Sustained Use Discounts
Automatic, usage-based savings for consistent Google Cloud workloads.
What is Sustained Use Discounts?
Sustained Use Discounts (SUDs) are an automatic cost-saving feature in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that rewards customers for running eligible Compute Engine and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) resources consistently over the course of a billing month. When you use virtual machine (VM) instances or other eligible resources for more than 25% of the month, Google Cloud automatically applies incremental discounts to your resource costs—no manual intervention or upfront commitment is required.
The discount increases with the percentage of the month that your resources are running, reaching up to 30% off the base resource price when VMs are used for the entire month. Sustained Use Discounts are designed to help organizations optimize their cloud spend for long-running workloads, providing transparent and predictable savings directly on your monthly bill.
Architecture
Key Components
Compute Engine & GKE
Eligible resources such as VM instances and Kubernetes nodes that accrue usage hours and qualify for sustained use discounts.
Usage Metering
Tracks resource usage per project, region, and resource type to determine discount eligibility and tier.
Cloud Billing
Automatically applies sustained use discounts to your monthly bill and provides transparent reporting.
Key Capabilities
Automatic Discounts
Sustained use discounts are applied automatically based on your usage—no manual action or commitment required.
Incremental Savings
Discounts increase with usage, up to 30% off for resources used all month, maximizing savings for long-running workloads.
Transparent Billing
Discounts are clearly itemized on your monthly bill, making it easy to track and audit your cloud savings.
Common Use Cases
Related Topics
Test Your Knowledge
Score 8/10 or higher to pass
You need to be logged in to take this quiz.
Login to Continue