Google Flex App Engine instance with GCP Free Tier, is it possible? - google-app-engine

maybe I’ve screwed up,
I’ve deployed an app to a Flex GCP App Engine, but then while I was reading the GCP Free Trial, I’ve discovered that I cannot use the flex instance (yeah I know, I should have read it before), now I’ve disabled it from the console, but I was wondering if I can get some kind of billing directly on my credit card and not on the free credit.
I’ve tried to ask directly tho the GCP assistance, but the chat session doesn’t start.

Getting credits directly on your credit card indicates upgrading your GCP account from the free trial to a paid account through the Google Cloud Console. To do so, click the Activate button. If the Activate button is not visible, on the menu bar, click Free trial status and the Activate button will appear.
To take advantage of the features of a paid account (using GPUs, for
example), you can upgrade before the trial ends. When you upgrade, the
following conditions apply:
Any remaining, unexpired free trial credit remains in your account.
Your credit card on file is charged for resources you use in excess of
what's covered by any remaining credit.
You can upgrade your account
at any time after starting the free trial. The following conditions
apply depending on when you upgrade:
If you upgrade before the trial is over, your remaining credit is
added to your paid account. You can continue to use the resources you
created during the free trial without interruption.
If you upgrade within 30 days of the end of the trial, you can restore
the resources you created during the trial.
If you upgrade more than 30 days after the end of the trial, your free
trial resources are lost.
Here, you may find the list of resources of GCP that can be Always Free and available.
Furthermore, here you may find information on how to handle your budget, set up alerts and notifications for proper management.
This page tells you how to contact Cloud Billing Support if you need help with your Cloud Billing account, and shows you where to get more information about managing your billing account. In addition to that, here you may find all the Customer Care Support plans that Google offers.
I hope this information helps.
EDIT:
As stated here:
Any usage above Always Free usage limits is automatically billed at standard rates.
Thus, you will be charged for the usage of that GAE Flex instance.
Additionally, here you can check Flexible environment pricing details and here you have the information about viewing your billing reports.

Related

GAE without billing

I remember years ago I deployed a simple python app on GAE without the need to enable billing. Is it still possible? All the guides and tutorials I find tell to enable billing, and I'd like not to do that.
Yep, you have to enable billing account in order to deploy an app on GAE.
To deploy your apps, you must enable billing. Your account will not be charged if you stay within your free quota. If your application needs resources that exceed the free quota, you will be charged for the additional usage.
So, if you don't exceed the free quota limits you won't be charged. I think the main reason is that it won't be cool your application shutdowns just because you exceeded the limits even if you're testing.

google app engine free tier and cloud platform

After few years, I was looking again at Google App Engine and bit confused about the structure now. It used to allow me to create a project and use it till the free quota, and then upgrade to a paid account. Now, I created a project with a gmail account (not a google app account, but personal). On the console and project dashboard, I see a link say signup for a free trial. That is a 60 day trial for Google Cloud Platform. What is that? Can't I use app engine application forever and pay only if usage exceeds the free tier? or is it limited to 60 days now?
Thanks.
Edit:
It says, after 60 days, Your instances will be paused, and you'll have the option to upgrade to a paid account. You must upgrade within 30 days of your trial ending or we won’t be able to restore your instances. So, my main concern is there a minimum payment required after the trial ends to run a small app (which previously can run in free quota). It let me create a project without creating an account for google cloud platform. so, do I really need to join or can run a app engine instance without joining?
The free quota/tier still stands. The free trial gives you more goodies for a limited time. Mainly, you'll get a $300 credit for 60 days. This credit is only used when you exceed your free quota. More info on the free trial.
Update: to respond to your edit, no, there is no minimum payment. Some services require that you have billing enabled (your credit card on file), but even then, you only pay after you exceed the quota.

Gmail API quota units cost

We are building a service that utilizes the Gmail API. In order to understand our costs as we scale, I would like to know how much it costs to use the Gmail API. I've followed the instructions at https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/v1/reference/quota through to the point at which it says:
If you have enabled billing for your project [we have], clicking Quota
takes you to a page where you can view and change quota-related
settings.
The only option on that page for changing our daily quota is to "Apply for higher quota"; however, clicking that opens a window that says:
Please be sure to review the existing quota limits to confirm you need
more than the daily default.... If you simply have a question on limits, please ask it on the Stack
Overflow forum
Thus, I am asking here: what is the cost per API unit when one's needs exceed the daily free quota?
The API isn't marked as "billable" meaning it's free up to a limit and there's no set/published pricing above that. If you are using your existing quota or are getting close and want to ask for more, I think best place is to ask on the quota request form. It's quite reasonable to ask for quota to provision for a few quarters of growth IMO and if you're migrating from some other API (e.g. IMAP, atom feed, DOM hacking) then obviously that should be quite reasonable to provision all that beforehand as well.

Google App Engine Billing inconsistent with Usage History

I am sorry if this is not the right place to ask this question, but Google has moved customer support for Bronze Tier to Community Forum aka Stackoverflow... So here I am, stuck with a bill that I can't figure out. Just to give you the context, I am running an Android app sending videos averaging 2 megabytes per video to users. There are around 70 daily users downloading 2 videos a day.
Image here: http://postimg.org/image/cytlw3rzx/ (Sorry I don't have 10 reputation yet)
As you can see, there are supposedly 516 Gibibyte of Cloud Storage Download APAC. However, I only have around 150 megabytes of data stored on the cloud. So it is mathematically impossible to have such traffic over this period of time. On top of this, here is the Usage History which suggests totally different usage.
Image here: http://postimg.org/image/5h1tzl49f/
Please help if you have any idea what is going on as I am stuck with no customer support and no helpful information on the internet...
The usage history you posted (your second picture) is only for the App Engine application, but does not include Cloud Storage usage. It also does not include any usage you may make of Compute Engine, Big Query etc.
That is why the usage history shows less than 1$ per day whereas your final bill shows additional charges for Cloud Storage.
You can ask billing-related questions to the Cloud Platform billing team here : https://support.google.com/code/contact/cloud_platform_billing
You can also find more info on your current usage here :
https://console.developers.google.com/project/YOUR_PROJECT_ID/billing/unbilledinvoice
If you have doubted about how your cloud storage buckets are used, set up access logging as explained here.

Google App Engine, Billing "Minimum Spend $2.10 Per Week"?

When I try to enable billing in app engine for using blob store, I found a notice for Minimum Spend $2.10 Per Week.
The Minimum spend subtotal is in support of our new pricing model. The new model requires that you spend at least $2.10/week. This subtotal indicates the value beyond your other spend that we need to add to your contract. To make the transition to the new model smoother we are beginning to account for this minimum when we authorize new budget changes. Please note that you will not be charged for the minimum spend until our new model takes effect.
I search online and found no one ask about it. I use app engine just for a school assignment, so the usage won't be excess free quota. So, Must I pay $2.10 per week even I do not excess free quota? It sounds unreasonable.
As of April 2013, "We’re happy to announce that billing-enabled applications will no longer be required to spend a minimum of $2.10 per week. This means that you can enable billing for a free tier application and continue running within the free tier without concern that a spike in traffic will terminate serving (note that you can always specify a daily dollar budget). The minimum spend was originally intended to prevent abuse and ensure that we can offer a stable, reliable system with a free tier. We have determined that we can continue to support the free tier, without relying on the minimum spend. So, goodbye $2.10!"
Google has removed the $2.10/week for billing-enabled application from now onwards. You can enable billing for a free tier application and continue running within the free tier without concern that a spike in traffic will terminate serving.
http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2013/04/app-engine-177-released.html
I enabled billing because I needed to add Google Cloud SQL. The notice said that minimal Cloud SQL was free for now. We're still in early development and aren't using any resources, so we're not over the quota for anything. I don't think I was ever advised by any page that I'd be billed even if under the free thresholds. In fact, I think one of the pages explicitly said I would not be.
It really isn't a lot of money. Probably not even if you add all the users who have been deceptively billed together, so it probably won't attract any lawyers. But unless I missed some notice (and even if I did if that notice was intentionally hidden) this is legally wrong, as well as ethically so.
It appears that their "new" system hasn't gone into effect yet so I would go ahead and use it. Besides, $2/week compared to the $150/book that I just spend isn't that bad. =/
As for enabling billing it appears that unless you need the new (per 1.5.3 version) unlimited blobstore then you should be fine with the free limits.

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