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Best Google Cloud offer right now $350 CREDIT$350 in trial credits for 90 days, new accountsClaim CreditsSee all 5 offers
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Billing explained in plain English
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Google Cloud free credits, trials and programs for November 2026
We may earn a commission when you sign up through links here. It never changes what you pay. Details
Google Cloud does not issue public promo codes. Google Cloud doesn’t do promo codes. Credits show up as a Welcome credit on signup, as program grants applied to a billing account ID, or as partner credits from accelerators. Any site advertising a Google Cloud coupon code is selling something else. The only public variation on the $300 trial is the $350 you get through an affiliate link.
Who qualifies: New Google Cloud customers, card on file, no prior paid Google Cloud, Maps or Firebase use
The standard $300 Welcome credit plus the $50 affiliate bonus Google Cloud offers through CJ Affiliate links. Nothing is charged until you click Activate. Credit expires 90 days after signup and can’t pay for Gemini API usage in AI Studio or Marketplace listings.
Card required, $0 to $1 authorization. No GPUs, Marketplace, Windows Server images or quota increases during the trial. Unused credit expires at day 90. One trial per customer.
Up to $200,000, or $350,000 for AI-first, over two yearsVerified Nov 2Sample
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Who qualifies: Pre-seed to Series A startups with institutional equity funding, founded within five years
Scale tier of the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Year one covers 100% of usage up to $100,000, or $250,000 for AI-first companies. Year two covers 20% up to another $100,000. You also get $12,000 in Enhanced Support credits and 12 months of Workspace Business Plus.
No more than $5,000 in prior Google Cloud credits. Email domain must match the company website. Credits exclude Marketplace and third-party models. Acceptance at Google’s discretion.
Who qualifies: Pre-funded startups with a working MVP, founded within the last 24 months
Start tier of the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Along with the credit you get 12 months of Google Workspace Business Plus and $200 in Google Skills credits. Credits cover Google models on Vertex AI, so a Gemini prototype can run on them.
Must not have received Google Cloud credits beyond the trial. A public website describing the business and product is required.
1 e2-micro VM, 5 GB storage, 1 TiB queries per monthVerified Nov 2Sample
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Who qualifies: Every billing account, including after the trial ends
Monthly allowances on more than 20 products that never expire: one e2-micro VM in three US regions, 30 GB of standard disk, 5 GB of Cloud Storage, 1 TiB of BigQuery queries, 2 million Cloud Run requests and more. Usage inside the limits isn’t charged to credits or your card.
Limits are per billing account per month and do not roll over. Google may change them with 30 days of notice.
$5,000 per approved applicationVerified Nov 2Sample
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Who qualifies: Faculty and researchers at eligible academic institutions
Google Cloud research credits are granted by application through the education site. Institutions in over 70 countries have been funded. Use them for compute, storage, BigQuery and Vertex AI tied to a research project.
Reviewed case by case by Google. Credits are applied to a billing account and follow standard Google Cloud credit expiry.
Anyone who has never paid for Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform or Firebase and has not used the trial before. Card or other payment method required. US government entities excluded.
Up to $200,000 over two years, $350,000 for AI-first startups
Pre-seed to Series A startups with institutional equity funding, founded within the last five years, with no more than $5,000 in prior Google Cloud credits. Email domain must match the company website.
Pre-funded startups with a working MVP, founded within the last 24 months, that have received no Google Cloud credits beyond the trial. A public website describing the product is required.
Academic researchers and faculty at institutions in the countries Google lists on its researchers page. Reviewed case by case; institutions in over 70 countries have been funded.
Active Google AI Pro ($10 a month in credits) or Google AI Ultra ($100 a month) subscribers who activate Google Developer Program benefits. Usable on Vertex AI, Cloud Run and the Gemini API.
Every billing account, during and after the trial. Limits apply per billing account per month and do not roll over. Google can change them with 30 days of notice.
Automatic
Free tier that matters
1 e2-micro VM per month in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1
30 GB-months of standard persistent disk and 1 GB egress from North America
5 GB-months of regional Cloud Storage in US regions
1 TiB of BigQuery queries and 10 GiB of storage per month
2 million Cloud Run requests per month
2 million Cloud Run functions invocations per month
1 GiB of Firestore storage and 50,000 document reads per day
One free GKE Autopilot or zonal Standard cluster per month
Recent program changes
Spend cap budgets reach general availability in Cloud Billing Google’s Cloud Billing release notes list spend cap budgets as generally available for a limited set of eligible services. Unlike alerts-only budgets, they pause new requests when estimated spend exceeds the budget amount, which gives trial users a real stop switch. Source
Welcome credit no longer covers Gemini API usage in AI Studio Google’s AI Studio billing docs now say that for Cloud Billing accounts opened after March 2, 2026 the $300 Welcome credit can’t be used for Gemini API or AI Studio usage. It still applies to other Google Cloud products, including Google models on Vertex AI. Source
Free trial supplemental terms reissued with unchanged $300 credit Google published a new version of the Free Trial supplemental terms, last modified February 12, 2026. The terms keep the $300 credit, the three-month expiry, the eight concurrent Compute Engine core limit and the ban on cryptocurrency mining. Nothing got better, nothing got worse. Source
Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get monthly Cloud credits Google announced on its Keyword blog that Google Developer Program premium benefits are folded into Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions, including $10 a month (Pro) or $100 a month (Ultra) in Google Cloud credits usable on Vertex AI, Cloud Run and the Gemini API. Source
Every credit on this page comes from Google itself. The headline offer is the $300 Welcome credit for new billing accounts, which expires 90 days after signup whether you’ve spent it or not. Through our affiliate link the same trial carries $350. Past the trial, you’ll find the Always Free limits, the two startup tiers, research credits and the monthly credits bundled with Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions.
Credits on Google Cloud attach to a billing account, not a project. Usage is metered per SKU and the credit absorbs charges until the balance or the clock runs out. During the trial you can’t add GPUs, use Marketplace, run Windows Server images or request quota increases, and Compute Engine is capped at eight concurrent cores. That cap matters more than the dollar figure.
What runs out first is usually time, not money. Spin up one small VM and a Cloud SQL instance and you’ll likely reach day 90 with $200 unspent. If you want to test anything with a GPU or a large machine, activate the paid account early. Your remaining credit stays usable on covered products until the original 90 days end, so activating costs you nothing.
How to claim Google Cloud credits
Sign in and click Start freeOpen cloud.google.com/free and click Start free. Use a Google account that has never been attached to a paid Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform or Firebase billing account. Any one of those disqualifies you.
Choose account type and countryPick Individual or Business and your country. The country sets the currency of the billing account and can’t be changed later, which matters if you plan to apply program credits to this account down the road.
Add a payment methodEnter a credit card or another accepted method. Google places a temporary $0 to $1 authorization that’s released within days to a month. Some countries also ask for bank account verification before the trial opens.
Confirm the Welcome creditThe console creates My First Project and My Billing Account. Open Billing, then Overview, and check that the Free credit pane shows $300 and the days remaining. The Overview page labels it a Free trial account.
Set a budget before you buildIn Billing, open Cost management and Budgets & alerts, then Create budget. Keep the default 50%, 90% and 100% thresholds and clear the Promotions checkbox under Savings, so the alert reflects what you’d pay without the credit.
Activate when you need moreOn the console Welcome page click Activate in the toolbar, then Activate again in the dialog. The same button sits in the Free credit pane. Activation lifts the trial restrictions and keeps your remaining credit until day 90.
Ways to stretch your Google Cloud credits
Stay inside the Always Free limits
Usage within the Always Free limits isn’t charged to the trial credit or your card. One e2-micro in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, 30 GB of standard disk, 5 GB of Cloud Storage and 1 TiB of BigQuery queries a month will carry most side projects indefinitely. Pick one of those three regions on purpose. The same VM anywhere else bills normally.
Put batch work on Spot VMs
Spot prices run up to 91% below on-demand for many machine types, which turns a $100 training run into a $9 one. Google can reclaim Spot capacity at any time, so use it for rendering, training runs and CI jobs that can restart. Attach a persistent disk so interrupted work survives the preemption.
Don’t commit until the trial ends
Resource-based committed use discounts reach 55% on most machine series and 70% on memory-optimized ones, with three-year terms paying more than one-year. A commitment is useless during a 90-day trial. Wait until you have a month of real usage, then buy one sized to the floor of that usage, not the peak.
Take the introductory Gemini pricing while it lasts
On Vertex AI, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.7 Flash and 3.6 Flash cost $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027 the standard rate of $1.50 and $7.50 applies, so the same traffic costs twice as much. Build on these models now and budget for the doubling.
Use global endpoints and batch
Vertex AI charges 10% more for non-global endpoints on most Gemini models. Unless data residency forces a region, use the global endpoint. The Batch and Flex options come in at half the standard rate for many models, which suits evaluation sets, embeddings backfills and overnight jobs. That’s a 10% saving and a 50% saving for changing two settings.
Apply for the startup tier early
The Scale tier covers 100% of usage up to $100,000 in year one, and 20% up to another $100,000 in year two. The AI-first track raises year one to $250,000. Eligibility requires no more than $5,000 in prior Google Cloud credits, so apply before you’ve burned through accelerator grants on the same billing account. Order matters here.
Turn on spend cap budgets
Spend cap budgets have been generally available since October 13, 2026 for a limited set of eligible services. Unlike an alerts-only budget, a spend cap pauses new requests once estimated spend passes the amount. For everything else, pair alerts with a Pub/Sub notification that disables billing on the project. An email at 2 a.m. doesn’t stop a runaway job.
Google Cloud billing, explained
The $300 Welcome credit covers the products on the free trial list, and it ends on the earlier of spending the credit, three months from the start date, or upgrading. Your card isn’t charged during the trial. If you neither upgrade nor exhaust the credit, the billing account closes at day 90, resources stop, and you have 30 days to upgrade and recover them before deletion.
Once you click Activate, you’re on a paid billing account. Charges first draw down whatever credit is left, then bill to your card monthly. Always Free usage continues at no cost, but anything above those limits, or on products outside the free trial, bills at list price. Program credits are applied to the billing account and consumed before cash in the same way.
Three exclusions catch people. The credit can’t pay for Gemini API usage in AI Studio on billing accounts opened after March 2, 2026. It can’t pay for third-party models offered as managed APIs on Vertex AI. And it can’t buy Marketplace listings. Google models on Vertex AI are covered, so route Gemini calls through Vertex if you want the credit to absorb them.
Google Cloud credits FAQ
how long does the google cloud $300 free trial last
The $300 Welcome credit is valid for 90 days from the day you create the billing account. The trial ends earlier if you spend the whole $300 or upgrade to a paid account. Upgrading keeps the unused balance, but it still expires on the original date. There’s no way to pause or extend it, so start the clock when you’re ready to build.
does google cloud free trial charge your credit card
Not during the trial. Google places a temporary $0 to $1 authorization to verify the card, then releases it. Charges only begin after you click Activate and your usage exceeds the remaining credit and the Always Free limits. If the trial expires without activation, the billing account closes and nothing is billed.
can I use google cloud free trial credits for gemini api
Only through Vertex AI. Billing accounts opened after March 2, 2026 can’t apply the $300 Welcome credit to Gemini API or AI Studio usage. Google models called through Vertex AI are regular Google Cloud SKUs and are covered. Partner models offered as managed APIs are excluded everywhere. Same models, different door, different answer.
what happens when google cloud free trial credits run out
If you haven’t activated, the billing account closes, every resource stops and a 30-day grace period starts. Upgrade within those 30 days and you can usually recover stopped VMs and data. After that the resources are permanently deleted. If you activated earlier, usage simply starts billing to your card once the credit hits zero.
can I get google cloud free trial twice
No. You qualify only if you’ve never been a paying customer of Google Cloud, Google Maps Platform or Firebase and have never signed up for the trial before. A second Google account tied to the same payment method or company domain is likely to be flagged. Startups that want more credit should apply to the Start tier instead.
how much are google cloud startup credits in 2026
The Scale tier is up to $200,000 over two years: 100% of usage up to $100,000 in year one, then 20% up to $100,000 in year two. AI-first startups get year one raised to $250,000, so up to $350,000 total. The Start tier for pre-funded companies is $2,000, which runs an MVP for a few months but not much more.
is google cloud always free tier really free
Yes, within the published monthly limits per billing account. One e2-micro VM in three US regions, 5 GB of regional Cloud Storage, 1 TiB of BigQuery queries and 2 million Cloud Run requests are examples. Go over a limit and the excess bills at list price. Limits don’t roll over, and Google can change them with 30 days of notice.
what is the $350 google cloud free trial offer
It’s the affiliate version of the standard trial. Google Cloud runs its affiliate program through CJ Affiliate and lets approved publishers share a $350 Welcome credit, which is the usual $300 plus $50. Every other term, including the 90-day expiry and the card requirement, is identical. We earn a commission if you sign up through our link. It does not change your price.
$350 CREDIT$350 in trial credits for 90 days, new accounts
