Google Cloud Always Free Tier
Source: https://cloud.google.com/free
Description
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+ 1 Google Cloud provides perpetual free usage of 25+ products with monthly limits that reset every billing cycle. Unlike the $300 trial (which expires after 91 days), the Always Free tier never expires and continues even after upgrading to a paid account. These limits are per billing account, not per project.
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+ 3 Credit card required? Yes, to create a GCP billing account. However, the Gemini API free tier via Google AI Studio does not require a credit card.
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+ 9 1. Go to cloud.google.com/free
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+ 10 2. Sign in with a Google account
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+ 11 3. Click "Get started for free" and provide a credit/debit card for verification
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+ 12 4. A temporary $0-$1 authorization hold is placed (released within days)
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+ 13 5. Your billing account is created with access to Always Free products immediately
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+ 14
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+ 15 Alternatively, for Gemini API only: go to aistudio.google.com, sign in with Google, and get an API key — no billing account or credit card needed.
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+ 23 The Gemini API has a permanent free tier through Google AI Studio, separate from GCP billing. All free-tier models support a 1 million token context window and allow commercial use.
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+ 24
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+ 25 ModelRPMTPMRPDBest For
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+ 26 Gemini 2.5 Pro5250,000100Complex reasoning
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+ 27 Gemini 2.5 Flash10250,000250General-purpose
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+ 28 Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite15250,0001,000High-throughput simple tasks
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+ 29 Gemini 2.0 Flash5250,000—Legacy (retiring March 2026)
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+ 30 Gemini 3 Flash PreviewFree——Latest preview
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+ 31 Gemini 2.5 Flash TTSFree——Text-to-speech
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+ 32 Gemma 3 / Gemma 3nFree——Open-weight models
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+ 33 Gemini EmbeddingFree——Text embeddings
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+ 34
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+ 35 RPM = Requests/minute, TPM = Tokens/minute, RPD = Requests/day. Limits are per GCP project, not per API key. Daily quotas reset at midnight Pacific Time.
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+ 36
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+ 38
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+ 39 ServiceMonthly Free Limit
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+ 40 Cloud Natural Language API5,000 units
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+ 41 Cloud Vision API1,000 units
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+ 42 Speech-to-Text60 minutes
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+ 43 Video Intelligence API1,000 units
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+ 51 ServiceFree LimitNotes
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+ 52 Compute Engine1 e2-micro VM/month, 30 GB standard disk, 1 GB egressUS regions only (us-east1, us-west1, us-central1)
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+ 53 Cloud Run2M requests, 180,000 vCPU-seconds (50 hrs), 360,000 GiB-seconds (100 hrs), 1 GB egress/month—
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+ 54 Cloud Run Functions2M invocations, 400,000 GB-seconds, 200,000 GHz-seconds, 5 GB egress/month—
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+ 55 App Engine28 instance-hours/day (F1), 9 instance-hours/day (B1), 1 GB egress/day—
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+ 56 Google Kubernetes Engine1 Autopilot or Zonal cluster (no cluster management fee)Node resources billed separately
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+ 57 Agent Engine180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds/month—
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+ 58
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+ 60
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+ 61 ServiceFree LimitNotes
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+ 62 Cloud Storage5 GB standard storage, 5,000 Class A ops, 50,000 Class B ops, 100 GB egress/monthUS regions only
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+ 63 BigQuery1 TB queries, 10 GB storage/monthBigQuery Sandbox available without credit card
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+ 64 Firestore1 GB storage, 50,000 reads, 20,000 writes, 20,000 deletes/day, 10 GB egress/month—
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+ 65 Artifact Registry0.5 GB storage/month—
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+ 66
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+ 68
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+ 69 ServiceFree Limit
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+ 70 Pub/Sub10 GB messages/month
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+ 71
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+ 73
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+ 74 ServiceFree Limit
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+ 75 Cloud Build2,500 build-minutes/month
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+ 76 Cloud Source Repositories5 users, 50 GB storage, 50 GB egress/month
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+ 77 Cloud ShellFree access with 5 GB persistent disk
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+ 78 Secret Manager6 active versions, 10,000 access ops, 3 rotation notifications/month
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+ 79 Cloud KMS100 active key versions, 10,000 operations/month
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+ 80 reCAPTCHA10,000 assessments/month
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+ 81 Web Risk100,000 URI searches/month
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+ 82
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+ 84
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+ 85 ServiceFree Limit
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+ 86 Cloud Observability (Logging)50 GB logs/project/month, 1M API read calls
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+ 87 Workflows5,000 internal steps, 2,000 HTTP calls/month
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+ 88 Application Integration400 executions, 20 GB data, 2 connection nodes/month
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+ 89 Cloud Deploy1 active delivery pipeline/account
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+ 90 Workload Manager5,000 resource evaluations/month
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+ 91
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+ 93
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+ 95
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+ 96 • Compute Engine e2-micro: Free only in us-west1 (Oregon), us-central1 (Iowa), and us-east1 (South Carolina). Deploying in any other region incurs charges.
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+ 97 • Cloud Storage 5 GB: Free only in US regions.
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+ 98 • All other services: Generally available globally, but always verify in the official documentation since region restrictions can change.
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+ 99
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+ 101
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+ 103
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+ 104 • With a paid billing account: You are automatically billed at standard rates for any usage beyond the free tier. There is no hard cap — overages simply become billable usage.
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+ 105 • With a Free Trial account: Overages consume your $300 credit. You cannot be charged beyond the credit amount until you manually upgrade.
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+ 106 • BigQuery Sandbox (no billing account): Queries simply fail when the free limit is reached — no billing possible.
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+ 107 • Gemini API free tier: Returns HTTP 429 (rate limit exceeded) errors. No billing occurs.
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+ 108
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+ 110
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+ 113 • Set budget alerts immediately if you upgrade to a paid account. Google Cloud has no default spending caps. Go to Billing > Budgets & Alerts and create a $0 budget to get notified of any charges.
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+ 114 • Gemini API quotas are per project — creating multiple API keys in the same project does not multiply your limits. Create separate GCP projects if you need more quota.
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+ 115 • BigQuery Sandbox is the easiest entry point — no credit card needed, just enable the sandbox from the BigQuery console.
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+ 116 • December 2025 quota reduction — Google reduced Gemini free tier quotas by 50-80% in December 2025. If your app relied on previous limits, you may now hit rate limits more frequently.
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+ 117 • Route Gemini requests by complexity — use Flash-Lite (15 RPM, 1,000 RPD) for simple tasks, Flash (10 RPM) for moderate work, and reserve Pro (5 RPM, 100 RPD) for complex reasoning.
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+ 118 • Google reserves the right to change Always Free limits with 30 days advance notice. The tier has no contractual end date but quotas can shift.
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+ 119 • Google for Startups Cloud Program offers up to $200K in credits ($350K for AI startups) — apply at cloud.google.com/startup.
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+ 120 • Academic credits are available: $50-$100/semester per student for faculty, up to $5,000 for research.
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+ 121 • Gemini 2.0 Flash is being retired on March 3, 2026. Migrate to Gemini 2.5 Flash or newer.
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+ 122
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+ 124
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+ 125 Sources:
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+ 126 • Google Cloud Free Program
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+ 127 • Google Cloud Free Features Documentation
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+ 128 • Google Cloud Free Trial FAQs
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+ 129 • Gemini API Pricing
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+ 130 • Gemini API Free Tier Rate Limits Guide
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+ 131 • Google Cloud Billing — Free Trial
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