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Google Container Engine offers "5 nodes for free", how does that work? Specifically:

  • What are the VM nodetypes available?
  • What's the risk that Google will change pricing?
  • Is it possible to work around the "5 nodes free" if I use 10 nodes over two separate projects?
  • Does the Kubernetes master node count towards the 5 free nodes?
  • Are there any additional charges in running 5 free nodes?
aronchick
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kiorky
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1 Answers1

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Most of your points can be answered with a summary - you still pay for the compute you use, it's just free for managing the first 5 nodes.

Pricing is documented at https://cloud.google.com/container-engine/docs/#pricing.

There is no restriction on the types of nodes you can run and pricing is on a per-cluster basis. You will always be billed for the nodes themselves and any other underlying GCE resources that you create, such as load balancers, forwarding rules, and network egress. Running larger nodes generates a larger bill than running smaller nodes.

aronchick
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Robert Bailey
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