Getting hands-on: Start building on Google Cloud for free

We’re pleased to share updates to our Google Cloud free programs so developers can get started even faster in solving real-world business challenges. With more and more developers building with the Google Cloud Platform every day, we’ve invested in a broad range of new hands-on resources, videos, tutorials, and comprehensive documentation to help you get started and grow and maintain momentum with Google Cloud. These include:

The Free Trial program. Last year more than 750,000 new developers trained on GCP, and many started with our hands-on free trial experience that provides a great on-ramp to use our 200+ cloud products and services. We've found that one of the highest predictors of developer success is developers completing a proof of concept during the first three months of our free trial program. As a result, we’ve updated the program so that, starting August 17th, users now have 90 days to use their $300 USD in Google Cloud credits. In addition to the free trial, users can also leverage our free products, resources, and training. This lets us focus on helping developers and organizations maximize the impact of their free trial in those critical first months. There will be no changes for customers already in a free trial. For more information, check out all of the details on our trial program here.

The Always Free Tier program. More than 20 of our most popular products and services are available for free above and beyond your $300 USD free trial credits, even after your free trial is complete. You can try everything from App Engine and Compute Engine, to industry-leading AI, data analytics, storage and security tools.

Better training—and more resources to help you get started. All Google Cloud free trial and free tier users can access: 

• 30 days of unlimited Qwiklabs training as well as more than 60 on-demand webinars, hundreds of how-to videos, playlists, and training courses and in-depth learning paths on platforms including Pluralsight and Coursera.

• User and expert resources in Google Cloud communities, on our Slack channel and Reddit. You can also check out GitHub or Stack Exchange boards to ask technical questions, discuss projects, and find targeted support.

• Regularly updated documentation, from detailed cloud basics to enterprise guides, which gives you foundational concepts, quickstarts, top use cases, and advanced hands-on guides. 

• Support resources available right in your Google Cloud console.

Like all Google Cloud services, we continue to improve our free trial programs based on your feedback. Please leave a note in any of the above channels letting us know what you think.