How does Free Trial and Free Tier work together?

[zhao_li]

Hi Folks 👋

I am trying out Google Cloud's Kubernetes offering and am getting confused over the Free Trial and Free Tier implementation.

Reading this page: https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features

I see "During your Free Trial period, when you use resources covered by the Free Tier, the Free Tier usage is not charged against your Free Trial credits."

However, after running the cluster for a day, I see a charge of $1.41 and it is deducted from my Free Trial credit even though it should be covered under the Free Tier.

Did I do something wrong?  Or maybe I am misunderstanding something?

I plan on using this to learn a while longer so I'd like to fix this before all of my credits are used up.

Thank you for your help 🙏

Additional information:

My cost information:

My Free Trial credit deduction:

I have not yet "Activated" my Free Trial yet:

[DamianS · Accepted solution]

Hello @zhao_li  ,Welcome on Google Cloud Community.

Yep both terms might be confusing. Let's split it:

* Free Trial = A 90-day period with $300 in credit ( credit covers any Google Cloud service you use, including Kubernetes Engine (GKE).)

* Free Tier = A set of free resources you can use every month without any charges. This includes  small GCE instance, some storage, and a limited amount of data transfer. If you go over that quota, you will be charged.

Confusion:

Even if Free Tier is applicable each month, and it's not charged against Free Trial, it doesn't mean that everything is free. Most probably you've used some of SKUs, which are not included in Free Trial. I would recommend to check billing report and group by "SKUs". Additionally, check "Cost table" tab and filter by project. It should show you detailed usage of each component.

--
cheers,
DamianS
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[zhao_li]

Thanks @DamianS for pointing me to the SKUs.

I wasn't able to use the "Cost Table" section.  I'm guessing it's because it has not been 1 full month of usage yet.

However, I was able see the following in the "Reports" section.

I guess there's no real "Free" way to try out Google's Kubernetes offering.  I guess I better finish my learning as quickly as possible.

Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction.  Have a Fantastic Day 🌈

[garisingh]

NOTE:  The GKE free tier only includes the cluster management fee ($0.10 per cluster hours) and DOES NOT include the compute / networking / storage costs.  But those costs should be covered under the free credits up to the $300 limit.

[zhao_li]

Thank you for the additional information. 🙏