GCP Cost Analysis Guide

This document provides cost estimates for common deployment scenarios. Always verify current pricing at https://cloud.google.com/pricing .

Free Tier Summary (Always-Free)

Note: e2-micro free tier is US regions only (us-central1, us-east1, us-west1).

Cloud Run Pricing (australia-southeast1)

Compute Costs

Monthly Estimates by Usage

Example: Flutter Web App (Static)

Assumptions:
- 50k pageviews/month
- 512MB memory, 1 vCPU
- Average 200ms response time
- Scale to zero when idle

Monthly Cost:
- Requests: 50k × $0.0000004 = $0.02
- Compute: Covered by free tier
- Total: ~$0-2/month

Example: Node.js API

Assumptions:
- 500k API calls/month
- 512MB memory, 1 vCPU
- Average 100ms response time
- 2 min instances for latency

Monthly Cost:
- Requests: 500k × $0.0000004 = $0.20
- Compute (min instances): 2 × 24 × 30 × 3600 × ($0.00002400 + $0.00000250 × 0.5)
  = ~$65/month for always-on
- With scale-to-zero: ~$5-15/month
- Total: $5-65/month (depends on min instances)

Cloud SQL Pricing (australia-southeast1)

Instance Types

Storage Costs

Example: Small App Database

db-f1-micro + 10GB SSD:
- Instance: $10/month
- Storage: 10 × $0.187 = $1.87/month
- Total: ~$12/month

Compute Engine Pricing (australia-southeast1)

Machine Types

Committed Use Discounts

• 1-year commitment: 37% discount
• 3-year commitment: 55% discount

Example: Simple VM Deployment

e2-small + 20GB SSD:
- Compute: $16/month
- Storage: 20 × $0.187 = $3.74/month
- Total: ~$20/month

Artifact Registry Pricing

Typical usage: 1-5 GB = $0.10-$0.50/month

VPC Connector Pricing

Tip: Required for Cloud Run → Cloud SQL connection.

Firebase Hosting (Alternative)

Blaze Plan Costs

• Storage: $0.026/GB
• Transfer: $0.15/GB (after free tier)

Best for: Static sites, SPAs (React, Flutter Web, Vue)

Cost Comparison by Project Type

Flutter Web (Static)

Next.js (SSR)

Laravel + Database

Cost Optimization Tips

1. Scale to Zero

Set min_instances: 0 for Cloud Run to avoid idle costs. Accept 1-2 second cold starts.

2. Right-size Resources

Start with:

• Cloud Run: 256MB-512MB memory, 1 vCPU
• Cloud SQL: db-f1-micro
• GCE: e2-micro or e2-small

Scale up only when needed.

3. Use Free Tier Regions

If latency isn’t critical, use US regions for free e2-micro instances.

4. Committed Use Discounts

For predictable workloads, commit for 1-3 years for up to 55% savings.

5. Preemptible/Spot VMs

For batch jobs: 60-91% cheaper but can be terminated.

6. Budget Alerts

Always set budget alerts:

gcloud billing budgets create \
  --billing-account=ACCOUNT_ID \
  --display-name="Monthly Budget" \
  --budget-amount=50USD \
  --threshold-rule=percent=50 \
  --threshold-rule=percent=80 \
  --threshold-rule=percent=100

Cost Calculator Template

Use this template when presenting options to users:

## Deployment Cost Estimate: [Project Name]
 
### Option A: Cloud Run (Recommended)
| Resource | Specification | Monthly Cost |
|----------|---------------|--------------|
| Cloud Run | 512MB, 1 vCPU | $X |
| Artifact Registry | ~2GB | $0.20 |
| Cloud Build | < 120min/day | $0 |
| VPC Connector | (if DB) | $11 |
| Cloud SQL | (if needed) | $12 |
| **Total** | | **$X** |
 
### Option B: Compute Engine
| Resource | Specification | Monthly Cost |
|----------|---------------|--------------|
| VM Instance | e2-small | $16 |
| Boot Disk | 20GB SSD | $3.74 |
| Static IP | 1 IP | $0 (free while attached) |
| **Total** | | **$20** |
 
### Recommendation
[Your recommendation based on project requirements]

Links

• GCP Pricing Calculator: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator 
• Cloud Run Pricing: https://cloud.google.com/run/pricing 
• Cloud SQL Pricing: https://cloud.google.com/sql/pricing 
• Compute Engine Pricing: https://cloud.google.com/compute/all-pricing