Committed use discounts (CUDs) for Compute Engine

Cloud de Confiance offers committed use discounts (CUDs) in return for purchasing committed use contracts (also known as commitments). When you purchase a commitment, you commit to a minimum spend amount for a specified term duration of one or three years.

In Cloud de Confiance, you can receive spend-based CUDs in the form of compute flexible committed use discounts (or compute flexible CUDs). With a compute flexible commitment, you commit to a minimum amount of hourly spend to receive deeply discounted prices for resources across the following eligible services:

  • Compute Engine
  • Google Kubernetes Engine
  • Cloud Run

This page explains compute flexible CUDs and how you receive these discounts for your Compute Engine resources.

Compute flexible CUDs

Compute flexible CUDs add flexibility to your Cloud de Confiance by S3NS spending capabilities by providing discounts for your spend across Compute Engine, GKE, and Cloud Run. Specifically for Compute Engine, compute flexible CUDs eliminate the need to restrict your commitments to a single project, region, or machine configuration. With a compute flexible commitment, you can receive applicable CUDs on eligible Compute Engine spend across the commitment's Cloud Billing account, regardless of the project or region where you use your Compute Engine resources.

To learn about how compute flexible CUDs apply to the other services, see the following documents:

Eligible resources

For Compute Engine, only memory and vCPUs that are used with the following machine series are the eligible resources:
  • General purpose: C3 machine series
  • Memory-optimized: M3 machine series

For every listed machine series, the resource eligibility applies to all available machine types and sole-tenant node types. For sole-tenant nodes, the resulting sole-tenancy premium is also eligible for compute flexible CUDs.

Applicable discounts

Depending on your commitment's term and your Cloud Billing account's CUD model, you receive the following compute flexible CUDs for your resources and services:

Service Spend eligible on 1-year CUDs 3-year CUDs
Compute Engine M3 machine series No discounts 63%
C3 machine series 28% 46%
Sole-tenancy premium 28% 46%
GKE GKE Standard and GKE Autopilot 28% 46%
Cloud Run Cloud Run services with request-based billing 17% 17%
Cloud Run functions 17% 17%
Cloud Run services with instance-based billing, Cloud Run jobs, and Cloud Run worker pools 28% 46%

How compute flexible commitments work

This section explains how compute flexible commitments work and the manner in which compute flexible CUDs apply to your eligible Cloud de Confiance by S3NS spend.

Commitment fee

When you purchase a compute flexible commitment for your Cloud Billing account for either a 1- or 3-year term, you commit to spending a minimum hourly amount on eligible resources and services for the duration of the commitment's term. This amount becomes your hourly commitment fee, which you pay for the entire duration of the term, regardless of your actual usage.

Commitment activation

Your commitment becomes active shortly after purchase and you start getting charged the commitment fee. The exact activation time depends on when you purchased the commitment within the hour, as follows:

  • Purchased during minute 49 or earlier of a specific hour: The commitment becomes active at the start of the next hour. For example, if you purchase the commitment between 7:00 PM and 7:49 PM in your timezone, then your commitment becomes active at 8:00 PM in that timezone.
  • Purchased during minute 50 or later of a specific hour: The commitment becomes active at the start of the hour after the next one. For example, if you purchase the commitment between 7:50 PM and 7:59 PM in your timezone, then your commitment becomes active at 9:00 PM in your timezone.

How CUDs apply to usage costs

After your commitment becomes active, you start receiving eligible resources and services at discounted prices. Cloud de Confiance applies the discounts directly to the prices of all eligible resources and services. To summarize, you are committing to an hourly spend that is based on the discounted resource costs.

Every hour, until your total spend on eligible SKUs equals the commitment fee, the following things happen:

  • SKUs for eligible usage are charged at the discounted prices as determined by the CUD consumption model rates. For details on your consumption model rates, contact Cloud de Confiance billing support.
  • Your commitment fee offsets these discounted usage costs until your total hourly spend equals the commitment fee value. At this point, your compute flexible commitment is fully utilized.

Commitment utilization criteria

Your Cloud Billing account might have multiple spend-based commitments that can cover usage of the same resource or service type. Additionally, a single compute flexible commitment can cover the usage of several types of resources and services. For a given Cloud Billing account, Cloud de Confiance applies spend-based commitments to any eligible hourly usage in the following order of precedence. If you have multiple spend-based commitments and multiple types of usage, then these rules determine which commitment Cloud de Confiance utilizes first and which usage Cloud de Confiance covers first.

  1. Service-specific commitments first: If both a compute flexible commitment and a service-specific spend-based commitment can cover the same usage, then the service-specific commitment takes precedence. By first utilizing the commitment with a narrower scope, Cloud de Confiance keeps the more generic and broader-scoped commitment available for other types of usage.

    Example: Suppose that you purchased a compute flexible commitment and a legacy Cloud Run commitment to cover eligible Cloud Run functions usage. In this scenario, Cloud de Confiance first utilizes your service-specific Cloud Run commitment to cover the eligible usage.

  2. Oldest compute flexible commitment first: If you have multiple compute flexible commitments that can cover the same eligible usage, then Cloud de Confiance first utilizes the active commitment that you purchased first. After Cloud de Confiance fully utilizes that commitment, it uses the next oldest commitment to cover the remaining eligible usage.

    Example: Suppose that you have N2 VM usage that can be covered by two compute flexible commitments called compute-flexible-commitment-1 and compute-flexible-commitment-2. If you purchased compute-flexible-commitment-1 four months ago and purchased compute-flexible-commitment-2 only a week ago, then Cloud de Confiance first utilizes compute-flexible-commitment-1.

  3. Higher discount rates first: Within a single compute flexible commitment, if you have eligible usage from multiple resource or service types, then the commitment first covers the usage that receives the highest discount off on-demand prices.

    Example: Suppose that you have a 3-year compute flexible commitment to cover H3 VM usage (which qualifies for 38% CUDs) and Cloud Run functions usage (which qualifies for 17% CUDs). In this scenario, your compute flexible commitment first covers your H3 usage and then covers your Cloud Run functions usage.

  4. Proportional distribution: After applying all the preceding criteria, if there's any remaining portion of a compute flexible commitment, then Cloud de Confiance applies that across Compute Engine, GKE, and Cloud Run in proportion to the remaining eligible spend for each service. After Cloud de Confiance fully utilizes the compute flexible commitment, if any eligible usage still remains, then Cloud de Confiance uses these criteria again to check for another compute flexible commitment to cover that usage.

    Example: Consider a scenario where Cloud de Confiance applied all the preceding criteria and you still have a portion of your compute flexible commitment and some eligible usage remaining. Your commitment can cover another US$100 worth of on-demand spend and the on-demand cost for your remaining eligible usage is US$150. Suppose the US$150 of on-demand spend is distributed as follows: US$75 for Compute Engine, US$37.50 for GKE, and US$37.50 for Cloud Run. The ratio of the on-demand spend across these services is 2:1:1. In this scenario, Cloud de Confiance utilizes the remaining US$100 from your commitment to cover this usage in the same 2:1:1 ratio. This means that Cloud de Confiance utilizes your commitment in the following way:

    • covers US$50 worth of Compute Engine usage.
    • covers US$25 worth of GKE usage.
    • covers US$25 worth of Cloud Run usage.

    If your Cloud Billing account has other compute flexible commitments, then Cloud de Confiance utilizes those commitments to cover the remaining US$50 worth of on-demand spend.

Usage costs on your cost data exports

In Cloud de Confiance, you can't configure cost data exports directly. To request billing data exports, contact Cloud de Confiance billing support.

When you receive your billing data exports, the resource costs covered by your commitments are detailed as follows:

  • In the SKU column, you see the on-demand SKU name for the resource.
  • In the Effective price column, you see the discounted price of that SKU.
  • In the Consumption model column, you see a value representing your commitment term.

Your hourly commitment fee appears as a charge in the following way:

  • In the SKU column, you see the commitment fee value.
  • In the cost column, you see the hourly commitment fee value.
  • In the Credits column, you see the resource usage costs that were covered by your commitment fee. This credit offsets your commitment fee for the used portion.

Any overage usage appears as follows:

  • In the SKU column, you see the on-demand SKU name for your resource.
  • In the Effective price column, you see the on-demand price of that SKU.
  • In the Consumption model column, you see Default as the value.

Examples of compute flexible commitments

The following examples show how you receive compute flexible CUDs based on whether your eligible Cloud de Confiance spend is limited to Compute Engine or spans across Compute Engine, GKE, and Cloud Run.

Spend limited to Compute Engine

Consider a scenario where your eligible Cloud de Confiance spend is limited to Compute Engine. Suppose that your Cloud Billing account has multiple projects with VM instances that belong to C3 machine series. The following example explains how you receive compute flexible CUDs for this commitment:

Suppose you purchase a compute flexible commitment for this Cloud Billing account and commit to a US$100 per hour spend for a 3-year term. The following points explain how this example compute flexible commitment works:

  • You commit to a US$100 hourly spend. This amount becomes your hourly commitment fee. Assuming a 3-year term, you receive eligible C3 resources at a 46% discount off on-demand prices.
  • Every hour during your commitment's duration, your commitment fee covers up to US$100 worth of your discounted C3 usage costs.
  • You get discounted prices for your hourly usage on vCPUs or memory from any C3 instances across the region, until you fully use your commitment.
  • Your commitment fee can cover eligible C3 resources that are worth an on-demand price of up to US$185.19 per hour (US$100 / (1 - 0.46)).
  • If you use hourly resources with an on-demand price of US$50, then the discounted cost of these resources is US$27 (US$50 * (1 - 0.46)). This usage is covered by your commitment fee. You still pay the US$100 fee, and the unused portion of your commitment (US$73) is not rolled over.
  • If you use hourly resources with an on-demand price of US$200, then the first US$185.19 of usage is covered by your commitment. The discounted cost is US$100, which is offset by your commitment fee. The remaining US$14.81 of usage is overage and is billed at on-demand rates. Your total hourly cost is US$100 (commitment amount)
    • US$14.81 (overage) = US$114.81.

Spend beyond Compute Engine

Consider a scenario where your eligible Cloud de Confiance spend spans across Compute Engine, GKE, and Cloud Run.

Suppose that you purchase a compute flexible commitment for your Cloud Billing account where you commit to spending US$100 per hour on Cloud de Confiance services, on a 3-year term. Suppose that your usage spans the following resources and services:

  • Compute Engine: C3 machine series vCPUs and memory
  • GKE: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard edition
  • Cloud Run: Cloud Run services with instance-based billing

The following example explains how you receive compute flexible CUDs for this commitment:

In return for your commitment, you receive a 46% discount off on-demand prices for your eligible usage across Compute Engine, GKE, and Cloud Run. Your US$100/hour commitment fee covers eligible usage with an on-demand price of up to US$185.19 per hour (US$100 / (1 - 0.46)).

Now suppose that during a given hour, your resource usage is equivalent to the following on-demand spend:

  • Compute Engine: US$200 on C3 vCPUs and memory
  • GKE: US$100 on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard edition

  • Cloud Run: US$100 on Cloud Run services with instance-based billing

    Without the commitment, your total on-demand spend would have been US$400. The commitment covers US$185.19 of this spend. To distribute the discount, Cloud de Confiance uses the ratio of eligible spend across the three services (2:1:1). The covered on-demand spend is distributed as follows:

  • Compute Engine: US$92.60 (which is half of US$185.19)

  • GKE: US$46.30 (which is a quarter of US$185.19)

  • Cloud Run: US$46.30 (which is a quarter of US$185.19)

    The discounted cost for this covered usage is US$100, which is paid for by your commitment fee. The remaining usage is considered overage and is billed at on-demand rates, which is as follows:

  • Compute Engine: US$107.40 (US$200 - US$92.60)

  • GKE: US$53.70 (US$100 - US$46.30)

  • Cloud Run: US$53.70 (US$100 - US$46.30)

    Your total hourly cost is US$100 (commitment fee) + US$214.80 (total overage) = US$314.80.

Purchase compute flexible commitments

You can purchase compute flexible commitments only at a Cloud Billing account level.

To purchase spend-based commitments, contact Cloud de Confiance billing support.

Order of discount application

For Compute Engine in Cloud de Confiance by S3NS, discounts are applied in the following order:

  • Cloud de Confiance utilizes your compute flexible commitments to cover any eligible usage. For detailed information about how compute flexible commitments cover your usage, see Commitment utilization criteria.

  • After utilizing your commitments, Cloud de Confiance uses the on-demand rates to charge any additional hourly usage.

    • Limitations

    • Compute flexible CUDs are available only for Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Cloud Run. For the list of eligible SKUs in Cloud de Confiance by S3NS, contact Cloud de Confiance billing support.
    • You can purchase compute flexible commitments only at a Cloud Billing account level.
    • For Compute Engine, you can't purchase compute flexible commitments for GPUs. Only memory and vCPUs are eligible for compute flexible CUDs. If you use these resources with any sole-tenant nodes, then the resulting sole-tenancy premium is also eligible.
    • You can't use your compute flexible commitments for Spot VMs.
    • For memory-optimized VMs, compute flexible CUDs are available only for 3-year commitments. If you purchase a 1-year compute flexible commitment, then you don't receive any discounts for your spend on memory-optimized VMs.

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