Configure memory limits

This page describes how to set memory limits.

Understand memory usage

Cloud Run instances that exceed their allowed memory limit are terminated.

The following count towards the available memory of your instance:

  • Running the application executable (as the executable must be loaded to memory)
  • Allocating memory in your application process
  • Writing files to the filesystem

The size of the deployed container image does not count towards the available memory.

Set and update memory limits

You can set memory limits on Cloud Run services. By default, the memory allocated to each instance of a revision is 512 MiB.

Required minimum CPUs

When setting a memory limit, the following minimum CPU limits are required:

Memory Minimum CPUs required
More than 4 GiB 2
More than 8 GiB 4
More than 16 GiB 6
More than 24 GiB 8

Maximum amount of memory

The maximum amount of memory you can configure is 32 gibibyte (32 Gi).

Minimum memory

The minimum memory setting varies depending on whether you use first generation or second generation execution environment:

  • 128 MiB for first generation
  • 512 MiB for second generation

Configure memory limits

Any configuration change leads to the creation of a new revision. Subsequent revisions will also automatically get this configuration setting unless you make explicit updates to change it.

For Cloud Run services, you can set memory limits using the Google Cloud console, the gcloud command line, or a YAML file when you create a new service or deploy a new revision:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Cloud Run:

    Go to Cloud Run

  2. Click Create Service if you are configuring a new service you are deploying to. If you are configuring an existing service, click the service, then click Edit and deploy new revision.

  3. If you are configuring a new service, fill out the initial service settings page as desired, then click Container(s), volumes, networking, security to expand the service configuration page.

  4. Click the Container tab.

    image

    • Select the desired memory size from the Memory dropdown list.
  5. Click Create or Deploy.

Command line

You can update the memory allocation of a given service by using the following command:

gcloud run services update SERVICE --memory SIZE

Replace SERVICE with the name of your service and SIZE with the desired memory size. The format for size is a fixed or floating point number followed by a unit: G or M corresponding to gigabyte or megabyte, respectively, or use the power-of-two equivalents: Gi or Mi corresponding to gibibyte or mebibyte respectively.

You can also set memory limits during deployment using the command:

gcloud run deploy --image IMAGE_URL --memory SIZE

Replace

  • IMAGE_URL with a reference to the container image, for example, us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello:latest. If you use Artifact Registry, the repository REPO_NAME must already be created. The URL has the shape REGION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT_ID/REPO_NAME/PATH:TAG .
  • SIZE with the values described above.

YAML

You can download and view existing service configurations using the gcloud run services describe --format export command, which yields cleaned results in YAML format. You can then modify the fields described below and upload the modified YAML using the gcloud run services replace command. Make sure you only modify fields as documented.

  1. To view and download the configuration:

    gcloud run services describe SERVICE --format export > service.yaml
  2. Update the memory attribute:

    apiVersion: serving.knative.dev/v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      name: SERVICE
    spec:
      template:
        metadata:
          name: REVISION
        spec:
          containers:
          - image: IMAGE
            resources:
              limits:
                memory: SIZE

    Replace

    • SERVICE with the name of your Cloud Run service
    • IMAGE_URL with a reference to the container image, for example, us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello:latest. If you use Artifact Registry, the repository REPO_NAME must already be created. The URL has the shape REGION-docker.pkg.dev/PROJECT_ID/REPO_NAME/PATH:TAG
    • SIZE with the desired memory size. The format is a fixed or floating point number followed by a unit: G or M corresponding to gigabyte or megabyte, respectively, or use the power-of-two equivalents: Gi or Mi corresponding to gibibyte or mebibyte respectively.
    • REVISION with a new revision name or delete it (if present). If you supply a new revision name, it must meet the following criteria:
      • Starts with SERVICE-
      • Contains only lowercase letters, numbers and -
      • Does not end with a -
      • Does not exceed 63 characters
  3. Replace the service with its new configuration using the following command:

    gcloud run services replace service.yaml

Terraform

To learn how to apply or remove a Terraform configuration, see Basic Terraform commands.

Add the following to a google_cloud_run_v2_service resource in your Terraform configuration, under template.containers.resources.limits. Replace 512Mi with your service's desired memory limit.

resource "google_cloud_run_v2_service" "default" {
  name     = "cloudrun-service-memory-limits"
  location = "us-central1"

  template {
    containers {
      image = "us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello"

      resources {
        limits = {
          # Memory usage limit (per container)
          memory = "512Mi"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Optimize memory for services

For a Cloud Run service, you can determine the peak memory requirement for a service using the following: (Standing Memory) + (Memory per Request) * (Service Concurrency)

Accordingly,

  • If you raise the concurrency of your service, you should also increase the memory limit to account for peak usage.

  • If you lower the concurrency of your service, consider reducing the memory limit to save on memory usage costs.

For more guidance on minimizing per request memory usage read Development Tips on Global Variables.

View memory limit settings

To view the current memory limit settings for your Cloud Run service:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Cloud Run:

    Go to Cloud Run

  2. Click the service you are interested in to open the Service details page.

  3. Click the Revisions tab.

  4. In the details panel at the right, the memory limit setting is listed under the Container tab.

Command line

  1. Use the following command:

    gcloud run services describe SERVICE
  2. Locate the memory limit setting in the returned configuration.