Standard: Free │
│ • Nearline: $0.01 │
│ • Coldline: $0.02 │
│ • Archive: $0.05 │
│ │
│ Example: 1 TB for 1 year │
│ • Standard: $240 │
│ • Nearline: $120 (50% savings) │
│ • Coldline: $48 (80% savings) │
│ • Archive: $14.40 (94% savings) │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
3. BigQuery¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ BigQuery Pricing │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Storage: │
│ • Active: $0.020/GB/month │
│ • Long-term (90+ days): $0.010/GB/month │
│ │
│ Analysis (On-Demand): │
│ • $5.00 per TB processed │
│ • First 1 TB/month: Free │
│ • Charged per query │
│ │
│ Analysis (Flat-Rate): │
│ • 100 slots: $2,000/month │
│ • 500 slots: $10,000/month │
│ • Predictable costs │
│ │
│ Streaming Inserts: │
│ • $0.010 per 200 MB │
│ │
│ Example Monthly Cost: │
│ • 10 TB storage: $200 │
│ • 5 TB queries: $20 (1 TB free) │
│ • 100 GB streaming: $5 │
│ Total: $225/month │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
4. Cloud SQL¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Cloud SQL Pricing │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Instance (MySQL/PostgreSQL): │
│ • db-n1-standard-1: $0.0575/hour ($41.40/month) │
│ • db-n1-standard-2: $0.115/hour ($82.80/month) │
│ • db-n1-standard-4: $0.23/hour ($165.60/month) │
│ │
│ Storage: │
│ • SSD: $0.17/GB/month │
│ • HDD: $0.09/GB/month │
│ │
│ Backups: │
│ • $0.08/GB/month │
│ │
│ Network: │
│ • Egress: $0.12/GB │
│ │
│ Example Monthly Cost: │
│ • db-n1-standard-2: $82.80 │
│ • 100 GB SSD: $17.00 │
│ • 50 GB backups: $4.00 │
│ Total: $103.80/month │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
🌍 Regional Pricing¶
Regional Price Differences¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Regional Pricing Example: n1-standard-4 │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ US Regions: │
│ • us-central1 (Iowa): $0.19/hour │
│ • us-east1 (S. Carolina): $0.19/hour │
│ • us-west1 (Oregon): $0.19/hour │
│ │
│ Europe Regions: │
│ • europe-west1 (Belgium): $0.21/hour (+11%) │
│ • europe-west2 (London): $0.23/hour (+21%) │
│ • europe-north1 (Finland): $0.19/hour │
│ │
│ Asia Regions: │
│ • asia-southeast1 (Singapore): $0.22/hour (+16%) │
│ • asia-northeast1 (Tokyo): $0.23/hour (+21%) │
│ • asia-south1 (Mumbai): $0.20/hour (+5%) │
│ │
│ Factors Affecting Regional Pricing: │
│ • Energy costs │
│ • Real estate costs │
│ • Network infrastructure │
│ • Local regulations │
│ • Market conditions │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
🆓 Free Tier¶
1. Always Free Products¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Always Free Tier (No Expiration) │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Compute Engine: │
│ • 1 f1-micro VM instance/month (US regions) │
│ • 30 GB standard persistent disk │
│ • 5 GB snapshot storage │
│ • 1 GB network egress (North America) │
│ │
│ Cloud Storage: │
│ • 5 GB standard storage │
│ • 5,000 Class A operations/month │
│ • 50,000 Class B operations/month │
│ • 1 GB network egress │
│ │
│ BigQuery: │
│ • 10 GB storage │
│ • 1 TB queries/month │
│ │
│ Cloud Functions: │
│ • 2 million invocations/month │
│ • 400,000 GB-seconds compute time │
│ • 200,000 GHz-seconds compute time │
│ • 5 GB network egress │
│ │
│ Cloud Run: │
│ • 2 million requests/month │
│ • 360,000 GB-seconds memory │
│ • 180,000 vCPU-seconds │
│ • 1 GB network egress │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2. Trial Credits¶
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ $300 Free Trial (New Customers) │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ Benefits: │
│ • $300 credit │
│ • Valid for 90 days │
│ • No automatic charges after trial │
│ • Access to all GCP services │
│ │
│ Limitations: │
│ • One per billing account │
│ • Cannot be used for: │
│ - Cryptocurrency mining │
│ - Certain high-cost services │
│ • Some quotas may be limited │
│ │
│ After Trial: │
│ • Upgrade to paid account │
│ • Keep always-free tier benefits │
│ • No automatic charges │
│ • Explicit upgrade required │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
🧮 Pricing Calculator¶
Using the Pricing Calculator¶
URL: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator
Steps:
1. Select services to estimate
2. Configure each service:
• Instance type/size
• Region
• Usage hours
• Storage amount
• Network egress
3. Add discounts (CUD, SUD)
4. Review total estimate
5. Save or share estimate
Example Estimate:
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Service │ Monthly Cost │
├────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Compute Engine │ $136.80 │
│ Cloud Storage │ $20.00 │
│ Cloud SQL │ $103.80 │
│ Network Egress │ $120.00 │
│ Load Balancing │ $18.00 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Subtotal │ $398.60 │
│ CUD (25%) │ -$99.65 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Total │ $298.95/month │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
📊 Cost Optimization Tips¶
✓ Use appropriate machine types (don't over-provision)
✓ Leverage sustained use discounts (automatic)
✓ Purchase committed use discounts for predictable workloads
✓ Use preemptible/spot VMs for fault-tolerant workloads
✓ Choose appropriate storage classes
✓ Implement lifecycle policies for storage
✓ Optimize network egress (use CDN, keep traffic in region)
✓ Right-size resources regularly
✓ Delete unused resources
✓ Use labels for cost tracking
✓ Monitor and alert on spending
✓ Review Recommender suggestions
🎓 Next Steps¶
- Implement Cost Allocation strategies
- Follow Best Practices for cost management
- Review Cost Optimization techniques
- Use Recommender for AI-powered insights
Last Updated: March 2026 Version: 2.0