Is Google Cloud Free? US$300 Credit Plus an Always-Free Tier

The trial and the Free Tier are two separate things, and mixing them up is how people lose their projects. Here's exactly what Google's own Free Program documentation says, checked as of October 2026, including the rules for what happens when the 90 days run out.

Google Cloud Free Trial versus Free Tier

	Free Trial	Free Tier
Who gets it	New customers who've never paid for Google Cloud, Maps Platform or Firebase	Any active billing account in good standing
What you get	US$300 Welcome credit	Free monthly usage of select products
How long	90 days	No end date
Card needed	Yes, to verify identity	A billing account is required
When it ends	Resources stop unless you upgrade	Continues; usage over limits is billed

Google says the authorisation at sign-up is a temporary hold, often between US$0.00 and US$1.00, not a charge, and it's usually released within a few days to a month.

What the Free Tier gives you every month

These are some of the Free Tier limits Google lists. They apply per billing account, and Google says it can change or remove them with 30 days' notice.

Product	Free Tier monthly limit
Compute Engine	1 non-preemptible e2-micro VM in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, plus 30 GB-months of standard persistent disk
Cloud Storage	5 GB-months of regional storage in US regions
BigQuery	1 TiB of querying and 10 GiB of storage
Cloud Run	2 million requests, 360,000 GB-seconds of memory, 180,000 vCPU-seconds
Firestore	1 GiB of storage per project, 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes per day
Cloud Build	2,500 build-minutes on e2-standard-2
Cloud Shell	Free access with 5 GB of persistent disk
Google Kubernetes Engine	One free Autopilot or zonal Standard cluster (cluster charge only)
Pub/Sub	10 GiB of messages
Secret Manager	6 active secret versions and 10,000 access operations
reCAPTCHA	10,000 assessments

The e2-micro rule is measured by time, not by machine. Google says each month your eligible e2-micro use is free until you've used as many hours as there are in that month. Run two at once and the free hours run out halfway through. GPUs and TPUs are never part of the Free Tier.

Who pays when you go over a Free Tier limit

Google spells this out, and it's worth knowing before you build anything. If you have a paid billing account and go past a Free Tier limit, you're billed for the overage at standard rates. If you're still on a Free Trial billing account, your US$300 Welcome credit pays the overage instead, and you're capped at US$300 of usage in total. You also need to be in good standing and not on a negotiated contract or custom rate card to get the Free Tier.

What you can't do during the Free Trial

The US$300 credit has some notable exclusions while your account is still a Free Trial account. Google's documentation lists these:

• The credit can't pay for Gemini API costs in AI Studio. Google points you to the Gemini API free tier instead.
• You can't use the credit for partner generative AI models offered as a managed API.
• You can't add GPUs to your VM instances.
• You can't request a quota increase.
• You can't create VMs based on Windows Server images.
• You can't mine cryptocurrency.

The 90-day deadline: what happens to your work

This is the bit to read twice. If you don't upgrade to a paid billing account before the 90 days pass, or once you've spent the US$300, Google closes the Free Trial billing account. Your resources are stopped, and data in services like Compute Engine is marked for deletion.

You then get a 30-day grace period. If you upgrade during it, you might be able to recover your stopped resources. If you don't, Google says your Free Trial resources are permanently deleted.

1. Note your sign-up date and set a reminder for day 80.
2. Check remaining credit and days in the Cloud Billing report.
3. If you want to keep anything, click Activate on the Welcome page of the console to upgrade.
4. Upgrading ends the trial, but you keep unused credit until day 90 and keep the Free Tier.
5. If you don't want to keep anything, export what you need and let it close.

How Google Cloud's free offer compares

Google's Free Tier is the most useful long-term free option of the big three for small experiments, because it doesn't expire. If you're choosing between providers, my AWS vs Google Cloud comparison covers both free tiers side by side, and I've also compared AWS and Azure.

My verdict: is Google Cloud free?

For learning and small side projects, yes: a single e2-micro, some storage and generous serverless limits are free indefinitely. For anything bigger it's a 90-day trial with a hard stop, and the deletion rule is strict. Upgrade before day 90 if the work matters, and set a budget alert the same day. If you only need a website rather than a cloud platform, my guide to free web hosting is a simpler starting point.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Cloud free forever?

The Free Tier has no end date, so select products stay free up to monthly limits. The US$300 Free Trial credit lasts 90 days.

Do I need a credit card for the Google Cloud free trial?

Yes. Google says you must provide a credit card or other payment method to verify your identity, and the sign-up authorisation is a temporary hold rather than a charge.

What happens when my Google Cloud free trial ends?

If you haven't upgraded, Google closes the Free Trial billing account and stops your resources. You get a 30-day grace period to upgrade, after which the resources are permanently deleted.

Is there a free VM on Google Cloud?

Yes. The Free Tier includes one non-preemptible e2-micro VM a month in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, with 30 GB-months of standard persistent disk.

Can I get the Google Cloud free trial twice?

No. Google says you're only eligible if you've never been a paying user of Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform or Firebase and haven't signed up for the Free Trial before.

Can I use the US$300 credit for Gemini?

Not for Gemini API costs in AI Studio. Google says the credit can't pay for those and points you to the Gemini API free tier.