Google Adds Free Tier, Longer Trial to Cloud Platform

Google unveiled an always-free tier and longer trial program for its cloud platform this week at their Google Cloud Next conference. The free tier enables a user to run a small app in Google’s cloud and is offered in addition to the free trial program.

The free trial, not to be confused with the free tier, means $300 in credits that expire after a year, as opposed the 60 days that were previously offered, according to the tech giant.

The tier, on the other hand, now includes 15 services and entitles a client to free usage of a small instance in Compute Engine, Cloud Pub/Sub, Google Cloud Storage and Cloud Functions. In total, the free tier now includes 15 services. The addition of the Compute Engine instance and 5GB of free Cloud Storage usage may be the most vital update given that it’s at the center of several cloud apps, TechCrunch reported.

Many have said that this move means Google is stepping up its game in the cloud space and still taking aim at AWS, which also offers a free tier along with a 12-month trial. Although, TechCrunch pointed out that AWS’s always-free tier doesn’t offer a free virtual machine.

Developers may be more interested in Google now given that the 60-day trial has been increased, giving them more time to discover the ins and outs of the tech giant’s cloud. However, the free tier is only available in Google’s us-east1, us-west1 and us-central1 regions.

According to Business Insider, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt told the 10,000-person crowd at Google Cloud Next to: “Just get to the cloud now. Just go there now. There’s no time to waste anymore.”

He reportedly went on to say that the organization poured $30 billion into the platform. “I know this because I approved it,” he said.

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