Announcement of pricing changes for Google Cloud Audit Manager

This page provides details on the updated pricing model for Google Cloud Audit Manager, taking effect on February 08, 2027.

Google Cloud Audit Manager, available both as a standalone product and as the auditing capability within Security Command Center (SCC) Compliance Manager is transitioning to a usage-based, pay-as-you-go model to align costs directly with the volume of automated compliance evaluations delivered.

What you need to know

Under this new pricing model, Audit Manager will bill based on the number of evaluations performed.

What is an evaluation: In Audit Manager, compliance frameworks consist of cloud controls, and each cloud control can contain one or more compliance checks. An evaluation is a single compliance check assessed against a single Google Cloud resource.
Security Essentials framework: Retains unlimited free audit runs and evaluations.
Built-in and custom frameworks: Evaluations for all other built-in and custom frameworks are billed at the standard pay-as-you-go rate of $1.25 per 1,000 evaluations. This includes all existing and newly created custom frameworks, whether configured in Security Command Center (SCC) Compliance Manager (via Configure experience) or Assured Workloads Frameworks and Controls.
Free trial allotment: Effective February 08, 2027, each Google Cloud Organization receives a one-time lifetime allowance of 40,000 free evaluations across billable frameworks before standard pay-as-you-go billing begins. Evaluations run prior to February 08, 2027 are not billed and do not count toward this allotment.
Security Command Center (SCC) customers: Compliance audits and evidence generation are not bundled into Security Command Center Premium or Enterprise tier subscriptions. Regardless of whether an audit is triggered from standalone Audit Manager or SCC Compliance Manager, all runs on billable frameworks draw from the organization's shared 40,000 free evaluation allowance and are subsequently billed at $1.25 per 1,000 evaluations.
Future built-in framework releases: All current and future built-in frameworks released in Audit Manager (excluding Security Essentials) are billed at the standard pay-as-you-go rate of $1.25 per 1,000 evaluations.

Pricing structure

The revised pricing structure, effective February 08, 2027 is summarized below:

Framework Tier	Pricing Model	Meter	List Price	Free Allotment
Security Essentials	Free	Not Applicable	Free	Unlimited free evaluations
Built-in and custom Frameworks	Pay-as-you-go	1,000 evaluations	$1.25 / 1,000 evaluations	40,000 free evaluations per organization

Billing examples

The following examples demonstrate how evaluation volume and charges are calculated under the pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Example 1: Security Essentials audit - Free Tier

An organization runs compliance audits against the Security Essentials framework across its Google Cloud resources like Compute Engine instances, Cloud Storage buckets, IAM policies, and databases, generating 25,000 evaluations during a monthly billing cycle.

Framework: Security Essentials

Monthly Evaluations: 25,000 evaluations

Rate: $0.00 (Unlimited free tier)

Total Billed: $0.00

Example 2: Single On-Demand Audit against CIS GKE 1.7 framework

An organization audits a project containing 100 GKE clusters and 200 node pools against the CIS GKE 1.7 framework during a monthly billing cycle, with its 40,000 free trial evaluations unused. Each cloud control performs 1 automated check per resource.

Component	Calculation	Total
Cluster Cloud Controls	100 clusters × 23 cloud controls × 1 check	2,300
Node Pool Cloud Controls	200 node pools × 5 cloud controls × 1 check	1,000
Total Evaluations		3,300
Free Trial Evaluations Remaining	3,300 deducted from 40,000 free evaluations	36,700
Billable Evaluations		0
Total Billed		$0.00

Note: If the 40,000 free trial evaluations are exhausted, standard pay-as-you-go billing is: (3,300 / 1,000) * $1.25 = $4.125

Example 3: Continuous daily scheduled audits against CIS GKE 1.7 framework

The organization configures automated daily scheduled audits against the CIS GKE 1.7 framework for a project containing 100 GKE clusters and 200 node pools over a monthly billing cycle. This calculation assumes the resource inventory remains constant throughout the month, with no resources created or deleted.

Component	Calculation	Total
Cluster Cloud Controls	100 clusters × 23 cloud controls × 1 check	2300
Node Pool Cloud Controls	200 node pools × 5 cloud controls × 1 check	1000
Daily Evaluations (per Run)	3,300 evaluations / day	3,300 / day
Total Monthly Evaluations (30 Days)	3,300 evaluations/day × 30 days	99,000
Free Trial Evaluations Remaining	0	0
Billable Evaluations	99,000 - 0	99,000
Total Billed	(99,000 / 1000) × $1.25	$123.75 / month

Note on dynamic environments: Scheduled audits evaluate the live resource inventory present at the time each run executes. If additional resources of the same type (e.g., adding more GKE clusters or node pools) are created before subsequent scheduled runs, the evaluation volume and resulting charges will increase accordingly. Conversely, deleting resources will lower subsequent evaluation counts and reduce charges.

Example 4: Two on-demand audits against CIS GKE 1.7 and Google Recommended AI Essentials - Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform

An organization performs two on-demand compliance audits against CIS GKE 1.7 and Google Recommended AI Essentials - Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform frameworks in the same monthly billing cycle, with the 40,000 free trial evaluations already exhausted.

Audit 1 on CIS GKE 1.7: Audits 1 project with 100 GKE clusters and 200 node pools.

Component	Calculation	Total
Clusters	100 clusters × 23 cloud controls × 1 check	2,300
Node Pools	200 node pools × 5 cloud controls × 1 check	1,000
Total Evaluations		3,300

Audit 2 on Google Recommended AI Essentials - Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform: Audits 1 project across the framework's 24 auditable cloud controls out of 28 total cloud controls in the framework.

Each auditable cloud control performs 1 automated check per applicable resource at project scope.

The project contains 50 Agent Platform Workbench instances, 25 Agent Platform Colab Enterprise runtime templates, 50 Agent Platform agents, 100 Secret Manager secrets, 50 Agent Platform model endpoints, 50 Agent Platform training pipelines, 50 Agent Platform custom jobs, 40 Agent Platform hyperparameter tuning jobs, 8 Agent Platform TensorBoard instances.

The audit also includes 2 project level checks, evaluating the effective Organization Policy for Agent Platform Workbench file downloads and Model Armor API enablement which always run once per project.

Component	Calculation	Total
Agent Platform Workbench Instances	50 instances × 10 cloud controls × 1 check	500
Agent Platform Colab Enterprise Runtime Templates	25 templates × 4 cloud controls × 1 check	100
Agent Platform Reasoning Engines (Agents)	50 agents × 2 cloud controls × 1 check	100
Secret Manager Secrets	100 secrets × 1 cloud control × 1 check	100
Agent Platform Model Endpoints	50 endpoints × 1 cloud control × 1 check	50
Agent Platform Training Pipelines	50 pipelines × 1 cloud control × 1 check	50
Agent Platform Custom Jobs	50 custom jobs × 1 cloud control × 1 check	50
Agent Platform Hyperparameter Tuning Jobs	40 tuning jobs × 1 cloud control × 1 check	40
Agent Platform TensorBoard Instances	8 instances × 1 cloud control × 1 check	8
Organization Policy (Agent Platform Workbench file downloads)	1 policy setting × 1 cloud control × 1 check	1
Project-Level Service Enablement (Model Armor API)	1 service setting × 1 cloud control × 1 check	1
Total Evaluations		1000

Component	Calculation	Total
Total Evaluations	3,300 (Audit 1 on CIS GKE 1.7) + 1,000 (Google Recommended AI Essentials - Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform)	4,300
Free Trial Evaluations Remaining	0	0
Billable Evaluations	4,300 evaluations − 0	4300
Total Billed	(4,300 / 1,000) × $1.25	$5.38

Potential impact on your organization

Scheduled Audits: Existing automated audit schedules will continue uninterrupted. Audit runs executing on or after February 08, 2027 as part of existing schedules will be billed under the new pay-as-you-go pricing model.

In-Progress Audits: Any audit run initiated before February 08, 2027 will not incur charges, even if it completes after the effective date. Only runs initiated on or after February 08, 2027 are subject to billing.

Framework Pricing: Audits against Security Essentials remain 100% free. All other framework audits draw from the 40,000 free evaluation trial before billing at $1.25 per 1,000 evaluations across both standalone Audit Manager and SCC Compliance Manager.

What you need to do

Review current usage: Assess your active audit schedules, selected compliance frameworks, and resource scope across both Security Command Center Compliance Manager and Audit Manager to project your billing impact.

Optimize audit cadence: If desired, delete schedules you no longer need, or set up new schedules to match your desired audit frequency and scope.

Ensure service continuity: No manual action or migration is required to maintain service. The new pay-as-you-go pricing model will automatically take effect on February 08, 2027.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I get a separate 40,000 free evaluation allotment for SCC Compliance Manager Audit and Audit Manager?

No. The 40,000 free evaluation trial is allocated once per organization and is shared across all audit runs initiated through both Audit Manager and SCC Compliance Manager.

Are evaluations billed if an audit check produces non-compliant findings?

Yes. Billing is based on the total number of compliance evaluations performed, regardless of whether the evaluation result is compliant or non-compliant.