General-purpose machine family for Compute Engine

This document describes the features of the Compute Engine general-purpose machine family, which has the best price-performance with the most flexible vCPU to memory ratios, and provides features that target most standard and cloud-native workloads.

The general-purpose machine family has predefined and custom machine types to align with your workload, depending on your requirements. N4 is powered by the 5th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor (code-named Emerald Rapids) with a maximum frequency of 3.3 GHz. C3 is powered by 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and offers a sustained, all-core turbo frequency of 3.0 GHz, 8 channels of DDR5 memory, and up to 200 Gbps per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

E2, E2 shared-core, N2, N2D, and Tau T2D are second generation machine series in this family; N1 and its related shared-core machine types are the first generation machine series.

Machine series Workloads
N4, N2, N2D, N1
  • Medium traffic web and application servers
  • Containerized microservices
  • Business intelligence applications
  • Virtual desktops
  • CRM applications
  • Development and test environments
  • Batch processing
  • Storage and archive
C3, C3D
  • High traffic web, app and ad servers
  • Databases and caches
  • Game servers
  • Data analytics
  • Media streaming and transcoding
  • Network appliances
  • CPU-based ML training and inference
E2
  • Low-traffic web servers
  • Back office apps
  • Containerized microservices
  • Small databases
  • Virtual desktops
  • Development and test environments
Tau T2A, Tau T2D
  • Scale-out workloads
  • Web servers
  • Containerized microservices
  • Media transcoding
  • Large-scale Java applications

To learn how your selection affects the performance of Persistent Disk volumes attached to your VMs, see Configure your Persistent Disk and VMs.

N4 machine series

N4 VMs are powered by the 5th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Emerald Rapids) and Titanium. N4 machine types are built from the ground up for flexibility and cost optimization through an efficient architecture of streamlined features, shapes, and next generation dynamic resource management, which makes better use of resources on host machines. N4 offers flexible options like custom machine types that lets you use choose varied combinations of compute and memory to optimize costs and reduce resource waste. N4 is suited for a variety of general-purpose workloads that don't require peak processing power at all times.

In summary, the N4 machine series:

  • Is powered by 5th generation Intel Emerald Rapids processor and Google's Titanium processors.
  • Supports up to 80 vCPUs and 640 GB of DDR5 memory.
  • Offers multiple predefined machine types and custom machine types and extended custom memory up to 640 GB.
  • Supports standard network configuration with up to 50 Gbps bandwidth
  • Supports Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), a built-in accelerator that significantly improves the performance of deep-learning training and inference on the CPU.
  • Supports the following discount and consumption options:
  • Does not support Local SSD or per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

N4 machine types

N4 VMs are available as predefined configurations in sizes ranging from 2 vCPUs to 80 vCPUs and up to 640 GB of memory.

  • standard: 4 GB memory per vCPU
  • highcpu: 2 GB memory per vCPU
  • highmem: 8 GB memory per vCPU

N4 standard

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps) Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n4-standard-2 2 8 10 N/A
n4-standard-4 4 16 10 N/A
n4-standard-8 8 32 16 N/A
n4-standard-16 16 64 32 N/A
n4-standard-32 32 128 32 N/A
n4-standard-48 48 192 32 N/A
n4-standard-64 64 256 45 N/A
n4-standard-80 80 320 50 N/A

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms

.

N4 highcpu

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps) Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n4-highcpu-2 2 4 10 N/A
n4-highcpu-4 4 8 10 N/A
n4-highcpu-8 8 16 16 N/A
n4-highcpu-16 16 32 32 N/A
n4-highcpu-32 32 64 32 N/A
n4-highcpu-48 48 96 32 N/A
n4-highcpu-64 64 128 45 N/A
n4-highcpu-80 80 160 50 N/A

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms

.

N4 highmem

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps) Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n4-highmem-2 2 16 10 N/A
n4-highmem-4 4 32 10 N/A
n4-highmem-8 8 64 16 N/A
n4-highmem-16 16 128 32 N/A
n4-highmem-32 32 256 32 N/A
n4-highmem-48 48 384 32 N/A
n4-highmem-64 64 512 45 N/A
n4-highmem-80 80 640 50 N/A

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms

.

Supported disk types for N4

N4 VMs supports only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following Hyperdisk block storage:

  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)

N4 does not support Persistent Disk or Local SSD. Read Move your workload from an existing VM to a new VM to migrate your Persistent Disk resources to a newer machine series.

Disk and capacity limits

The number of Hyperdisk volumes of all types that you can attach to a VM can't exceed the limits stated in the Max number of Hyperdisk volumes. For details about these limits, see Hyperdisk capacity.

The combined total number of Hyperdisk Balanced volumes attached to a single VM depends on the number of vCPUs the VM has, and can't exceed these limits:

vCPU count Max number of Hyperdisk volumes
2-8 16
16 or more 32

Network support for N4 VMs

N4 VMs require gVNIC network interfaces. N4 supports up to 50 Gbps network bandwidth for standard networking and does not support per VM Tier_1 networking performance. Before migrating to N4 or creating new N4 VMs, make sure that the operating system image that you use has full support (includes the updated drivers). These images include the updated gVNIC driver, even if the guest OS shows the gve driver version as 1.0.0. If your N4 VM is using an operating system with limited support (includes an older version of the gVNIC driver), the VM might not be able to achieve the maximum standard network bandwidth for N4 VMs.

If you use a custom image with the N4 machine series, you can manually install the most recent gVNIC driver. The gVNIC driver version v1.3.0 or later is recommended for use with N4 VMs. Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit from additional features and bug fixes.

C3D machine series

C3D VMs are powered by the 4th generation AMD EPYC™ (Genoa) processor with a maximum frequency of 3.7 Ghz. C3D machine types are optimized for the underlying hardware architecture to deliver optimal, reliable, and consistent performance.

C3D uses Google's custom IPU, which enables higher levels of networking performance, isolation and security. The C3D machine series supports a default network bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps and up to 200 Gbps per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

In summary, the C3D machine series:

  • Is powered by 4th generation AMD EPYC™ processor and Google's IPU.
  • Supports up to 360 vCPUs and 2,880 GB of DDR5 memory.
  • Supports standard network configuration with up to 100 Gbps bandwidth and Tier_1 networking with up to 200 Gbps bandwidth.
  • Supports the following discount and consumption options:

C3D machine types

C3D VMs are available in standard, highcpu, highmem, and lssd configurations in sizes ranging from 4 to 360 vCPUs and up to 2,880 GB of memory. The highcpu configuration offers the lowest price per performance for compute-bound workloads that don't require large amounts of memory.

C3D standard

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3d-standard-4 4 16 up to 20 N/A
c3d-standard-8 8 32 up to 20 N/A
c3d-standard-16 16 64 up to 20 N/A
c3d-standard-30 30 120 up to 20 up to 50
c3d-standard-60 60 240 up to 40 up to 75
c3d-standard-90 90 360 up to 60 up to 100
c3d-standard-180 180 720 up to 100 up to 150
c3d-standard-360 360 1,440 up to 100 up to 200

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3D highcpu

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3d-highcpu-4 4 8 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highcpu-8 8 16 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highcpu-16 16 32 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highcpu-30 30 59 up to 20 up to 50
c3d-highcpu-60 60 118 up to 40 up to 75
c3d-highcpu-90 90 177 up to 60 up to 100
c3d-highcpu-180 180 354 up to 100 up to 150
c3d-highcpu-360 360 708 up to 100 up to 200

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3D highmem

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3d-highmem-4 4 32 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highmem-8 8 64 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highmem-16 16 128 up to 20 N/A
c3d-highmem-30 30 240 up to 20 up to 50
c3d-highmem-60 60 480 up to 40 up to 75
c3d-highmem-90 90 720 up to 60 up to 100
c3d-highmem-180 180 1,440 up to 100 up to 150
c3d-highmem-360 360 2,880 up to 100 up to 200

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3D with Local SSD

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3d-standard-8-lssd 8 32 Up to 20 N/A
c3d-standard-16-lssd 16 64 Up to 20 N/A
c3d-standard-30-lssd 30 120 Up to 20 up to 50
c3d-standard-60-lssd 60 240 Up to 40 up to 75
c3d-standard-90-lssd 90 360 Up to 60 up to 100
c3d-standard-180-lssd 180 720 Up to 100 up to 150
c3d-standard-360-lssd 360 1440 Up to 100 up to 200

* A CPU uses two threads per core, and a vCPU respresents a single thread. See CPU platforms.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3D doesn't support custom machine types.

Supported disk types for C3D

C3D VMs support only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Local SSD (only available with -lssd machine types)

To use Local SSD with C3D, create your VM using the -lssd variant of the C3D machine types. Selecting this machine type creates a VM of the specified size with Local SSD partitions attached. You must use a c3d-standard-*-lssd machine type to use Local SSD with your VM; you can't attach Local SSD volumes separately.

Disk and capacity limits

You can use a mixture of Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes with a VM, but the following restrictions apply:

  • The combined number of both Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes can't exceed 128 per VM.

  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed:

    • For machine types with less than 32 vCPUs:

      • 257 TiB for Hyperdisk
      • 257 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for Persistent Disk

    • For machine types with 32 or more vCPUs:

      • 512 TiB for Hyperdisk
      • 512 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for Persistent Disk

For more details about these limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

C3D storage limits are described in the following table:

C3D standard

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3d-standard-4 128 24 16 24 0 Not supported
c3d-standard-8 128 32 16 32 0 Not supported
c3d-standard-16 128 48 16 48 0 Not supported
c3d-standard-30 128 64 16 64 0 Not supported
c3d-standard-60 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-standard-90 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-standard-180 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-standard-360 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported

C3D highcpu

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3d-highcpu-4 128 24 16 24 0 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-8 128 32 16 32 0 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-16 128 48 16 48 0 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-30 128 64 16 64 0 Not supported
c3-highcpu-60 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-90 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-180 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highcpu-360 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported

C3D highmem

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3d-highmem-4 128 24 16 24 0 Not supported
c3d-highmem-8 128 32 16 32 0 Not supported
c3d-highmem-16 128 48 16 48 0 Not supported
c3d-highmem-30 128 64 16 64 0 Not supported
c3-highmem-60 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highmem-90 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highmem-180 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported
c3d-highmem-360 128 64 32 64 8 Not supported

C3D with Local SSD

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3d-standard-8-lssd 128 24 16 24 0 1 (375 GiB)
c3d-standard-16-lssd 128 48 16 48 0 1 (375 GiB)
c3d-standard-30-lssd 128 64 16 64 0 2 (750 GiB)
c3d-standard-60-lssd 128 64 32 64 8 4 (1.5 TiB)
c3d-standard-90-lssd 128 64 32 64 8 8 (3 TiB)
c3d-standard-180-lssd 128 64 32 64 8 16 (6 TiB)
c3d-standard-360-lssd 128 64 32 64 8 32 (12 TiB)

Network support for C3D VMs

C3D VMs require gVNIC network interfaces. C3D supports up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth for standard networking and up to 200 Gbps with per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

Before migrating to C3D or creating C3D VMs, make sure that the operating system image that you use is fully supported for C3D. Fully supported images include the updated gVNIC driver, even if the guest OS shows the gve driver version as 1.0.0. If your C3D VM is using an operating system with limited support, which includes an older version of the gVNIC driver, the VM might not be able to achieve the maximum network bandwidth for C3D VMs.

If you use a custom image with the C3D machine series, you can manually install the most recent gVNIC driver. The gVNIC driver version v1.3.0 or later is recommended for use with C3D VMs. Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit from additional features and bug fixes.

C3 machine series

C3 VMs are powered by the 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids), DDR5 memory, and Google's custom Intel Infrastructure Processing Engine (IPU). C3 machine types are optimized for the underlying NUMA architecture to deliver optimal, reliable, and consistent performance.

The new C3 machine series is a major leap in our purpose-built infrastructure offerings:

  • Leveraging our latest Infrastructure Processing Engine (IPU) to offload networking
  • Delivering high performance block-storage with Google Cloud Hyperdisk
  • Speeding up ML training and inference with Intel AMX

C3 is the first machine series to launch with Google's IPU. The IPU enables higher levels of networking performance, isolation and security. The C3 machine series supports a default network bandwidth of up to 100 Gbps and up to 200 Gbps with per VM Tier_1 networking performance. The Google IPU has been designed from the ground up to enable updates that don't impact running workloads.

The C3 machine series provides some of the largest general-purpose machine types with up to 176 vCPUs and 1.4 TB of memory.

In summary, the C3 machine series:

  • Is powered by Intel 4th Generation Xeon processors and Google's IPU.
  • Supports up to 176 vCPUs and 1.4 TB of DDR5 memory.
  • Supports standard network configuration with up to 100 Gbps bandwidth and Tier_1 networking with up to 200 Gbps bandwidth.
  • Supports Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX), a built-in accelerator that significantly improves the performance of deep-learning training and inference on the CPU.
  • Supports the following discount and consumption options:
  • Does not support sustained use discounts (SUDs).

C3 machine types

C3 VMs are available in the following instance configurations in six instance sizes ranging from 4 to 176 vCPUs and up to 1,408 GB of memory.

  • highcpu: 2 GB memory per vCPU
  • standard: 4 GB memory per vCPU
  • highmem: 8 GB memory per vCPU

To use Local SSD with C3, create your VM using the -lssd variant of the C3 machine types. Selecting this machine type creates a VM of the specified size with Local SSD partitions attached. You must use a c3-standard-*-lssd machine type to use Local SSD with your VM; you can't attach Local SSD volumes separately.

C3 standard

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3-standard-4 4 16 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-8 8 32 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-22 22 88 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-44 44 176 up to 32 up to 50
c3-standard-88 88 352 up to 62 up to 100
c3-standard-176 176 704 up to 100 up to 200

* A vCPU represents a single hardware thread, or logical core.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3 highcpu

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3-highcpu-4 4 8 up to 23 N/A
c3-highcpu-8 8 16 up to 23 N/A
c3-highcpu-22 22 44 up to 23 N/A
c3-highcpu-44 44 88 up to 32 up to 50
c3-highcpu-88 88 176 up to 62 up to 100
c3-highcpu-176 176 352 up to 100 up to 200

* A vCPU represents a single hardware thread, or logical core.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3 highmem

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3-highmem-4 4 32 up to 23 N/A
c3-highmem-8 8 64 up to 23 N/A
c3-highmem-22 22 176 up to 23 N/A
c3-highmem-44 44 352 up to 32 up to 50
c3-highmem-88 88 704 up to 62 up to 100
c3-highmem-176 176 1408 up to 100 up to 200

* A vCPU represents a single hardware thread, or logical core.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3 with Local SSD

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier_1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
c3-standard-4-lssd 4 16 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-8-lssd 8 32 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-22-lssd 22 88 up to 23 N/A
c3-standard-44-lssd 44 176 up to 32 up to 50
c3-standard-88-lssd 88 352 up to 62 up to 100
c3-standard-176-lssd 176 704 up to 100 up to 200

* A vCPU represents a single hardware thread, or logical core.
‡ Default egress bandwidth can't exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

C3 doesn't support custom machine types.

Supported disk types for C3

C3 VMs support only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)—Requires at least 64 vCPUs
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Local SSD—only available with -lssd machine types

A set amount of Local SSD disks are added to the C3 VM when you use the -lssd machine type. This is the only way to include Local SSD storage with a C3 VM.

Disk and capacity limits

You can use a mixture of Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk volumes with a VM, but the following restrictions apply:

  • The combined number of both Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes can't exceed 128 per VM.

  • The maximum total disk capacity (in TiB) across all disk types can't exceed:

    • For machine types with less than 32 vCPUs:

      • 257 TiB for Hyperdisk
      • 257 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for Persistent Disk

    • For machine types with 32 or more vCPUs:

      • 512 TiB for Hyperdisk
      • 512 TiB for a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk
      • 257 TiB for Persistent Disk

For more details about these limits, see Hyperdisk capacity limits per VM and Persistent Disk maximum capacity.

C3 storage limits are described in the following table:

C3 standard

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3-standard-4 128 24 0 24 0 Not supported
c3-standard-8 128 32 0 32 0 Not supported
c3-standard-22 128 48 2 48 0 Not supported
c3-standard-44 128 64 4 64 0 Not supported
c3-standard-88 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported
c3-standard-176 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported

C3 highcpu

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3-highcpu-4 128 24 0 24 0 Not supported
c3-highcpu-8 128 32 0 32 0 Not supported
c3-highcpu-22 128 48 2 48 0 Not supported
c3-highcpu-44 128 64 4 64 0 Not supported
c3-highcpu-88 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported
c3-highcpu-176 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported

C3 highmem

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3-highmem-4 128 24 0 24 0 Not supported
c3-highmem-8 128 32 0 32 0 Not supported
c3-highmem-22 128 48 2 48 0 Not supported
c3-highmem-44 128 64 4 64 0 Not supported
c3-highmem-88 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported
c3-highmem-176 128 64 8 64 8 Not supported

C3 with Local SSD

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM		 Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
c3-standard-4-lssd 128 24 0 24 0 1 (375 GiB)
c3-standard-8-lssd 128 32 0 32 0 2 (750 GiB)
c3-standard-22-lssd 128 48 2 48 0 4 (1.5 TiB)
c3-standard-44-lssd 128 64 4 64 0 8 (3 TiB)
c3-standard-88-lssd 128 64 8 64 8 16 (6 TiB)
c3-standard-176-lssd 128 64 8 64 8 32 (12 TiB)

Network support for C3 VMs

C3 VMs require gVNIC network interfaces. C3 supports up to 100 Gbps network bandwidth for standard networking and up to 200 Gbps with per VM Tier_1 networking performance.

Before migrating to C3 or creating C3 VMs, make sure that the operating system image that you use is fully supported for C3. Fully supported images include the updated gVNIC driver, even if the guest OS shows the gve driver version as 1.0.0. If your C3 VM is using an operating system with limited support, which includes an older version of the gVNIC driver, the VM might not be able to achieve the maximum network bandwidth for C3 VMs.

If you use a custom image with the C3 machine series, you can manually install the most recent gVNIC driver. The gVNIC driver version v1.3.0 or later is recommended for use with C3 VMs. Google recommends using the latest gVNIC driver version to benefit from additional features and bug fixes.

Tau T2A machine series

The Tau T2A machine series runs on the Ampere Altra Arm processor with a base frequency of 3.0 GHz. Tau T2A offers predefined machine types with 1 to 48 vCPUs, supports 4 GB of memory per vCPU, and offers a maximum of 32 Gbps of outbound data transfer.

This series is available only in select regions and zones.

The Tau T2A machine series doesn't support simultaneous multithreading (SMT); each vCPU is equivalent to an entire core.

Tau T2A machine types

Tau T2A standard machine types have 4 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
t2a-standard-1 1 4 128 257 No 10 N/A
t2a-standard-2 2 8 128 257 No 10 N/A
t2a-standard-4 4 16 128 257 No 10 N/A
t2a-standard-8 8 32 128 257 No 16 N/A
t2a-standard-16 16 64 128 257 No 32 N/A
t2a-standard-32 32 128 128 257 No 32 N/A
t2a-standard-48 48 192 128 257 No 32 N/A

* SMT is not supported. Each vCPU is equivalent to an entire core. See CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

Tau T2A Limitations

The Tau T2A machine series does not support:

Supported disk types for T2A

T2A VMs support only the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)
  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)

Tau T2D machine series

The Tau T2D machine series run on the third generation AMD EPYC Milan processor with a base frequency of 2.45 GHz, an effective frequency of 2.8 GHz, and a max boost frequency of 3.5 GHz. This series has predefined machine types of up to 60 vCPUs, support 4 GB of memory per vCPU, and a maximum of 32 Gbps outbound data transfer. It also supports the following discount and consumption options:

This series is available only in select regions and zones.

Machine types in the Tau T2D machine series have simultaneous multithreading (SMT) disabled; therefore a vCPU is equivalent to an entire core.

Tau T2D Limitations

Tau T2D VMs do not support:

  • Local SSD
  • Regional Persistent Disk
  • Custom VMs
  • Sole-tenant nodes
  • Extreme Persistent Disk
  • GPUs
  • Nested virtualization
  • Flexible CUDs
  • Sustained use discounts (SUDs)
  • Confidential VMs

Tau T2D machine types

Tau T2D standard machine types have 4 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
t2d-standard-1 1 4 10 N/A
t2d-standard-2 2 8 10 N/A
t2d-standard-4 4 16 10 N/A
t2d-standard-8 8 32 16 N/A
t2d-standard-16 16 64 32 N/A
t2d-standard-32 32 128 32 N/A
t2d-standard-48 48 192 32 N/A
t2d-standard-60 60 240 32 N/A

* SMT is not supported. Each vCPU is equivalent to an entire core. See CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

For details on the pricing information, see the following:

Supported disk types for T2D

T2D VMs support both the SCSI and the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)
  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
Machine types Max number of disks per VM* Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
t2d-standard-1 128 20 257 No
t2d-standard-2 128 20 257 No
t2d-standard-4 128 24 257 No
t2d-standard-8 128 32 257 No
t2d-standard-16 128 48 257 No
t2d-standard-32 128 64 512 No
t2d-standard-48 128 64 512 No
t2d-standard-60 128 64 512 No

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

†The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32  TiB.

‡You can attach a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes to a VM, but the total Persistent Disk capacity can't exceed 257 TiB.

N2D machine series

The N2D machine series can run on either AMD EPYC Milan or AMD EPYC Rome processors. The third generation AMD EPYC Milan processor is available only in specific regions and zones. To use AMD Milan as your minimum CPU platform, request it when you create your VM instance.

The N2D series provides some of the largest general-purpose machine types with up to 224 vCPUs and 896 GB of memory and vCPU to memory ratios of 1:1, 1:4, and 1:8. The AMD EPYC Rome processors in this series run with a base frequency of 2.25 GHz, an effective frequency of 2.7 GHz, and a max boost frequency of 3.3 GHz.

In summary, the N2D series:

N2D VMs don't support GPUs or nested virtualization.

N2D machine types

The following table lists the features of the N2D machine series. For some machine types, certain features are not applicable (N/A).

N2D standard

N2D standard machine types have 4 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2d-standard-2 2 8 10 N/A
n2d-standard-4 4 16 10 N/A
n2d-standard-8 8 32 16 N/A
n2d-standard-16 16 64 32 N/A
n2d-standard-32 32 128 32 N/A
n2d-standard-48 48 192 32 50
n2d-standard-64 64 256 32 50
n2d-standard-80 80 320 32 50
n2d-standard-96 96 384 32 100
n2d-standard-128 128 512 32 100
n2d-standard-224 224 896 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

N2D high-mem

N2D high-mem machine types have 8 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2d-highmem-2 2 16 10 N/A
n2d-highmem-4 4 32 10 N/A
n2d-highmem-8 8 64 16 N/A
n2d-highmem-16 16 128 32 N/A
n2d-highmem-32 32 256 32 N/A
n2d-highmem-48 48 384 32 50
n2d-highmem-64 64 512 32 50
n2d-highmem-80 80 640 32 50
n2d-highmem-96 96 768 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

N2D high-cpu

N2D high-cpu machine types have 1 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2d-highcpu-2 2 2 10 N/A
n2d-highcpu-4 4 4 10 N/A
n2d-highcpu-8 8 8 16 N/A
n2d-highcpu-16 16 16 32 N/A
n2d-highcpu-32 32 32 32 N/A
n2d-highcpu-48 48 48 32 50
n2d-highcpu-64 64 64 32 50
n2d-highcpu-80 80 80 32 50
n2d-highcpu-96 96 96 32 100
n2d-highcpu-128 128 128 32 100
n2d-highcpu-224 224 224 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

For details on the pricing information, see the following:

Supported disk types for N2D

N2D VMs support both the SCSI and the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal and regional standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)
  • Zonal and regional balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal and regional SSD Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Local SSD

N2D standard

Machine types Max number of disks per VM,
across all disks*		 Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2d-standard-2 128 20 257 Yes
n2d-standard-4 128 24 257 Yes
n2d-standard-8 128 32 257 Yes
n2d-standard-16 128 48 257 Yes
n2d-standard-32 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-48 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-64 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-80 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-96 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-128 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-standard-224 128 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

†The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ The maximum total disk size applies to all Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk disk types attached to the VM.

N2D high-mem

Machine types Max number of disks per VM per VM* Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2d-highmem-2 128 20 257 Yes
n2d-highmem-4 128 24 257 Yes
n2d-highmem-8 128 32 257 Yes
n2d-highmem-16 128 48 257 Yes
n2d-highmem-32 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highmem-48 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highmem-64 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highmem-80 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highmem-96 128 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

†The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ The maximum total disk size applies to all Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk disk types attached to the VM.

N2D high-cpu

Machine types Max number of disks per VM* Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2d-highcpu-2 128 20 257 Yes
n2d-highcpu-4 128 24 257 Yes
n2d-highcpu-8 128 32 257 Yes
n2d-highcpu-16 128 48 257 Yes
n2d-highcpu-32 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-48 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-64 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-80 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-96 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-128 128 64 512 Yes
n2d-highcpu-224 128 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

†The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ The maximum total disk size applies to all Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk disk types attached to the VM.

N2 machine series

The N2 machine series has flexible sizing between 2 to 128 vCPUs and 0.5 to 8 GB of memory per vCPU. Machine types in this series run on the following processors:

  • Ice Lake—offered in specific regions and zones. It is the default processor for larger machine types.

  • Cascade Lake—the default for machine types up to 80 vCPUs. If you want to create VMs with Ice Lake, you must set it as the minimum CPU platform.

You can find more details about these two processors on the CPU platforms page.

Workloads that can take advantage of the higher clock frequency are a good choice for this series. These workloads can get higher per-thread performance while benefiting from all the flexibility that the general-purpose machine family offers.

In summary, the N2 machine series:

N2 machine types

N2 standard

N2 standard machine types have 4 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2-standard-2 2 8 10 N/A
n2-standard-4 4 16 10 N/A
n2-standard-8 8 32 16 N/A
n2-standard-16 16 64 32 N/A
n2-standard-32 32 128 32 50
n2-standard-48 48 192 32 50
n2-standard-64 64 256 32 75
n2-standard-80 80 320 32 100
n2-standard-96 96 384 32 100
n2-standard-128 128 512 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

N2 high-mem

N2 high-memory machine types have 8 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2-highmem-2 2 16 10 N/A
n2-highmem-4 4 32 10 N/A
n2-highmem-8 8 64 16 N/A
n2-highmem-16 16 128 32 N/A
n2-highmem-32 32 256 32 50
n2-highmem-48 48 384 32 50
n2-highmem-64 64 512 32 75
n2-highmem-80 80 640 32 100
n2-highmem-96 96 768 32 100
n2-highmem-128 128 864 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

N2 high-cpu

N2 high-cpu machine types have 1 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)#
n2-highcpu-2 2 2 10 N/A
n2-highcpu-4 4 4 10 N/A
n2-highcpu-8 8 8 16 N/A
n2-highcpu-16 16 16 32 N/A
n2-highcpu-32 32 32 32 50
n2-highcpu-48 48 48 32 50
n2-highcpu-64 64 64 32 75
n2-highcpu-80 80 80 32 100
n2-highcpu-96 96 96 32 100

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# Supports high-bandwidth networking for larger machine types.

For details on the pricing information, see the following:

Supported disk types for N2

N2 VMs support both the SCSI and the NVMe disk interface and can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal and regional standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)
  • Zonal and regional balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal and regional SSD Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Local SSD

N2 standard

Machine types Max number of disks per VM,
across all disks*		 Max number of Hyperdisk Extreme
volumes per VM†		 Max number of Hyperdisk Throughput
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2-standard-2 128 0 20 257 Yes
n2-standard-4 128 0 24 257 Yes
n2-standard-8 128 0 32 257 Yes
n2-standard-16 128 0 48 257 Yes
n2-standard-32 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-standard-48 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-standard-64 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-standard-80 128 8 64 512 Yes
n2-standard-96 128 8 64 512 Yes
n2-standard-128 128 8 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

† The maximum size per Hyperdisk Extreme volume is 64 TiB. The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ You can attach a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes to a VM, but the total Persistent Disk capacity can't exceed 257 TiB.

N2 high-mem

Machine types Max number of disks per VM,
across all disks*		 Max number of Hyperdisk Extreme
volumes per VM†		 Max number of Hyperdisk Throughput
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2-highmem-2 128 0 20 257 Yes
n2-highmem-4 128 0 24 257 Yes
n2-highmem-8 128 0 32 257 Yes
n2-highmem-16 128 0 48 257 Yes
n2-highmem-32 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highmem-48 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highmem-64 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highmem-80 128 8 64 512 Yes
n2-highmem-96 128 8 64 512 Yes
n2-highmem-128 128 8 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

† The maximum size per Hyperdisk Extreme volume is 64 TiB. The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ You can attach a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes to a VM, but the total Persistent Disk capacity can't exceed 257 TiB.

N2 high-cpu

Machine types Max number of disks per VM,
across all disks*		 Max number of Hyperdisk Extreme
volumes per VM†		 Max number of Hyperdisk Throughput
volumes per VM†		 Max total disk size (TiB)
across all disks‡		 Local SSD
n2-highcpu-2 128 0 20 257 Yes
n2-highcpu-4 128 0 24 257 Yes
n2-highcpu-8 128 0 32 257 Yes
n2-highcpu-16 128 0 48 257 Yes
n2-highcpu-32 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highcpu-48 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highcpu-64 128 0 64 512 Yes
n2-highcpu-80 128 8 64 512 Yes
n2-highcpu-96 128 8 64 512 Yes

* The maximum size per Persistent Disk volume is 64 TiB.

† The maximum size per Hyperdisk Extreme volume is 64 TiB. The maximum size per Hyperdisk Throughput volume is 32 TiB.

‡ You can attach a mixture of Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes to a VM, but the total Persistent Disk capacity can't exceed 257 TiB.

E2 machine series

The cost-optimized E2 machine series have between 2 to 32 vCPUs with a ratio of 0.5 GB to 8 GB of memory per vCPU for standard VMs, and 0.25 to 1 vCPUs with 0.5 GB to 8 GB of memory for shared-core E2 machine types. The E2 machine series offers both Intel and AMD EPYC processors. The processor is selected for you at the time of VM creation. Machine types in this series are available in all regions and zones and support a virtio memory balloon device.

In summary, the E2 machine series:

Shared-core VMs

The E2 machine series also contains shared-core machine types that use context- switching to time-share a physical core between vCPUs for multitasking. Different shared-core machine types sustain different amounts of time on a physical core.

Unlike predefined machine types and custom machine types, shared-core machine types have a predefined price that includes both vCPUs and memory. For more information, see VM instance pricing.

CPU bursting

Shared-core machine types offer bursting capabilities that allow instances to use additional physical CPU for short periods of time. Bursting happens automatically when your VM requires more physical CPU than originally allocated. During these spikes, your VM will opportunistically take advantage of available physical CPU in bursts. Note that bursts are not permanent and are only possible periodically.

  • e2-micro, e2-small, and e2-medium shared-core VMs can burst for dozens of seconds.
  • If the CPU is utilized at 100%, then the burst lasts as follows:
    • e2-micro: 30 seconds
    • e2-small: 60 seconds
    • e2-medium 120 seconds
The exact burst time is determined by a Token bucket meaning utilizing the CPU less than 100% will result in longer bursts. Bursting doesn't incur any additional charges. You are charged the listed on-demand price for e2 shared-core, f1-micro, and g1-small VMs.

E2 Limitations

  • The E2 machine series does not offer SUDs; however, it provides consistently low on-demand and committed-use pricing.
  • The E2 machine series does not support GPUs, Local SSDs, sole-tenant nodes, or nested virtualization.

E2 machine types

E2 is available in standard, highmem, and highcpu configurations, as well as shared-core machine type. In general, E2 shared-core machine types can be more cost-effective for running small, non-resource intensive applications than standard, high-memory, or high-CPU machine types.

E2 standard

E2 standard machine types have 4 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
e2-standard-2 2 8 128 257 No 4
e2-standard-4 4 16 128 257 No 8
e2-standard-8 8 32 128 257 No 16
e2-standard-16 16 64 128 257 No 16
e2-standard-32 32 128 128 257 No 16
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual See Network bandwidth.

E2 high-mem

E2 high-memory machine types have 8 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
e2-highmem-2 2 16 128 257 No 4
e2-highmem-4 4 32 128 257 No 8
e2-highmem-8 8 64 128 257 No 16
e2-highmem-16 16 128 128 257 No 16
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine pricing.
‡Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

E2 high-cpu

E2 high-cpu machine types have 1 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
e2-highcpu-2 2 2 128 257 No 4
e2-highcpu-4 4 4 128 257 No 8
e2-highcpu-8 8 8 128 257 No 16
e2-highcpu-16 16 16 128 257 No 16
e2-highcpu-32 32 32 128 257 No 16
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

E2 shared-core

E2 shared-core machine types are cost-effective, have a virtio memory balloon device, and are ideal for small workloads. When you use E2 shared-core machine types, your VM runs two vCPUs simultaneously shared on one physical core for a specific fraction of time depending on the machine type. Each vCPU can burst up to 100% of CPU time, for short periods, before returning to the time limitations described in the preceding section.

  • e2-micro sustains 2 vCPUs, each for 12.5% of CPU time totaling 25% CPU time.
  • e2-small sustains 2 vCPUs, each at 25% of CPU time totaling 50% CPU time.
  • e2-medium sustains 2 vCPUs, each at 50% of CPU time totaling 100% CPU time.
Machine types Description vCPUs Fractional vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
e2-micro Micro machine type with 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB of memory, backed by a shared physical core. 2 0.25* 1 16 3 no 1
e2-small Small machine type with 0.5 vCPU and 2 GB of memory, backed by a shared physical core. 2 0.5* 2 16 3 no 1
e2-medium Medium machine type with 1 vCPU and 4 GB of memory, backed by a shared physical core. 2 1* 4 16 3 no 2
* Fractional vCPU of 0.25, 0.5, or 1.0 with 2 vCPUs exposed to the guest operating system.
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

Supported disk types for E2 VMs

E2 VMs can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal and regional balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal and regional SSD Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Zonal and regional standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)

N1 machine series

The N1 machine series is Compute Engine's first generation general-purpose machine series available on Intel Skylake, Broadwell, Haswell, Sandy Bridge, and Ivy Bridge CPU platforms.

In summary, the N1 machine series:

N1 machine types

N1 standard

N1 standard machine types have 3.75 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n1-standard-1 1 3.75 128 257 Yes 2 N/A
n1-standard-2 2 7.50 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-standard-4 4 15 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-standard-8 8 30 128 257 Yes 16 N/A
n1-standard-16 16 60 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-standard-32 32 120 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-standard-64 64 240 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-standard-96 96 360 128 257 Yes 32# N/A

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine type pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# 32 Gbps for Skylake or later CPU platforms. 16 Gbps for all other platforms.

N1 high-memory

N1 high-memory machine types have 6.5 GB of system memory per vCPU.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n1-highmem-2 2 13 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-highmem-4 4 26 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-highmem-8 8 52 128 257 Yes 16 N/A
n1-highmem-16 16 104 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highmem-32 32 208 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highmem-64 64 416 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highmem-96 96 624 128 257 Yes 32# N/A

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine type pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# 32 Gbps for Skylake or later CPU platforms. 16 Gbps for all other platforms.

N1 high-cpu

N1 high-cpu machine types have 0.9 GB of system memory per vCPU. High-CPU machine types are ideal for tasks that require a moderate increase of vCPUs relative to memory.

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡ Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
n1-highcpu-2 2 1.80 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-highcpu-4 4 3.60 128 257 Yes 10 N/A
n1-highcpu-8 8 7.20 128 257 Yes 16 N/A
n1-highcpu-16 16 14.4 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highcpu-32 32 28.8 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highcpu-64 64 57.6 128 257 Yes 32# N/A
n1-highcpu-96 96 86.4 128 257 Yes 32# N/A

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread, or logical core, on one of the available CPU platforms.
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from machine type pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
# 32 Gbps for Skylake or later CPU platforms. 16 Gbps for all other platforms.

N1 shared-core

Each vCPU can burst up to 100% of CPU time, for short periods, before returning to their prescribed CPU time limitations.

  • When you run an f1-micro, your VM sustains a single vCPU for up to 20% of CPU time.
  • When you run a g1-small, your VM sustains a single vCPU for up to 50% of CPU time.
Machine types Description vCPUs Fractional vCPUs* Memory (GB) Max number of Persistent Disk (PDs)† Max total PD size (TiB) Local SSD Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)‡
f1-micro Micro machine type with 0.2 vCPU and 0.6 GB of memory, backed by a shared physical core. 1 0.2* 0.60 16 3 No 1
g1-small Small machine type with 0.5 vCPU and 1.70 GB of memory, backed by a shared physical core. 1 0.5* 1.70 16 3 No 1
* Fractional vCPU of 0.2 or 0.5, with 1 vCPU exposed to the guest operating system.
† Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk usage is charged separately from VM pricing.
‡ Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.

Supported disk types for N1 VMs

N1 VMs can use the following block storage types:

  • Zonal and regional balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal and regional SSD Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Zonal and regional standard Persistent Disk (pd-standard)
  • Local SSD disks

Custom machine types

If none of the predefined machine types in the general-purpose machine family match your workload needs, you can create a VM with a custom machine type.

Creating a VM with a custom machine type is ideal for workloads that require more processing power or more memory, but don't need all of the upgrades that are provided by the next larger predefined machine type.

It costs slightly more to use a custom machine type than an equivalent predefined machine type, and there are limitations in the amount of memory and vCPUs that you can select. The on-demand prices for custom machine types include a 5% premium over the on-demand and commitment prices for predefined machine types.

It's possible to create a VM with a custom machine type for only the N and E machine series in the general-purpose machine family. Custom machine types are not available for the C and Tau machine series. Custom machine types are subject to the same Persistent Disk limits as E2, N2, and N1 predefined machine types. The maximum total Persistent Disk size for each VM is 257 TiB and the max number of Persistent Disk is 128. N4 custom machines types are subject to the limitations of Hyperdisk capacity storage.

N4 custom machine types

  • For N4 custom machine types, you can create a machine type with 2 to 80 vCPUs with the vCPUs in multiples of 2, and memory between 1 and 640 GB.
  • By default, the memory per vCPU that you can select for a custom machine type is determined by the machine series you use. For the N4 machine series, select between 1 GB and 8 GB per vCPU in 256 MB increments. When creating a standard N4 machine type, the minimum memory you can select is 1 GB. Higher amounts of memory are possible by enabling extended memory.

Examples of invalid machine types:

  • 2 vCPUs, 0.5 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total memory is less than the minimum 1 GB for an N4 VM.
  • 1 vCPU, 1024 MB of memory. Invalid because the vCPU count is too small. N4 custom machine types require a minimum of 2 vCPUs.

Examples of valid machine types:

  • 36 vCPUs, 18 GB of total memory. Valid because the total number of vCPUs is even and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 1 GB to 8 GB per vCPU.
  • 2 vCPUs, 7 GB of total memory. Valid because it has 2 vCPUs, which is the minimum value, and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 1 GB to 8 GB per vCPU.

N2D custom machine types

  • The maximum number of vCPUs allowed for a custom machine type is determined by the machine series you choose. For the N2D machine series, which support AMD EPYC Rome and Milan platforms, you can deploy custom machine types with 2 to 96 vCPUs.
  • You can create N2D custom machine types with 2, 4, 8, or 16 vCPUs. After 16, you can increment the number of vCPUs by 16, up to 96 vCPUs. The minimum acceptable number of vCPUs is 2.
  • By default, the memory per vCPU that you can select for a custom machine type is determined by the machine series you choose. For N2D machine types, select between 0.5 GB and 8.0 GB per vCPU in 256 MB increments. Higher amounts of memory are possible by enabling extended memory.
  • N2D custom machine types are available only in select regions and zones.
  • N2D custom machine types support per VM Tier_1 networking performance maximum egress limits of 50 Gbps to 100 Gbps. When enabled:
    • VMs with 48 to 94 vCPUs have a total egress limit of 50 Gbps.
    • VMs with 96 vCPUs have a total egress limit of 100 Gbps.

Examples of invalid machine types:

  • 2 vCPUs, 0.4 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total memory is less than the minimum 1 GB for an N2D VM.
  • 34 vCPUs, 34 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total number of vCPUs is not divisible by 16.
  • 1 vCPU, 1024 MB of memory. Invalid because the vCPU count is too small. N2D custom machine types require a minimum of 2 vCPUs.

Examples of valid machine types:

  • 32 vCPUs, 16 GB of total memory. Valid because the total number of vCPUs is even and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is 1 GB, which satisfies the minimum requirement. Because the number of vCPUs is larger than 8 vCPUs, the number of vCPUs must be divisible by 16.
  • 2 vCPUs, 7 GB of total memory. Valid because it has 2 vCPUs, which is the minimum value, and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 1 GB to 8 GB per vCPU.

N2 custom machine types

  • For N2 custom machine types, you can create a machine type with 2 to 80 vCPUs and memory between 1 and 864 GB. For machine types with up to 32 vCPUs, you can select a vCPU count that is a multiple of 2. For machine types with greater than 32 vCPUs, you must select a vCPU count that is a multiple of 4 (for example, 36, 40, 56, or 80).
  • You can create N2 custom machine types on different processors:
    • Cascade Lake, the 2nd generation of the Intel Xeon processor. This is the default processor for N2 custom machine types with less than 80 vCPUs.
    • Ice Lake, the 3rd generation of the Intel Xeon processor. Ice Lake processors are available in specific regions and zones.
  • By default, the memory per vCPU that you can select for a custom machine type is determined by the machine series you use. For the N2 machine series, select between 0.5 GB and 8.0 GB per vCPU in 256 MB increments. Higher amounts of memory are possible by enabling extended memory.
  • N2 custom machine types have an option for a per VM Tier_1 networking performance maximum egress of 50 Gbps to 100 Gbps with a minimum of 30 vCPUs.
    • 32 to 62 vCPUs have a total egress of 50 Gbps
    • 64 to 78 vCPUs have a total egress of 75 Gbps
    • 80 vCPUs have a total egress of 100 Gbps

Examples of invalid machine types:

  • 2 vCPUs, 0.5 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total memory is less than the minimum 1 GB for an N2 VM.
  • 34 vCPUs, 34 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total number of vCPUs is not divisible by 4.
  • 1 vCPU, 1024 MB of memory. Invalid because the vCPU count is too small. N2 custom machine types require a minimum of 2 vCPUs.

Examples of valid machine types:

  • 36 vCPUs, 18 GB of total memory. Valid because the total number of vCPUs is even and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 0.5 GB to 8 GB per vCPU. Because the number of vCPUs is larger than 32 vCPUs, the number of vCPUs must be divisible by 4.
  • 2 vCPUs, 7 GB of total memory. Valid because it has 2 vCPUs, which is the minimum value, and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 0.5 GB to 8 GB per vCPU.

E2 custom machine types

  • E2 custom machine types support predefined platforms with Intel or AMD EPYC processors. You can create E2 custom machine types with vCPUs in multiples of 2, up to 32 vCPUs. The minimum acceptable number of vCPUs for a VM is 2.
  • By default, the general-purpose machine series you choose determines the memory per vCPU that you can select for a custom machine type. For E2, the ratio of memory per vCPU is 0.5 GB to 8 GB inclusive. When creating a standard E2 machine type, the minimum memory you can select is 1 GB.

Examples of invalid machine types:

  • 1 vCPU, 1024 MB of memory. Invalid because the vCPU count is too small. E2 custom machine types require a minimum of 2 vCPUs.
  • 32 vCPUs, 1 GB of total memory. Invalid because the ratio of vCPUs to memory is incorrect. The acceptable ratio is 0.5 GB of memory to 1 vCPU.

Examples of valid machine types:

  • 32 vCPUs, 16 GB of total memory. Valid because the total number of vCPUs is even and the total memory is an acceptable ratio of memory to vCPU.
  • 2 vCPUs, 8 GB of total memory. Valid because it has 2 vCPUs, which is the minimum value, and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 0.5 GB to 8 GB per vCPU.

E2 shared-core custom machine types

E2 shared-core machine types support predefined Intel or AMD EPYC processors, which are preselected for you at the time of VM creation. You can create shared-core machine types with a vCPU range of 0.25 to 1 vCPU. The memory range is 1 to 8 GB, with a maximum ratio of 8 GB per vCPU.

  • e2-micro: 0.25 vCPU, 1 to 2 GB of memory
  • e2-small: 0.50 vCPU, 1 to 4 GB of memory
  • e2-medium: 1 vCPU, 1 to 8 GB of memory

N1 custom machine types

  • You can create N1 custom machine types with 1 or more vCPUs. For VMs with more than 1 vCPU, you must increment the number of vCPUs by 2, up to 96 vCPUs for Intel Skylake platform,or up to 64 vCPUs for Intel Broadwell, Haswell, or Ivy Bridge CPU platforms.
  • By default, the memory per vCPU that you can select for a custom machine type is determined by the machine series you choose. For N1 machine types, select between 1 GB and 6.5 GB per vCPU, inclusive. Higher amounts of memory are possible by enabling extended memory.

Examples of invalid machine types:

  • 1 vCPU, 0.2 GB of total memory. Invalid because the total memory is less than the minimum 1 GB for an N1 VM.
  • 3 vCPU, 1 GB of total memory. Invalid because the number of vCPU cores must be 1 or an even number up to 96.

Examples of valid machine types:

  • 32 vCPUs, 29 GB of total memory. Valid because the total number of vCPUs is even and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is 1 GB, which satisfies the minimum requirement.
  • 1 vCPU, 1 GB of total memory. Valid because it has one vCPU, which is the minimum value, and the total memory is a multiple of 256 MB. The amount of memory per vCPU is also within the acceptable range of 1 GB to 6.5 GB per vCPU.

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