Sustained usage discounts in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) refer to discounts applied to instances based on how long they have been used. Instances are grouped based on specific criteria, which are used to determine the discount applied.
Purpose of bundling instances for sustained usage discounts is to reward users for keeping their instances running for longer periods of time, as the longer the instance is used, the higher the discount applied.
This helps reduce costs for both Google and the user, while increasing the reliability and availability of the instances.
When computing sustained use discounts for inferred instances on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), instances are grouped based on the following criteria:
- Region: Instances must be located in the same region to be eligible for the same discount.
- Instance type: Instances must be of the same type (e.g. n1-standard-1) to be eligible for the same discount.
- Operating system: Instances must be running the same operating system (e.g. Linux) to be eligible for the same discount.
- Tenancy: Instances must be running on the same tenancy (e.g. shared or dedicated) to be eligible for the same discount.
- Pre-emptibility: Pre-emptibility instances are grouped separately from non-preemptible instances for discount calculation.
By grouping instances together based on these criteria, GCP able to apply the appropriate discount to each group of instances, ensuring that customers are only paying for the resources they actually use.
It’s worth noting that sustained use discounts are applied automatically to instances that meet the criteria, so customers do not need to take any additional steps to take advantage of them.
What are sustained use discounts?
Sustained Use Discounts on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are a clever way of rewarding consistency. This pricing feature automatically applies discounts for customers who use a steady amount of resources over a 30-day period.
The more you use, the more you save, and the discounts can be applied to both on-demand and preemptible instances.