Memory-optimized machine family for Compute Engine


The memory-optimized machine family provides the most compute and memory resources of any Compute Engine machine family offering. They are ideal for workloads that require higher memory-to-vCPU ratios than the high-memory machine types in the general-purpose N1 machine series.

The M3 machine series has 1 to 4 TiB of memory, the M2 machine series has up to 12 TiB of memory, and the M1 machine series has up to 4 TiB of memory. These machine series are well-suited for large in-memory databases such as SAP HANA, as well as online analytical processing (OLAP) and in-memory data analytics workloads.

The M3, M2, and M1 machine series offer the lowest cost per GB of memory on Compute Engine, making them a great choice for workloads that utilize higher memory configurations with low compute resources requirements. Additionally, M2 and M1 offer savings of up to 30% with sustained use discounts. M3, M2, and M1 are also eligible for committed use discounts (CUDs), that bring savings of greater than 60% in exchange for 3-year commitments.

Machine series Workloads
M3 machine series
  • OLAP and OLTP SAP workloads
  • Memory intensive applications, such as genomic modeling and electronic design automation
  • High performance computing
M2 machine series
  • Large in-memory databases such as SAP HANA
  • In-memory databases and in-memory analytics, business warehousing (BW) workloads, genomics analysis, SQL analysis services, etc.
M1 machine series
  • Medium in-memory databases such as SAP HANA
  • Tasks that require intensive use of memory with higher memory-to-vCPU ratios than the general-purpose high-memory machine types.
  • In-memory databases and in-memory analytics, business warehousing (BW) workloads, genomics analysis, SQL analysis services.
  • Microsoft SQL Server and similar databases.

M3 machine series

The M3 machine series introduces two new OLAP shapes for 2 TiB and 1 TiB SAP HANA systems. These machine types allow you to provision up to 128 vCPUs and up to 4 TB of RAM. M3 VMs use only NVMe for storage, and support Hyperdisk Balanced storage. M3 machines use only gVNIC for networking. VirtIO-net and SCSI interfaces are not supported.

Pricing for these VMs per vCPU hour and per GB of memory are the same as for M1. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For details, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M3 VMs support on-demand pricing, 1-year and 3-year CUDs. The commitment type that you must use to purchase M3 VMs is separate from the one for M1 or M2 VMs. You can purchase a single commitment to cover both M1 and M2 VMs, but you can't group M3 VMs in that commitment. For more information, see the Commitment types section for resource-based commitments.

To update a current VM to use the M3 machine series, see Move your VM to a third generation machine series.

M3 machine types

Machine types vCPUs Memory (GB) Default egress bandwidth (Gbps)* Tier 1 egress bandwidth (Gbps)
m3-ultramem-32 32 976 32 N/A
m3-ultramem-64 64 1,952 32 50
m3-ultramem-128 128 3,904 32 100
m3-megamem-64 64 976 32 50
m3-megamem-128 128 1,952 32 100

* Maximum egress bandwidth cannot exceed the number given. Actual egress bandwidth depends on the destination IP address and other factors. See Network bandwidth.
Available with high-bandwidth networking on larger machine shapes.

Supported disk types for M3

M3 machine types support the following block storage options:

  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Balanced (hyperdisk-balanced)
  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Hyperdisk Throughput (hyperdisk-throughput)
  • Local SSD

M3 machine types support only the NVMe disk interface.

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:

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

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

M3 storage limits are described in the following table:

Maximum number of disks
Machine types Per VM* Hyperdisk
per VM
Hyperdisk Balanced Hyperdisk Throughput Hyperdisk Extreme Local SSD
m3-ultramem-32 128 64 2 64 0 4 or 8
m3-ultramem-64 128 64 4 64 8 4 or 8
m3-ultramem-128 128 64 8 64 8 8
m3-megamem-64 128 64 4 64 8 4 or 8
m3-megamem-128 128 64 8 64 8 8

* This limit applies to Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk, but doesn't include Local SSD disks.

M3 Limitations

The M3 machine series is only available as predefined machine types. Custom machine shapes are not available. The following additional restrictions apply:

M2 machine series

With 6 TiB, 9 TiB, and 12 TiB machine types in the M2 machine series, SAP customers can run their largest SAP HANA databases on Google Cloud.

The M2 series is available with on-demand pricing for an evaluation period only. Long running usage requires purchasing a committed use discount. For more information, see the VM pricing page. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For details, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M2 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)
m2-ultramem-208 208 5,888 32#
m2-ultramem-416 416 11,776 32#
m2-megamem-416 416 5,888 32#
m2-hypermem-416 416 8,832 32#

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware Hyper-thread 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.
# 32 Gbps for Cascade Lake or later CPU platforms. 16 Gbps for all other platforms.

Supported disk types for M2

M2 machine types can use the following block storage options:

  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (Performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)

M2 storage limits are described in the following table:

Machine types Max number of
disks per VM
Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM*
Max total disk size
across all disks (TiB)
Local SSD
m2-ultramem-208 128 8 257 No
m2-ultramem-416 128 8 257 No
m2-megamem-416 128 8 257 No
m2-hypermem-416 128 8 257 No

* The maximum size per Hyperdisk volume is 64 TiB.
The maximum total disk size across all disk types (Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk) is 257 TiB.

M2 Limitations

The M2 machine series is available only as predefined machine types. This series offers from 14 GB to 28 GB memory per vCPU. The following restrictions apply:

M1 machine series

The M1 machine series is the older generation memory-optimized machine series that offers 14.9 to 24 GB of memory per vCPU. This series offers the m1-ultramem and m1-megamem machine types and are only available in specific regions and zones.

For details on pricing, see the VM pricing page. Disk usage and network usage is charged separately from machine type pricing. For more information, see Disk and image pricing and Network pricing.

M1 machine types

Machine types vCPUs* Memory (GB) Maximum egress bandwidth (Gbps)
m1-ultramem-40 40 961 32
m1-ultramem-80 80 1922 32
m1-ultramem-160 160 3844 32
m1-megamem-96 96 1433.6 32

* A vCPU is implemented as a single hardware thread 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.

Supported disk types for M1

M1 machine types can use the following block storage options:

  • Hyperdisk Extreme (hyperdisk-extreme)
  • Zonal balanced Persistent Disk (pd-balanced)
  • Zonal SSD (Performance) Persistent Disk (pd-ssd)
  • Extreme Persistent Disk (pd-extreme)
  • Local SSD

M1 storage limits are described in the following table:

Machine types Max number of
disks per VM
Max number of Hyperdisk
volumes per VM*
Max total disk size
across all disks (TiB)
Local SSD
m1-ultramem-40 128 0 257 No
m1-ultramem-80 128 8 257 No
m1-ultramem-160 128 8 257 No
m1-megamem-96 128 8 257 Yes

* The maximum size per Hyperdisk volume is 64 TiB.
For M1, the maximum total disk size across all disk types (Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk) is 257 TiB.

M1 Limitations

The M1 machine series is only available as predefined machine types. This series offers 14 GB to 28 GB of memory per vCPU. The following restrictions apply:

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