Committed use discounts

Committed use discounts (CUDs) for Memorystore for Redis provide deeply discounted prices in exchange for your commitment to continuously use a certain amount of Memorystore for Redis capacity for a year or longer.

Memorystore for Redis CUD commitments are fungible with Memorystore for Memcached instances.

Memorystore for Redis CUDs are ideal when your spending on Memorystore for Redis capacity involves a predictable minimum that you can commit to for at least a year.

Memorystore for Redis CUD pricing

Memorystore for Redis CUDs offer two levels of discounts, depending on the commitment period:

  • A one-year CUD gives you a 20 percent discount from the on-demand rate.

  • A three-year CUD gives you a 40 percent discount from the on-demand rate.

When you purchase a CUD, you choose a one or three-year period, as well as a commitment amount: your expected Memorystore for Redis expenditure on capacity per hour over that period. This commitment amount, after the application of your discount, becomes your commitment fee. You are then billed for this commitment fee on a monthly basis for the duration of the CUD's period. (For a full example, see An example Memorystore for Redis CUD, below.)

The discount applies to any eligible usage of Memorystore for Redis, Memorystore for Redis Cluster, or Memorystore for Memcached instances associated with the Cloud Billing account used to purchase the CUD, with the exception of Memorystore for Redis M1 capacity tier instances (less than 5 GB). For information on resources that are ineligible for Memorystore CUDs, see Resources eligible for Memorystore for Redis CUDs.

Any expenditure beyond the commitment gets billed at the on-demand rate. As your Memorystore for Redis usage grows, you can purchase additional CUDs to receive discounts on increased expenditures not covered by previous commitments.

If Memorystore for Redis's on-demand rates change after you purchase a CUD, your commitment fee does not change, and you still receive the same discount percentage on applicable usage.

Resources eligible for Memorystore for Redis CUDs

Memorystore for Redis committed use discounts automatically apply to your spending on Memorystore for Redis, Memorystore for Redis Cluster, and Memorystore for Memcached instances for your billing account. This flexibility helps you achieve a high utilization rate of your commitment across regions and projects without manual intervention, saving you time and money.

Memorystore for Redis CUDs don't apply to your spending on Cloud Storage storage, backup, outbound data transfer, or Memorystore for Redis M1 capacity tier instances (less than 5 GB).

Supported regions

Committed use discounts can be used for instances in all supported Memorystore for Redis regions.

Purchase a Memorystore for Redis CUD

To purchase or manage Memorystore for Redis committed use discounts for your Cloud Billing account, you must have a Billing Account Administrator role with that account.

You can purchase a Memorystore for Redis CUD in the Google Cloud console billing page. Select the Commitments tab, then select the PURCHASE action at the top. Read the Purchasing spend-based commitments section in Google Cloud's documentation for more details.

After purchasing a CUD, the commitment goes into effect within the next hour. Its discounts are automatically applied to subsequent eligible usage.

Please note that, after your purchase a CUD, you cannot cancel its commitment. Make sure the size and duration of your commitment aligns with both your historical and your expected minimum expenditure on Memorystore for Redis capacity.

In addition, before you purchase a commitment, read the Service Specific Terms regarding Committed Units.

An example Memorystore for Redis CUD scenario

Your commitment should represent your expected minimum hourly expenditure on Memorystore for Redis capacity across your projects over the next one or three years.

As an example, say that you have a 200 GB Standard Tier Memorystore for Redis instance with no read replicas in the us-central1 region.

From the pricing page, you can calculate the approximate hourly commitment cost:

  • Expenditure in us-central1: 200 GB * $0.03 per GB per hour = $6.00 per hour

If you expect to spend that minimum of $6.00 per hour continuously for the next year or more, then you can make a commitment for that amount. In other words, when purchasing that CUD, you would enter "$6.00" as the hourly on-demand commitment amount.

If, on the other hand, you expect to scale down the capacity occasionally, you can make a commitment for a lower amount. Any expenditure greater than that limit is charged at the on-demand rate.

Continuing this example, assume that you do decide on a commitment of $6.00 per hour. As your next step, you choose the length of the commitment's period.

As a basis for comparison, compute the on-demand cost of Memorystore for Redis capacity at the chosen commitment rate, without the application of any commitment discounts:

  • Monthly cost based on on-demand pricing: $6.00 per hour * 730 hours = $4,380 per month

From here, you can calculate the monthly costs and savings you would see under a 1-year CUD, applying its 20% discount, compared to a year of paying the full on-demand rates:

  • Monthly cost of a 1-year, $6.00/hour commitment: ($6.00 per hour - 20% discount) * 730 hours = $3,504 per month
  • Total savings per month: $4,380 - $3,504 = $876
  • Total savings with a 1-year, $6.00/hour commitment: $876 per month * 12 months = $10,512

You can apply similar math to calculating the costs and savings of a 3-year CUD, with its 40% discount compared to on-demand rates:

  • Monthly cost of a 3-year, $6.00/hour commitment: ($6.00 per hour - 40% discount) * 730 hours = $2,628 per month
  • Total savings per month: $4,380 - $2,628 = $1,752
  • Total savings with a 3-year, $6.00/hour commitment: $1,752 per month * 36 months = $63,072

As you can see, a commitment that covers your expected minimum Memorystore for Redis usage over the years to come can lead to significant savings. Read on for our recommendations on choosing the right CUD size for your Memorystore for Redis projects.

Recommendations for choosing a commitment

While considering the purchase of Memorystore for Redis CUDs, keep in mind the following:

  • Regions: Memorystore for Redis CUDs apply across regions. If you have Memorystore for Redis instances in multiple regions, calculate the expenditure across all the regions while making a commitment.

  • Projects: Determine the consistent baseline expenditure per project while calculating total commitment. Consider that production loads usually run 100% of the time, while development or staging environments may often run intermittently.

  • Instances: If you frequently scale your instances up or down, consider purchasing CUDs only for their baseline predictable usage. If you have instances that you run only for bursts or brief durations, exclude them from your calculations.

Your commitment fee applies to every hour during the term of the commitment, regardless of actual usage. Choose your CUD's commitment amount carefully, based on both your historical Memorystore for Redis usage and your future expectations. As long as your use of Memorystore for Redis capacity stays higher than your committed expenditure level, you will enjoy the maximum possible discount for the length of that commitment.

What's next