Billing for Google Cloud Marketplace products

Many software packages in Google Cloud Marketplace are free to use, and you only pay the standard usage fees for the Google Cloud resources that you run the software on.

If you buy commercial software from Cloud Marketplace, such as a virtual machine (VM) with software installed, a Kubernetes app, or a software as a service (SaaS) product, you're charged for the software and for the Google Cloud resources that you use. The software usage fees appear as separate items in the Cloud Billing reports and exported Cloud Billing data from BigQuery. Sometimes the charges are linked to one of your projects, and other times they're only linked to your Cloud Billing account.

This page describes the factors that affect how you are billed for the software you purchase from Cloud Marketplace. For steps to manage billing or cancel a subscription, see Managing billing for Cloud Marketplace.

How you're charged for software

Cloud Marketplace providers can choose how they set up pricing plans for their software. The following sections describe the pricing plans that you might see in Cloud Marketplace:

If you're working with a vendor for discounted pricing, they can create a private offer that lets you purchase the product at a discount. The discounted price then applies to the pricing plans described in this section.

Learn about accepting private offers for Cloud Marketplace products.

Pricing plans for VM products

The types of plans for VM products include:

  • A flat hourly rate, billed monthly.

  • Usage fees, based on the resources in your deployment, such as the number of vCPUs, the amount of memory, or the number of GPUs in your deployment.

  • Bring your own license (BYOL). When you deploy the product, you sign up for a license on the vendor's website, and the vendor bills you directly. Google bills you for the infrastructure separately.

After you've purchased a commercial VM product, you see the charges for the VMs linked to the project where the VMs exist.

Pricing plans for Kubernetes apps

The types of plans for Kubernetes apps include:

  • Usage fees, based on measurements set by the vendor. For example, some vendors might charge by the number of containers that you run the app on and the number of API requests you make to the app.

    For commercial Kubernetes apps, a billing administrator must first purchase the app for your organization. After the purchase is complete, users in your organization can deploy the app and use the organization's billing plan. You are charged software usage fees for your Kubernetes containers, and for the GKE infrastructure that you use.

    For steps to set up a billing plan for commercial Kubernetes apps, see Managing billing plans.

  • Bring your own license (BYOL). You must sign up for a license on the vendor's website, and the vendor bills you directly. Google bills you for the infrastructure separately.

For steps to deploy a Kubernetes app to your cluster, visit Deploying Kubernetes apps.

You will see the charges for the usage fees linked to a project you did not create. This project's ID begins with pr or pr- then a string of hexadecimal digits.

Pricing plans for SaaS products

The types of plans for SaaS products include:

  • Monthly subscriptions, or a subscription for a specific period, such as a year or longer. The vendor might offer multiple subscription plans, such as Basic, Standard, and Pro plans.

  • Usage-based, based on measurements set by the vendor. For example, some vendors might charge by the quantity of data you process in the app.

  • A combination of subscription and usage fees. For example, a vendor might charge a monthly fee of $10 for a Basic plan, and an additional $0.01 for every GiB of data processed.

You will see subscription fees not associated with any project, while usage fees will be linked to a project you did not create. This project's ID begins with pr or pr- then a string of hexadecimal digits.

Factors that affect your bill

You might see the following additional items in your monthly bill:

Charges for Cloud Monitoring in VM products

Some Cloud Marketplace products might include Cloud Monitoring, which collects metrics, events, and metadata from your deployment. If you exceed the Cloud Monitoring free usage allotment, you are charged for using it. If you don't want to use Cloud Monitoring, you must disable the Monitoring agent.

Learn more about Monitoring pricing.

Trials for Cloud Marketplace software

You can sign up for software trials from Cloud Marketplace, during which you can use the software without paying for the license. During the trial, you pay only for the Google Cloud infrastructure that you use. For each product, you can sign up for one trial for every billing account.

Trials include a trial period and usage credit, set by the provider. Your trial ends when you reach the credit limit, or when the trial period expires, whichever comes first.

For example, consider a product for which the recommended configuration is a VM with a single vCPU, and you are charged based on the number of vCPUs in your deployment. During a trial, if you choose an instance with 4 vCPUs, your hourly usage fee increases, so you might reach your credit limit before the trial period expires.

To see the status of your trial in the Google Cloud console, go to the Billing page. On your bill, the credit for your free trial is shown in the Credits section. Google Cloud also sends you an email three days before your trial expires, or when less than 10% of your trial credits remain, whichever is earlier.

After your trial has ended, you can continue using the software, and you are billed according to the pricing plan that you're on. If you want to end your trial before the trial period expires, cancel your plan.

Additional resources