Resource usage quotas and permission management

This document lists the quotas and limits that apply to Compute Engine.

A quota restricts how much of a particular shared Google Cloud resource your Google Cloud project can use, including hardware, software, and network components.

Quotas are part of a system that does the following:

  • Monitors your use or consumption of Google Cloud products and services.
  • Restricts your consumption of those resources for reasons including ensuring fairness and reducing spikes in usage.
  • Maintains configurations that automatically enforce prescribed restrictions.
  • Provides a means to make or request changes to the quota.

When a quota is exceeded, in most cases, the system immediately blocks access to the relevant Google resource, and the task that you're trying to perform fails. In most cases, quotas apply to each Google Cloud project and are shared across all applications and IP addresses that use that Google Cloud project.

Resource usage quotas

Compute Engine enforces quotas on resource usage for various reasons. For example, quotas help to protect the community of Google Cloud users by preventing unforeseen spikes in usage. Google Cloud also offers free trial quotas that provide limited access for projects to help you explore Google Cloud on a free trial basis.

Not all projects have the same quotas. As you increasingly use Google Cloud over time, your quotas might increase accordingly. If you expect a notable upcoming increase in usage, you can proactively request quota adjustments from the Quotas page in the Google Cloud console.

For information specific to quotas for rate limits for the Compute Engine API, see API rate 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 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.

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.

Request an increase in quota

There is no charge for requesting a quota increase. Your costs increase only if you use more resources.

Plan and request additional resources at least a few days in advance to ensure that there is enough time to fulfill your request.

For detailed instructions on how to increase quota from the Google Cloud console, see Requesting a higher quota limit.

Request a decrease in quota

You might want to limit usage of a particular resource by setting your own quota limits. For example, to prevent getting billed for usage beyond the free courtesy usage limits, you can request per-day caps. Usage caps are sometimes referred to as consumer overrides.

To cap a quota, follow the same steps as for requesting a higher quota limit. Requests to cap quota are automatically approved and can be adjusted at any time.

Quotas and resource availability

Resource usage quotas are the maximum number of resources you can create of that resource type, if those resources are available. Quotas do not guarantee that resources are always available. If a resource is not available, or if the region you choose is out of the resource, you can't create new resources of that type, even if you have remaining quota in your region or project. For example, you might still have quota to create external IP addresses in us-central1, but there might not be available IP addresses in that region.

Similarly, even if you have a regional quota, a resource might not be available in a specific zone. For example, you might have quota to create VM instances in region us-central1, but you might not be able to create VM instances in the zone us-central1-a if the zone is depleted. In such cases, try creating the same resource in another zone, such as us-central1-f. To learn more about your options if zonal resources are depleted, see the documentation for troubleshooting resource availability.

Resource quotas

When planning your VM instance needs, you should consider several quotas that affect how many VM instances you can create.

Regional and global quotas

VM quotas are managed at the regional level. VM instance, instance group, disk quotas, and CPU can be consumed by any VM in the region, regardless of zone. For example, CPU quota is a regional quota, so there is a different limit and usage count for each region. To launch an n2-standard-16 instance in any zone in the us-central1 region, you need enough quota for at least 16 CPUs in us-central1.

Networking and load balancing quotas are required to create firewalls, load balancers, networks, and VPNs. These quotas are global quotas that do not depend on a region. Any region can use a global quota. For example, in-use and static external IP addresses assigned to load balancers and HTTP(S) proxies consume global quotas.

VM instances

The VM instances quota is a regional quota and limits the number of VM instances that can exist in a given region, regardless of whether the VM is running. This quota is visible in the Google Cloud console on the Quotas page. Compute Engine automatically sets this quota to be 10 times your regular CPU quota. You do not need to request this quota. If you need quota for more VM instances, request more CPUs because having more CPUs increases VM instance quota. The quota applies to both running and non-running VMs, and to normal and preemptible instances.

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

    Go to Quotas

  2. Click Filter table and select Service.

  3. Choose Compute Engine API.

  4. Choose Limit Name: VM instances.

  5. To see a list of your VM instance quotas by region, click All Quotas. Your region quotas are listed from highest to lowest usage.

  6. Click the checkbox of the region whose quota you want to change.

  7. Click Edit Quotas.

  8. Complete the form.

  9. Click Submit Request.

Instance groups

To use instance groups, you must have available quota for all the resources that the group uses (for example, CPU quota) and available quota for the group resource itself. Depending on the type of group that you create, the following group resource usage quotas apply:

Service type Service quota
Regional (multi-zone) managed instance group Regional instance group managers
Zonal (single-zone) managed instance group Both of:
  • Instance group managers
  • Instance groups
Unmanaged (single-zone) instance group Instance groups
Regional (multi-zone) autoscaler Regional autoscalers
Zonal (single-zone) autoscaler Autoscalers

Disk quotas

The following persistent disk and local SSD quotas apply on a per-region basis:

  • Local SSD per machine family (GB). This quota is the total combined size of local SSD disk partitions you can attach to VMs in a region based on the machine type of each VM. Local SSD is a fast, ephemeral disk that should be used for scratch, local cache, or processing jobs with high fault tolerance because the disk is not intended to survive VM instance reboots. Local SSD partitions are sold in increments of 375 GB and up to 24 local SSD partitions can be attached to a single VM. In the gcloud CLI and the API, this quota is referred to as LOCAL_SSD_TOTAL_GB_PER_VM_FAMILY.

  • Persistent disk standard (GB). This quota is the total size of standard persistent disks that can be created in a region. As described in Optimizing persistent disk and local SSD performance, standard persistent disks offer lower IOPS and throughput than SSD persistent disks or local SSD. It is cost effective when used as large durable disks for storage, as boot disks, and for serial write processes like logs. Standard persistent disks are durable and are available indefinitely to attach to a VM within the same zone. In the gcloud CLI and the API, this quota is referred to as DISKS_TOTAL_GB. This quota also applies to regional standard persistent disks, but regional disks consume twice the amount of quota per GB due to replication in two zones within a region.

  • Persistent disk SSD (GB). This quota is the total combined size of SSD-backed persistent disks partitions that can be created in a region. SSD-backed persistent disks have multiple replicas and, as described in Block storage performance, offer higher IOPS and throughput than standard persistent disks. SSD-backed persistent disks are available indefinitely to attach to a VM within the same zone. In the gcloud CLI and the API, this quota is referred to as SSD_TOTAL_GB. This quota is separate from local SSD. This quota applies to the disk types listed below. Regional persistent disks consume twice the amount of quota per GB due to replication in two zones within a region:

    • Zonal and regional SSD persistent disk
    • Zonal and regional balanced persistent disk

CPU quota limits

CPU quota is the total number of virtual CPUs across all of your VM instances in a region. CPU quotas apply to running VMs and VM reservations. Both predefined and preemptible VMs consume this quota.

To help protect Compute Engine systems and other users, some new accounts and projects also have a global CPUs (All Regions) quota. That quota applies to all regions and is measured as a sum of all your vCPUs in all regions.

For example, if you have 48 vCPUs remaining in a single region such as us-central1 but only 32 vCPUs remaining for the CPUs (All Regions) quota, you can launch only 32 vCPUs in the us-central1 region, even though there is remaining quota in the region. This is because you reach the CPU (All Regions) quota and need to delete existing instances before you can launch new instances.

E2 and N1 machine types share a CPU quota pool. Unless otherwise noted, all other machine types have unique, separate CPU quota pools.

If you are using committed use discounts for your VMs, you must have committed use discount quota before you purchase a committed use discount contract.

Machine type Quota pool CPU quota name Committed CPU quota name
N1 shared pool CPUS Committed_CPUS
E2 shared pool CPUS Committed_E2_CPUS
N2 separate pool N2_CPUS Committed_N2_CPUS
N2D separate pool N2D_CPUS Committed_N2D_CPUS
T2D separate pool T2D_CPUS Committed_T2D_CPUS
T2A separate pool T2A_CPUS Not available (N/A) for Committed_T2A_CPUS
M1 separate pool M1_CPUS Committed_MEMORY-OPTIMIZED_CPUS
M2 separate pool M2_CPUS Committed_MEMORY-OPTIMIZED_CPUS
M3 separate pool M3_CPUS Committed_M3_CPUS
C2 separate pool C2_CPUS Committed_C2_CPUS
C2D separate pool C2D_CPUS Committed_C2D_CPUS
C3 separate pool C3_CPUS Committed_C3_CPUS
A2 separate pool A2_CPUS Committed_A2_CPUS
G2 separate pool G2_CPUS Committed_G2_CPUS
Preemptible VMs shared pool PREEMPTIBLE_CPUS Not available (N/A) for preemptible VMs

GPU quota

Similar to virtual CPU quota, GPU quota refers to the total number of virtual GPUs in all VM instances in a region. GPU quotas apply to running VMs and VM reservations. Both predefined and preemptible VMs consume this quota.

Check the Quotas page to ensure that you have enough GPUs available in your project, and to request a quota increase. In addition, new accounts and projects have a global GPU quota that applies to all regions.

When you request a GPU quota, you must request a quota for the GPU models that you want to create in each region, and an additional global quota for the total number of GPUs of all types in all zones. Request preemptible GPU quota to use those resources.

NVIDIA GPU quota name Committed GPU quota name Virtual workstation Preemptible GPUs Preemptible GPU virtual workstation
A100 40GB NVIDIA_A100_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_A100_GPUS N/A PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_A100_GPUS N/A
A100 80GB NVIDIA_A100_80GB_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_A100_80GB_GPUS N/A PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_A100_80GB_GPUS N/A
L4 NVIDIA_L4_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_L4_GPUS NVIDIA_L4_VWS_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_L4_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_L4_VWS_GPUS
T4 NVIDIA_T4_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_T4_GPUS NVIDIA_T4_VWS_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_T4_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_T4_VWS_GPUS
V100 NVIDIA_V100_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_V100_GPUS N/A PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_V100_GPUS N/A
P100 NVIDIA_P100_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_P100_GPUS NVIDIA_P100_VWS_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_P100_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_P100_VWS_GPUS
P4 NVIDIA_P4_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_P4_GPUS NVIDIA_P4_VWS_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_P4_GPUS PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_P4_VWS_GPUS
K80 NVIDIA_K80_GPUS COMMITTED_NVIDIA_K80_GPUS N/A PREEMPTIBLE_NVIDIA_K80_GPUS N/A

Quotas for preemptible resources

To use preemptible CPUs or GPUs attached to preemptible VM instances, or to use local SSDs attached to preemptible VM instances, you must have available quota in your project for those respective resources.

You can request special preemptible quotas for Preemptible CPUs, Preemptible GPUs, or Preemptible Local SSDs (GB). However, if your project does not have preemptible quota, and you have never requested preemptible quota, you can consume standard quota to launch preemptible resources.

After Compute Engine grants you preemptible quota in a region, all preemptible instances automatically count against preemptible quota. As this quota is depleted, you must request preemptible quota for those resources.

External IP addresses

You must have enough external IP addresses for every VM that needs to be directly reachable from the public internet. Regional IP quota is for assigning IPv4 addresses to VMs in that region. Global IP quota is for assigning IPv4 addresses to global networking resources such as load balancers. Google Cloud offers different types of IP addresses, depending on your needs. For information about costs, refer to External IP address pricing. For information about quota specifics, see Quotas and limits.

  • In-use external IP addresses. Includes both ephemeral and static IP addresses that are currently being used by a resource.

  • Static External IP addresses: External IP addresses reserved for your resources that persist through machine restarts. You can register these addresses with DNS and domain provider services to provide a user-friendly address. For example, www.example-site.com.

  • Static Internal IP addresses: Static internal IP addresses let you reserve internal IP addresses from the internal IP range configured in the subnet. You can assign those reserved internal addresses to resources as needed.

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