Google Cloud Pricing Calculator
Enter your resource's current hourly/usage rate and disk rate from the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator — pricing varies by machine type, disk type, region, and discounts, and changes over time.
Usage-Based Compute Plus Persistent Storage
Google Cloud's Compute Engine bills by the second for the machine type you've provisioned, on top of whatever persistent disk storage is attached — and unlike some providers, sustained-use and committed-use discounts can shift the effective hourly rate depending on how continuously a resource runs. Rather than trying to model every discount tier, this calculator takes the effective hourly rate you supply and combines it with disk storage cost for a straightforward monthly estimate.
The Formula
The compute term multiplies your effective hourly rate by hours run; the storage term multiplies persistent disk size by its GB-month rate. Summing the two gives the estimated total.
Where This Estimate Helps
- Machine type comparisons — weighing a general-purpose N-series machine against a compute-optimized C-series machine by plugging in each one's effective hourly rate.
- Disk type tradeoffs — comparing the monthly cost difference between Standard, Balanced, and SSD persistent disks at a given size.
- Sustained-use discount awareness — since Google Cloud automatically applies discounts for instances that run most of the month, entering your actual effective rate (after discount) gives a more realistic estimate than the on-demand list rate.
- Pre-migration budgeting — sizing what a workload currently running on-premises or elsewhere would cost to run on Compute Engine.
Illustrative Worked Example
| Item | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Compute (at an example $0.06/hr rate) | $0.06 × 600 hr | $36.00 |
| Persistent disk (at an example $0.04/GB-month rate) | 250 GB × $0.04/GB | $10.00 |
| Total | $46.00 |
The $0.06/hr and $0.04/GB figures above are placeholder example numbers, not current Google Cloud pricing. Machine type, disk type, region, and sustained-use discounts all affect the real rate, and rates change over time — use the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator for your exact configuration.
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the Instance/Usage Hourly Rate ($/hour) for your machine type.
- Enter Hours Run per Month (up to 744).
- Optionally enter Persistent Disk Storage (GB).
- Optionally enter the Storage Rate ($/GB-month) for your chosen disk type.
- Select Calculate for the estimated total monthly cost.
Related Calculations
Comparing against AWS or Azure? See the AWS EC2 Cost Calculator and the Azure VM Cost Calculator, or factor in data transfer with the Cloud Cost Calculator.