Google cloud compute engine always free tier

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I am trying to run a compute engine instance using the always free tier option. The documentation of the free tier says if it is a computer engine instance of e2-micro from certain locations, it should be free. Here is the screenshot: enter image description here

Now, I have chosen e2-micro with standard persistent disk of 10GB (one can not go below 10GB in GCP platform) at us-central1 location (which is one of the free tier location). It still shows an estimate of $6.51 monthly cost. Here is the screenshot of the instance configuration: enter image description here

Am I doing something wrong here? Is there any other option I need to check to make sure it stays in the always free tier?

google-compute-engine google-cloud-platform
1 Answers

An e2-micro instance is not (in and of itself) free. I think the estimate you are seeing is in fact the cost of running an instance. What makes it "free" is that Google will "waive" the fees for the resources described as "free tier". However, if you run more and more e2-micro instances beyond the amount offered as a "free taster" then you will be charged the rate listed.

Looking in detail at the first image that Syed posted we see the following at the bottom:

Your Free Tier e2-micro instance limit is by time, not by instance. Each month, eligible use of all of your e2-micro instance is free until you have used a number of hours equal to the total hours in the current month.

Putting it another way, you get this amount of resource for free. For example, if we assume that a month is approximately 720 hours then that is the amount of e2-micro consumption you get free in monthly billing cycle. Whether you run 1 instance of CPU consumption for the whole month or 720 instances for only 1 hour. Take care to note that resources are broken down into their chargeable components (CPU, disk, network egress).

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post should be taken as a formal Google statement ... please consult Google documentation such as Google Cloud Free Program for accurate details.

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