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Serverless containers · by Google Cloud

Google Cloud Run

Google's serverless container platform: deploy any container or source code, scale to zero, and pay per 100 ms of CPU and memory, with a monthly free tier.

Visit cloud.google.com ↗ Alternatives Free tier EU region
Google Cloud Run homepage
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Overview

Cloud Run takes a container image, or source code it builds for you with buildpacks, and runs it as an HTTPS service that scales automatically from zero to many instances. Each instance can handle many concurrent requests. Besides request-serving services there are Cloud Run jobs for batch work up to 24 hours, Cloud Run functions (formerly Cloud Functions), and NVIDIA L4 GPUs for inference that also scale to zero.

Pricing is per resource second, rounded up to 100 ms. With request-based billing you pay only while requests are being processed, and the monthly free tier covers 2 million requests and 180,000 vCPU-seconds. Instance-based billing charges for the instance's whole lifetime at a lower rate ($0.000018 per vCPU-second in us-central1) and suits steady background work. Committed use discounts cut costs for always-on services.

Cloud Run lives inside Google Cloud, so you get IAM, VPC connectivity, Secret Manager and Cloud SQL, but also the console, projects and billing accounts to set up. There is no bundled database: you add Cloud SQL, Firestore or another service at its own price.

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Pricing and plans

Free tier

Monthly, per billing account: 2 million requests, 180,000 vCPU-seconds and 360,000 GiB-seconds with request-based billing (or 240,000 vCPU-seconds and 450,000 GiB-seconds with instance-based billing), plus 1 GiB of North America egress.

At the limit Bills overage Usage past the free allowance is billed to your Google Cloud billing account; set a budget alert.

Plan Price What you get
Free tier $0 2M requests and 180,000 vCPU-seconds per month (request-based)
CPU, instance-based $0.000018 per vCPU-second us-central1 list price; about 18% less with a 1-year Cloud Run CUD
Memory, instance-based $0.000002 per GiB-second us-central1 list price
NVIDIA L4 GPU $0.0001867 per second Without zonal redundancy

Prices vary by region and by billing mode (request-based billing charges only while handling requests; instance-based charges for the instance's whole lifetime). Usage is rounded up to 100 ms. Outbound internet traffic is billed at Google Cloud networking rates after 1 GiB free in North America; traffic to other services in the same region, Cloud CDN and Cloud Load Balancing is free. Committed use discounts are available. Google Cloud's compliance certifications are listed on its compliance pages, which we did not read for this record.

Source: cloud.google.com/run/pricing · prices as published, excluding tax.

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What it does

Scale to zero
Services scale down to zero instances when idle and back up on the next request.
Source deploys
gcloud run deploy builds a container from Go, Node.js, Python, Java, .NET or Ruby source with buildpacks.
Jobs
Run-to-completion batch jobs with parallel instances, up to 24 hours per task.
GPUs
On-demand NVIDIA L4 GPUs that start in about 5 seconds for AI inference.
Direct VPC
Send traffic straight into a VPC network to reach private databases and services.
Concurrency
One instance can serve many requests at once, sharing its CPU and memory.
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Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Runs any container, so there is no framework or language lock-in.
  • Real scale to zero with a meaningful monthly free tier.
  • More than 40 regions, including many in Europe.
  • Free data transfer to other Google Cloud services in the same region.

Limitations

  • Cold starts occur when scaling up from zero.
  • Egress to the internet is billed at Google Cloud networking rates after 1 GiB.
  • Requires a Google Cloud project and billing account, with its IAM and console complexity.
  • No bundled database; Cloud SQL or others are billed separately.
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Who it suits

Good for

  • Containerized APIs and web apps with spiky traffic
  • Teams already on Google Cloud
  • Batch jobs and AI inference that should scale to zero

Look elsewhere if

  • Beginners who want a one-click PaaS with a database included
  • Latency-critical apps that cannot tolerate cold starts without paying for minimum instances
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Alternatives to Google Cloud Run

Tool From Free option Stages
Vercel Frontend and serverless platform
$20/mo Free tier
Netlify Frontend and serverless platform
$9/mo Free tier
Northflank Kubernetes-based PaaS
$2.70/mo Free tier
Cloudflare Workers (incl. Pages) Edge serverless platform
$5/mo Free tier
Render Managed PaaS
$7/mo Free tier
AWS Amplify Hosting Frontend hosting
Usage-based Paid

All app hosting and PaaS →

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Questions

Is Google Cloud Run free?

It has a monthly free tier: 2 million requests and 180,000 vCPU-seconds with request-based billing. Usage above that is billed per 100 ms.

Does Cloud Run scale to zero?

Yes. Services scale to zero instances when there is no traffic, and you pay nothing for compute while idle under request-based billing.

Which languages does Cloud Run support?

Any language in a container. Source-based deploys build containers automatically for Go, Node.js, Python, Java, .NET Core and Ruby.

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