Free Tier Components and Monthly Costs

[Gijs1973]

Hello Community,
There is a lot of documentation on the Google Cloud Platform, and that is fantastic, but it also makes it a bit confusing for someone new to working with Google Cloud.

I have a "simple" question, and I hope someone knows the answer: I am currently on a free tier (for 90 days), and I understand that the $300 will be nulled after this period, but:
- are there any free components after the 90 days,
- is there a monthly limit, and
- for which modules is there a monthly limit?

I want to budget my use of the platform to inform my project about the potential costs when running a query.

I am looking forward to your suggestions and help.
Best regards,
Gijs

[kumards]

Hi @Gijs1973 ,

The "Free Tier" continues after the free trial period. For detailed info about the validity period of the free tier and usage limits, please see https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#free-tier. That page  should contain answers to most of your questions, possibly all. If you need more info, please post here.

I hope this helps.

[Gijs1973]

Dear @kumards ,
Thank you for your reply and link to the documentation. I have visited this page before, but under Program coverage: Free Tier coverage varies by service. Not all Google Cloud services offer resources as part of the Free Tier, there are a lot of services mentioned, and I don't know how my program fits into this Tier.

To give a bit of context, I have a CoLab notebook calling:

import vertexai

from vertexai.preview.language_models import TextGenerationModel

Under the current plan, I see that small costs associated with running the code, but because I have the $300 credits, I will not be billed. I presume that there are no "free limits" for using the VertexAI after the Free Tier Trail period, and that I will be billed for the input and output I send and receive from the code, but I would like to be sure this is the case. 

Kind regards,
Gijs

[kumards · Accepted solution]

That's right, Gijs. After the free trial period, billing will accrue for any products and usage outside the free tier limits. Note though that, as mentioned in https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#free-tier, the products and usage limits in the free tier might change over time. Closer to when your free trial period ends, I suggest checking the above again to see if there are any changes for Vertex AI.

[Gijs1973]

Thanks @kumards  - I have put a reminder up, and will check total costs and usage before the trail ends (as recommened), and plan for the next phase of the project.