9
votes

Currently, Google Cloud Platform offers "1 non-preemptible f1-micro VM instance per month" amongst other things, for free, as part of its Always Free tier.

However, I can't determine if the limits assigned to the free tier, like the single f1-micro instance, are per-account (ie, for a single Google email address), or per-project.

Basically: if I make another GCP project under the same account, can I run another f1-micro for free, or will the second one cost me?

3
Free Tier / Always Free is per account - John Hanley
Asking about contract terms is barely on topic. - Martin Zeitler
@JohnHanley do you have a source for that assertion? If so I'm happy to accept it as an answer. - Migwell
To quote Google, "Always Free isn't a special program. It's a regular part of your Google Cloud account." [end quote] This offering requires a billing account and is not based upon a project. cloud.google.com/free/docs/gcp-free-tier?hl=vi#always-free - John Hanley
Okay that quote is the closest thing to a definitive statement that I can find. Again, happy to accept it as an answer - Migwell

3 Answers

10
votes

The always free tier depends on the billing account

This means that this limits are shared by the different projects you have under the same billing account.

So what you were asking of having an additional VM on another project will not be free, however you can create another account and have this additional VM on this account and that one will be free.

3
votes

Per the documentation available at enter link description here ,

Your Always Free f1-micro instance limit is by time, not by instance. Each month, eligible use of all of your f1-micro instances is free until you have used a number of hours equal to the total hours in the current month. Usage calculations are combined across the supported regions.

So to answer your question, you will get charged based on the amount of time you use the instance(s)

1
votes

Always Free resources are calculated per billing account. (not the email itself).

So you don't have to create a new email to have an additional VM, just add a new billing account and link it to a different project, then you can have another free VM on that project.

I will try it this month, i am setting up two VM in two different projects linked to two different billing accounts all under single email, i will let you know if it worked.