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I am trying to explore services of google compute engine,is there any free tier eligibility for exploring purpose. Like aws does provide free tier for new account holders for 1 year?
Yes, You are given 300$ credit for 90 days, after that there is an always free tier.
Use their price calculator to get an estimate
Google provides Starter Pack, $500 credit package for new coming developers on Google Cloud Platform, $500 is more than 1 year free tier server on other platform.
https://cloud.google.com/developers/starterpack/
Just apply it and watch that space :)
update: Feb 2022
Yes, apart from 300$ credit for 90 days, there is an always free tier, that includes an App Engine, Compute Engine etc, more about free resources.
use their price calculator to get a cost estimate
Simple answer is YES
But it's not a 1 year trial like AWS.. it's a credit of $300 which expires in 60 days, after which you need to pay for continued usage.
Yes there is. It was recently introduced, and Google Cloud Platform offers a free trial worth $300 to all new users. As soon as you sign up, you immediately have $300 to use on any Cloud Platform service - including Compute Engine (as well as App Engine, Cloud Storage, or whatever else you want).
Check it out on cloud.google.com.
Yes, it is the 'Always Free' tier (almost identical to the Free Tier of AWS):
The Google Cloud Platform Free Tier is your opportunity to learn and
use GCP for free. It has two parts: a 12-month, $300 credit free trial
and Always Free. The 12-month, $300 free trial allows you to use any
GCP product. Always Free allows you to try participating products for
free up to their non-expiring usage limits, making it easy for you to
test and develop with these products.
In essence, it is completely separate to the free trial offered ($300 for 12 months) and is designed for developers to explore and develop applications and services that use the services included in Free Tier, without being charged (also note that a SLA does not exist with Always Free).
Usage of the Always Free tier does not use any free trial credit you may have:
You are eligible for Always Free usage amounts during the free trial period. Always Free usage does not count against your free trial credits:
For example, only the portion of your Google App Engine usage above
the App Engine free daily usage limits is charged against your $300
credit. In addition, if your App Engine usage is below the free daily
usage limits, your app will continue to run even after the free trial
ends.
Related
In their notifications about the new billing system for the Google Maps APIs, Google very clearly state that you "can set usage limits to protect against unexpected increases". However, I haven't found any documentation regarding how to set these usage limits against an API key. Does anyone know how to do this?
To clarify, I would like to set my own daily usage limits against my API key to prevent it ever going over the free threshold for the static maps API.
I understand Google means that you can set your custom daily quota for each individual API in order to stay within free 200$, not a global per API key/project/Billing account daily quota. As far as I know there is no such thing as limit per daily usage in $ per Billing account yet.
There are alerts that you can establish in your Billing account and receive notifications if your usage is close to the defined budget. Have a look at the following document that explain how to set alerts:
https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/budgets?hl=en
If your project uses only Static Maps API, it is easy to set daily quota to stay within 200$ per month. The price sheet says that you can have up to 100 000 free requests per month. That means 100 000 / 31 = 3225 free requests per day. You can go to Quota section of Static Maps API in your project
https://console.developers.google.com/google/maps-apis/apis/static-maps-backend.googleapis.com/quotas?project=YOUR_PROJECT_ID&duration=PT1H
and change your daily quota as shown in my screenshots
edit number requests per day
and you are set.
I hope this helps!
OK a bit late for reply, but maybe somebody else can use this.
You do get tons of free map hits etc.
If you don't link a pay account, then you are limited to 1 hit per day (that's google maps) which is useless. All other quotas like 10000 per 100 sec etc are secondary to the 1 hit per day.
Now once you have linked your pay account or a Credit Card etc, to google development console then you get full quota for free user, plus more if you go over your quota covered by your Credit Card.
However don't panic, for first year it's all free and you get $300 (at this moment) worth of free stuff.
Even if you go over this limit Google will first ask you if you wish to change to payment system or continue with free.
If you decide to pay then you will be charged per indicated on google dev site.
If you decide to go with free option then the service to your site will stop until next rotation, i.e. day or month etc depending on service.
see this table.
Unless you have millions of hit on your map page or app, then the free quota is more than enough for normal sites.
Here is a price calculator by google.
As you see you get a lot of unlimited stuff and some paid if you go over your recurring credit of $200 or $300
Google makes it so complicated because it involves people coming from old system and those registering between roll over etc.
perhaps this will help too.
You can also set budgets and alerts just in case you go over budget (via Billing section of dev site)
So in short :) you get tons of free and if you have a lot of visitors the surely you make some money to pay for the services.
Note that google charges for all their API services in 1 place so if you use say Geocoding and firebase and cloud dev etc then you will soon start paying.
Sorry for any typos, I did this fast.
Capping API Usage
Depending on the API, you can explicitly cap requests in a variety of ways, including: requests per day, requests per 100 seconds, and requests per 100 seconds per user.
You might want to limit the billable usage by setting caps. For example, to prevent getting billed for usage beyond the free courtesy usage limits, you can set requests per day caps.
For more info, check this doc: https://cloud.google.com/apis/docs/capping-api-usage
According to this link :
Google price guide
Google has changed it's prices from 11 June.
Is that mean using google map SDK for mobile devices is no longer free ?
Yes and no.
You'll need an API key and a valid billing method. That being said, the first 200$ (I assume USD) of usage is free
We’ve heard that you want simple, easy to understand pricing that
gives you access to all our core APIs. That’s one of the reasons we
merged our Standard and Premium plans to form one pay-as-you go
pricing plan for our core products. With this new plan, developers
will receive the first $200 of monthly usage for free. We estimate
that most of you will have monthly usage that will keep you within
this free tier.
From https://mapsplatform.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-google-maps-platform.html
After that, your credit card will be charged. To estimate your usage you can refer to this pricing table: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/pricing/sheet/
All the below points are taken from the official documentation.
#Marco's answer is correct on one point: you need an API key to have full access to the service.
Also, in June 2016 we announced that we would stop supporting keyless usage, meaning any request that doesn’t include an API key or Client ID. This will go into effect on June 11th, and keyless access will no longer be supported. At that time, keyless calls to the Maps JavaScript API and Street View API will return low-resolution maps watermarked with “for development purposes only.” Keyless calls to any of the following APIs will return an error: Maps Static API (including Static Street View), Directions API, Distance Matrix API, Geocoding API, Geolocation API, Places API, Roads API, and Time Zone API.
Here they are talking about the Javascript API but I could not find contradictory information about other APIs (iOS, Android) so I believe this applies to all APIs.
About billing
This page says the following:
Is a credit card or billing account required?
Yes. Even though the first $200 a month is free, we ask for your credit card or billing account to cover any amount you spend over this free credit. When you’re billed, we'll credit your account for the first $200 of monthly usage. If your estimated usage will be above $200 a month and you don’t have a credit or debit card to set up a billing account, a local Google Maps Partner may be able to help.
In other words: YES, you need a billing account and a credit card (or a Google Maps Partner).
This page is the guide for existing users and it says:
Is a credit card or billing account required?
Even though your first $200 of monthly usage is free, all Google Cloud Platform services require a credit card and billing account, to cover any amount you spend over this free credit. If you are billed, we'll credit your account for the first $200 of monthly usage. If you choose not to add a billing account, there is a risk that if your usage exceeds $200 in a given month, your Maps API implementation will be degraded or other API requests will return an error. If your estimated usage will be above $200 a month and you don't have a credit or debit card to set up a billing account, a local Google Maps Partner may be able to help.
In other words: NO, existing users don't need a billing account although it's strongly advised to have one.
Clarification is needed from Google! Hopefully this topic will get updated soon.
To add to the other answers, pricing is different for the "google map SDK for mobile devices", aka Mobile Native Dynamic/Static Maps for Android and iOS (which you mentioned in your question, and it's tagged with).
From the Google Maps pricing sheet, it seems that all use of the Mobile Native APIs is free, while the traditional (web based) Dynamic and Static maps are chargeable as others described above.
$200 MONTHLY CREDIT EQUIVALENT FREE USAGE: Unlimited loads
0—100,000 MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE (PRICE PER THOUSAND CALLS): $0.00
100,001-500,000 MONTHLY VOLUME RANGE (PRICE PER THOUSAND CALLS): $0.00
And it's possible to add usage caps to force your usage of the web-based (chargeable) APIs to stay within the free tier. This does mean that your maps will stop working if your users cause you to exceed the usage caps, but at least you won't be charged.
There is a free tier for up to $200 of usage, which most users won't pass I believe. So, small businesses won't be affected.
Read more here: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/user-guide/pricing-changes/
However, there's still no clarity on whether a Billing Account has to be set up with a valid Credit/Debit Card to get a new API Key. Google has a transition tool in place for those who already have the API key and are using it in their projects.
I'm a web developer and many of my clients are using GMaps on their website to show their business address. Not sure what Billing Account I'll have to use for all of them, because they're all finished projects and the client expects the maps to continue working as is. I can't possibly set the billing in my name and risk getting a huge bill some day. The current clients and the future clients have to be made aware of this new update. I concur it's like setting up a GSuite / Adwords account for your client.
OpenLayers is a good alternative for google maps sdk, if you absolutely want a map.
It is free and does not require any account. It worked for me!
You can refer to the below link: https://openlayers.org/en/latest/doc/quickstart.html
Apparently google now require you to give them billing details for using there google maps on your web site. If I understand it correctly you get $200 free allowance and after that they start charging you.
Is there a way to say to google, don’t charge me after the free $200 and just stop displaying the map?
There is no way to do that.
The only 2 things available now is to:
Based on your monthly usage, calculate approximately your daily usage (per API) and set daily limits. You can do so by going to the API Console, select an API, navigate to the Quotas tab, and edit the daily or per-second quotas. You can use this Calculator.
Set billing budgets and alarms.
To control your spend, you can set billing budgets and alarms so that you are notified when your usage reaches a given budget. Here’s how.
Be noticed that these alarms are only "an alarm based on a budget", they won't stop the usage from your project.
I asked about this in the Cloud support, and they told me this:
You can use Programmatic Budget Notifications in order to perform
custom actions when reaching spend thresholds. For instance, you can
disable billing on your project when reaching the free tier limit.
https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/notify
Note this will disable the billing completely and can even cause your Cloud projects to be deleted!
See the warning:
This example removes billing from your project, shutting down all resources. Resources might not shut down gracefully, and might be irretrievably deleted. There is no graceful recovery if you disable billing. You can re-enable billing, but there is no guarantee of service recovery and manual configuration is required.
Some things may be outside your control. Google support has confirmed to me that their own bot hits count towards billable maps API usage. So they decide the level of spidering, and then charge for it.
I believe this is called the "Fish in a Barrel" business model
Is it okay to put online advertising on a website running on Openshift, even if I'm using the free plan? I'm planning to buy a separate domain, but keep using the free server. I'm planning to use Google Adsense.
Yes. The only limitation the free service has is that its limited on resources.
The Free Services may be used without charge up to the thresholds set
forth at https://www.openshift.com/products/pricing. If You require
Services in excess of the Free Services or exceed the thresholds
referenced in the previous sentence, you must upgrade to the Paid
Services and pay the associated Fees.
https://www.openshift.com/legal/services_agreement
Can we use OpenShift Express, which is free right now, for commercial web applications?
And if not, then which PAAS services are there which are free, and have no vendor lock-in.
You can use OpenShift Express for commercial web apps but be sure it will meet your requirements. Potential issues include:
currently no outgoing email support
currently applications do not scale to accommodate load
1GB disc space limit
shared hosting
limit 3 cartridges (DB, metrics, etc) per app
no official support from Red Hat. Documentation is good and community forum support is very active.
OpenShift would meet many commercial site requirements. I think it's a great option. For more info read the FAQ.
Openshift have opened SMTP Port now.
check : https://www.redhat.com/openshift/community/blogs/outbound-mail-ports-are-now-open-for-business-on-openshift
You can use Cloudify. It is build for orchestrating any application on any Cloud without changing the application code or architecture. Cloudify is opensource and free.
Cloudify offers many features such as pluggable monitoring, scale rules by any KPI, APIs for sharing runtime information between agents and even Chef integration
Due Diligence Im the product manager for Cloudify in GigaSpaces
I've been using it for some small services and clients.
There isn't any clause on there terms of use that states that you can't use it as commercial web apps. But attention to the following line:
"You may not post or transmit through this website advertising or commercial solicitations; promotional materials relating to website or online services which are competitive with Red Hat and/or this website."
Yes, OpenShift has a tier that is completely free to use, even for commercial applications. There are no plans to change this in the future. There are, however, some minor limitations to the FreeShift tier:
Scaling limited to 3 gears
Serves about 15 pages/second
3GB total storage space (1GB per gear)
No SSL certificate for your custom domain name
No support from Red Hat
An alternative is Heroku, which you should definitely check out if you haven't already. Having used both, I can tell you that it's a much more polished platform: The servers are about 4× faster, you can run as many apps as you want, and the Heroku Toolbelt is much more powerful than the OpenShift's Client Tools. Heroku is also completely free until you reach 10k rows in your database.
RedHat will provide support (and scaling) when they release their MegaShift tier.
(https://openshift.redhat.com/community/developers/pricing)
I don't think there is a date yet for this.
It won't be for free off course.