Committed use discounts


This page describes how committed use discounts work with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Autopilot clusters. To learn more about committed use discounts in GKE Standard clusters, refer to the committed use discount pricing through Compute Engine.

What are Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts?

Committed use discounts (CUDs) for Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) provide deeply discounted prices in exchange for committing to use Autopilot workloads in a particular region for a one- or three-year term.

Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts are ideal for workloads running on GKE Autopilot with predictable resource needs. You commit to a consistent amount of usage, measured in dollars per hour of equivalent on-demand spend, for a one- or three-year term. In exchange, you receive a discounted rate on the applicable usage your commitment covers. You can purchase committed use discounts from any Cloud Billing account, and the discount applies to any eligible usage in projects paid for by that Cloud Billing account. Any overage is charged at the on-demand rate. When you purchase a Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discount, you pay the same commitment fee for the entirety of the commitment term, even if the price of applicable usage changes. You still receive the same discount percentage on applicable usage in the event of a price change. The commitment fee is billed monthly.

For more information about the bill, see Analyze the effectiveness of your spend-based committed use discounts.

What usage do Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply to?

Committed use discounts automatically apply to aggregate GKE Autopilot Pod usage in a region, giving you low, predictable costs, without the need to make any manual changes or updates yourself. This flexibility saves you time and helps you to save more by achieving high utilization rates across your commitments.

Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply to the following:

  • All Autopilot Pod workload CPU, memory, and ephemeral storage usage in the region in which you have committed.
  • For Performance compute class Pods, Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply only to the Autopilot premium. You can separately apply Compute Engine committed use discounts to the Compute Engine machines that run the Performance compute class Pods.
  • For Accelerator compute class Pods, Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply only to the Autopilot premium. You can separately apply Compute Engine committed use discounts to the Compute Engine machines that run the Accelerator compute class Pods.

Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts do not apply to the cluster management fee, Spot Pods, or to GKE Standard mode compute nodes. GKE Standard mode compute nodes can use committed use discount pricing through Compute Engine.

Pricing

Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts give you a 20% discount off on-demand pricing for a one-year commitment and a 45% discount off on-demand pricing for a three-year commitment. These discount percentages are the same in every region.

See committed use discount pricing for pricing details.

Purchasing Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts

You can purchase Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) spend-based committed use discounts in the Google Cloud console. The commitments are effective starting within the hour from the time you purchased them. The discounts are applied to eligible usage.

For detailed instructions, see Purchasing spend-based commitments.

Once you purchase a committed use discount, you cannot cancel it. For more information, see Cancelling commitments.

Example use case

Key points to keep in mind:

  • Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply to CPU, memory, and ephemeral storage of Autopilot pods.
  • Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts do not apply to cluster management fee, or to GKE Standard mode compute nodes.
  • Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts apply to all Autopilot workloads in a given region.
  • Kubernetes Engine (Autopilot Mode) committed use discounts are measured in dollars per hourly on-demand commitment.

How to calculate hourly on-demand commitment

You calculate the baseline per hour cost of GKE Autopilot Pod vCPUs + Pod Memory across all your GKE Autopilot clusters in the region that you want to benefit from a committed use discount. Any usage beyond that limit will be charged at the regular on-demand price.

For example:

  • Assume you are running a total of 97.5 Pod vCPU and 121 GB Pod Memory in each of two different regions. The Autopilot clusters are located in regions us-central1 (Iowa) and asia-southeast1 (Singapore), and you're interested in buying a 1-year committed use discount.

From the pricing table, we can calculate the total hourly commitment cost per region:

  • Iowa

    • 97.5 * $0.0445 per vCPU per hour = ~$4.339 per hour
    • 121 * $0.0049225 per GB per hour = ~$0.596 per hour
    • For a total of $4.935 per hour in committed use hourly pricing.
  • Singapore

    • 97.5 * $0.0549 per vCPU per hour = ~$5.353 per hour
    • 121 * $0.0060729 per GB per hour = ~$0.735 per hour
    • For a total of $6.088 per hour in committed use hourly pricing.

Calculating the monthly cost (720 hours in a month):

  • Iowa
    • On-demand pricing = $4.935 per hour * 720 hours = $3,553.20 per month
    • After 20% 1-year CUD discount = $2,842.56 per month
    • Total savings of $710.64 per month.
  • Singapore
    • On-demand pricing = $6.088 per hour * 720 hours = $4,383.36 per month
    • After 20% 1-year CUD discount = $3506.69 per month
    • Total savings of $876.67 per month.

Once you make the commitment, you're charged that amount even if you decide to stop or scale down the actual number of vCPUs or RAM during the month.

Final recommendations

When making the decision on whether to purchase committed use discounts, keep in mind the following considerations:

  • Regions: Committed use discounts are purchased by region. If you are running in multiple regions, calculate and purchase committed use discounts in each region separately.
  • Projects: Determine the consistent baseline GKE Autopilot Pod vCPU, Memory/ Storage usage per project. Consider that production loads usually run 100% of the time, while development or staging environments may be run more intermittently.