Compute Engine quota and limits overview

Google Cloud uses quotas to help ensure fairness and reduce spikes in resource use and availability. A quota restricts how much of a Google Cloud resource your Google Cloud project can use. Quotas apply to a range of resource types, including hardware, software, and network components. For example, quotas can restrict the number of API calls to a service, the number of load balancers used concurrently by your project, or the number of projects that you can create. Quotas protect the community of Google Cloud users by preventing the overloading of services. Quotas also help you to manage your own Google Cloud resources.

The Cloud Quotas system does the following:

  • Monitors your consumption of Google Cloud products and services
  • Restricts your consumption of those resources
  • Provides a way to request changes to the quota value

In most cases, when you attempt to consume more of a resource than its quota allows, the system blocks access to the resource, and the task that you're trying to perform fails.

Quotas generally apply at the Google Cloud project level. Your use of a resource in one project doesn't affect your available quota in another project. Within a Google Cloud project, quotas are shared across all applications and IP addresses.

There are also system limits on Compute Engine resources. System limits can't be changed.

There are three categories of Compute Engine quotas and limits:

Permissions for checking and editing usage limits

To view your quotas, you must have the serviceusage.quotas.get permission.

To change your quotas, you must have the serviceusage.quotas.update permission.

These permissions are included by default in the basic IAM roles of Owner and Editor and in the predefined Quota Administrator role.

Check your allocation quota

Regional quotas are not a subset of project quotas. Virtual machine (VM) instances are a part of regional quotas.

If you're looking for regional quotas, such as how many VMs you can create in a region, see Check regional quota. To check your project quota, use the Google Cloud console or the Google Cloud CLI.

The following sections describe how to view the limits for allocation quota in your project. To view the limits for API quota and concurrent operations quota, use the gcloud alpha services quota list command. For more information, see View concurrent operation quotas and limits.

For information about quota categories, see About quotas.

Check regional quota

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Quotas page.

Go to Quotas

gcloud

List quotas in a region:

gcloud compute regions describe REGION

Replace REGION with the name of the region for which you want a list of quota information.

Check project quota

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Quotas page.

Go to Quotas

gcloud

Check project-wide quotas:

gcloud compute project-info describe --project PROJECT_ID

Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.

Edit your quota

To adjust most quotas, use the Google Cloud console. For more information, see Request a quota adjustment.

Quota rollouts

Occasionally, Google Cloud changes the default quota for resources and APIs. These changes take place gradually. During the rollout of a new default quota, the maximum quota that appears in the Google Cloud console might not reflect the actual maximum quota that is available to you.

For example, suppose that Google Cloud changes the default maximum quota for firewall rules from 200 to 300, and you use the Google Cloud console to view your quota, you might see the new quota of 300, even though your actual quota is 200 until the rollout completes.

For information about ongoing quota rollouts, see known issues. If no issues are described, no quota rollouts are ongoing.

If a quota rollout is ongoing and you want to confirm the actual maximum quota that is available to you, use the Google Cloud CLI to check your quota. If you need more quota than you have access to, submit a quota increase request.

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