- Cloud SQL charges separately for vCPUs, memory, storage, backups and outbound traffic; shared-core machines (db-f1-micro, db-g1-small) have a flat hourly instance price instead.
- High availability doubles the compute and storage rates, and read replicas are billed like stand-alone instances.
- SQL Server adds a licence charged per vCPU with a four-core minimum, and Cloud SQL does not accept your own licences, so the licence is often the largest line on the bill.
- Committed use discounts (25% off for one year, 52% off for three years) cover only vCPUs and memory, not storage, backups, IP addresses, egress or licences.
How Cloud SQL pricing works
Cloud SQL pricing has no single monthly plan. Google's pricing page splits the bill for MySQL and PostgreSQL into CPU and memory, storage and networking, instance pricing (for shared-core machines only), Cloud DNS and extended support. SQL Server adds a licensing component on top. Each component is priced per hour or per GiB, and the rates differ by region, so the same instance costs a different amount in Iowa and in Singapore.
For a dedicated-core instance you choose the number of vCPUs and the amount of memory, and pay for each separately. The two shared-core machine types, db-f1-micro and db-g1-small, are sold at a flat hourly price instead; Google notes that they are not covered by the Cloud SQL SLA, so they suit development rather than production.
Instance usage is billed for every second that the instance is running with its activation policy set to ALWAYS. Storage is billed on the capacity you provision, not on the data you store, while backups are billed on the space they actually use. Ingress is free; egress is priced by destination.
| Component | How it is billed | Discountable with a CUD |
|---|---|---|
| vCPUs | Per vCPU per hour; HA instances use a separate, higher rate | Yes |
| Memory | Per GiB per hour; HA rate for regional instances | Yes |
| Shared-core instance | Flat hourly price for db-f1-micro and db-g1-small | No |
| Storage (SSD, HDD or Hyperdisk Balanced) | Per provisioned GiB per hour; HA rate for regional instances | No |
| Backups | Per GiB of backup space used per hour | No |
| Network egress | Per GiB, priced by destination; ingress is free | No |
| Idle IPv4 address | Hourly charge while an address is idle | No |
| SQL Server licence | Per vCPU per hour, four-core minimum | No |
| Extended support | Per vCPU per hour (or per shared-core instance) for end-of-life major versions | No |
Cloud SQL cost by edition: Enterprise vs Enterprise Plus
Cloud SQL comes in two editions, and the edition sets the vCPU and memory rates. Enterprise offers the shared-core, general purpose dedicated-core and N4 machine series. Enterprise Plus offers the N2, C4A and C4 series, and charges a higher rate per vCPU and per GiB of memory in exchange for features documented in the editions overview: a 99.99% availability SLA that includes maintenance (against 99.95% excluding maintenance), sub-second maintenance downtime, data cache on local SSD, up to 35 days of point-in-time recovery logs (against 7), read pools and managed connection pooling.
Enterprise Plus can also add a separate charge for data cache storage, billed per GiB per hour. Storage, backup and network rates are the same for both editions. Note that the default edition depends on the engine version: Google's editions overview states that MySQL 8.4 and 9.7, and PostgreSQL 16 and later, default to Enterprise Plus, so check the edition when you create an instance if cost matters more than the extra availability.
GCP SQL Server pricing: the licence component
Cloud SQL for SQL Server uses the same vCPU, memory, storage and network rates as the other engines, plus a SQL Server licence charged per core hour. The rate depends on the SQL Server edition: Enterprise, Standard, Web or Express (Express has no licence charge). Google's pricing page states that a core licence is assigned to each vCPU with a four-core minimum per instance, so an instance with fewer than four vCPUs is charged for four licences.
Two further rules matter. Cloud SQL does not support bring-your-own-licence, so you cannot reuse licences you already own. For high availability, only the active instance incurs a licence, not the standby. Disabling simultaneous multithreading halves the number of vCPUs counted for licensing on larger instances while the compute charge stays the same, which Google documents as a way to reduce licence cost.
For a broader comparison of SQL Server editions, see SQL Server Standard vs Enterprise and SQL Server Express vs Standard.
Committed use discounts for Cloud SQL
Cloud SQL committed use discounts (CUDs) are spend-based: you commit to an hourly amount of equivalent on-demand spending in one region for one or three years. Google's CUD documentation lists a 25% discount for a one-year term and 52% for a three-year term, and says these percentages are the same in every region. A commitment applies automatically to the vCPU and memory usage of all Cloud SQL instances in that region, across MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server and across both editions.
The limits are strict. CUDs do not apply to storage, backups, IP addresses, outbound data transfer or licensing, and they do not apply to the shared-core machine types. A commitment cannot be cancelled once purchased, and usage above the commitment is charged at the on-demand rate. For SQL Server workloads, where the licence is not discounted, a CUD reduces a smaller share of the bill than it does for MySQL or PostgreSQL.
Cloud SQL costs that are easy to miss
- High availability doubles the bill. The high availability documentation states that an HA-configured instance costs twice as much as a standalone instance, including CPU, RAM and storage.
- Replicas are full instances. Read replicas and failover replicas are charged at the same rate as stand-alone instances, and a replica's storage must be at least as large as the primary's.
- Storage only grows. Automatic storage increases are on by default and are permanent unless you shrink storage manually, and you pay for provisioned capacity.
- Extended support. Instances on major versions that have reached community end of life are enrolled in extended support and charged per vCPU per hour in addition to the normal rate; the rate doubles in the third year.
- Egress. Traffic to the internet and between regions is charged per GiB; traffic to Compute Engine in the same region is free.
- Idle addresses. The pricing page lists an hourly charge for IPv4 addresses while idle.
How to reduce your Cloud SQL cost
Start with the edition: Enterprise has lower vCPU and memory rates and is enough for many applications that can tolerate a few seconds of maintenance downtime. Size the instance from monitoring rather than guesswork, since read replicas can use smaller machines than the primary (Google warns that undersized replicas are prone to out-of-memory events). Use HA only where an outage would cost more than doubling the instance, and keep development databases on shared-core or small dedicated machines.
For steady production usage, a one-year CUD is a low-risk saving on compute; a three-year CUD saves more but locks in the region and spend. Upgrade instances off end-of-life major versions before extended support starts charging. For SQL Server, check whether Express or Web edition meets your needs before paying for Standard or Enterprise licences. For an overview of the service itself, see Google Cloud SQL explained.
Pricing
Prices from the provider's official pricing pages, checked 8 October 2026, region Iowa (us-central1), in USD, excluding tax. List prices only; discounts, commitments and your actual usage change the bill.
The rates below are on-demand list prices from the Cloud SQL pricing page, with the one-year and three-year committed use prices where the page lists them. Monthly figures in the examples assume 730 hours per month and are rounded to two decimals. CUD prices apply only to vCPUs and memory. The Cloud SQL pricing page also states that new Google Cloud customers get 300 USD in free credits to spend on Cloud SQL.
| Item | On-demand | 1-year CUD | 3-year CUD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise vCPU (general purpose and N4) | 0.0413 per hour | 0.030975 per hour | 0.019824 per hour |
| Enterprise memory | 0.007 per GiB-hour | 0.00525 per GiB-hour | 0.00336 per GiB-hour |
| Enterprise HA vCPU | 0.0826 per hour | 0.06195 per hour | 0.039648 per hour |
| Enterprise HA memory | 0.014 per GiB-hour | 0.0105 per GiB-hour | 0.00672 per GiB-hour |
| Enterprise Plus vCPU (N2) | 0.0537 per hour | 0.040275 per hour | 0.025776 per hour |
| Enterprise Plus memory (N2) | 0.0091 per GiB-hour | 0.006825 per GiB-hour | 0.004368 per GiB-hour |
| db-f1-micro (shared core, 0.6 GiB) | 0.0105 per hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| db-g1-small (shared core, 1.7 GiB) | 0.035 per hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| SSD storage (MySQL and PostgreSQL) | 0.000232877 per GiB-hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| SSD storage, HA (and as listed in the SQL Server storage table) | 0.000465753 per GiB-hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| HDD storage | 0.000123288 per GiB-hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| Backups (used) | 0.000109589 per GiB-hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| Internet egress (not using Cloud Interconnect) | 0.19 per GiB | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| IPv4 address while idle | 0.01 per hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| SQL Server licence: Enterprise / Standard / Web / Express | 0.47 / 0.13 / 0.01134 / 0 per core hour | Not discountable | Not discountable |
| Extended support (dedicated core) | 0.07 per vCPU-hour in years 1 and 2; 0.14 in year 3 | Not discountable | Not discountable |
Example 1: development database on a shared-core machine
- MySQL or PostgreSQL, Enterprise edition, db-g1-small (shared vCPU, 1.7 GiB), single zone
- 10 GiB SSD storage, running all month (730 hours)
- Excludes backups, egress and tax; shared-core machines are not covered by the SLA
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| db-g1-small instance | 730 hours x 0.035 USD | 25.55 USD |
| SSD storage | 10 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000232877 USD | 1.70 USD |
| Estimated total | About 27.25 USD per month |
Example 2: small production MySQL or PostgreSQL with high availability
- Enterprise edition, 2 vCPUs and 8 GiB memory, HA (regional) configuration
- 100 GiB SSD storage, 50 GiB of backups, 20 GiB of internet egress per month
- On-demand rates; excludes idle IP charges, extended support and tax
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| HA vCPUs | 2 vCPUs x 730 hours x 0.0826 USD | 120.60 USD |
| HA memory | 8 GiB x 730 hours x 0.014 USD | 81.76 USD |
| HA SSD storage | 100 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000465753 USD | 34.00 USD |
| Backups | 50 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000109589 USD | 4.00 USD |
| Internet egress | 20 GiB x 0.19 USD | 3.80 USD |
| Estimated total | About 244.16 USD per month |
Example 3: the same HA instance with a one-year committed use discount
- Same configuration as Example 2, covered by a one-year Cloud SQL CUD
- The CUD applies to vCPUs and memory only; storage, backups and egress stay at on-demand rates
- Assumes the commitment matches usage exactly; usage above it is billed on demand
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| HA vCPUs (1-year CUD price) | 2 vCPUs x 730 hours x 0.06195 USD | 90.45 USD |
| HA memory (1-year CUD price) | 8 GiB x 730 hours x 0.0105 USD | 61.32 USD |
| HA SSD storage | 100 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000465753 USD | 34.00 USD |
| Backups | 50 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000109589 USD | 4.00 USD |
| Internet egress | 20 GiB x 0.19 USD | 3.80 USD |
| Estimated total | About 193.57 USD per month (about 50.59 USD less than Example 2) |
Example 4: Cloud SQL for SQL Server Standard, single zone
- Enterprise edition, 4 vCPUs and 16 GiB memory, single zone, SQL Server Standard licence
- 100 GiB SSD storage at the rate shown in the SQL Server storage table
- Excludes backups, egress and tax; licences cannot be discounted or brought from elsewhere
| Item | Basis | Estimated per month |
|---|---|---|
| vCPUs | 4 vCPUs x 730 hours x 0.0413 USD | 120.60 USD |
| Memory | 16 GiB x 730 hours x 0.007 USD | 81.76 USD |
| SQL Server Standard licence | 4 cores x 730 hours x 0.13 USD | 379.60 USD |
| SSD storage | 100 GiB x 730 hours x 0.000465753 USD | 34.00 USD |
| Estimated total | About 615.96 USD per month, of which the licence is about 62% |
Worked examples are estimates calculated from the list prices above; they are not quotes or measured bills.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Cloud SQL cost per month?
It depends on the machine, edition, storage and region. A shared-core development instance is the cheapest option, a small production instance with high availability costs several times more, and a SQL Server instance adds a licence that can outweigh the compute. The four worked examples in the pricing section put figures on each case using Iowa list prices.
Is there a free tier for Cloud SQL?
Not an always-free one. Google's free features page lists Cloud SQL as a 30-day free trial instance at no cost, rather than as a Free Tier product with monthly limits. Separately, new Google Cloud customers get 300 USD in Free Trial credits, valid for 90 days, that can be spent on Cloud SQL.
How is Google Cloud SQL Server pricing calculated?
You pay the normal vCPU, memory, storage and network rates plus a SQL Server licence per vCPU per hour, with a four-core minimum per instance. The licence rate depends on the edition (Enterprise, Standard, Web or Express), Cloud SQL does not support bring-your-own-licence, and an HA pair pays for one licence only.
Do committed use discounts apply to Cloud SQL storage?
No. Google's documentation states that Cloud SQL CUDs apply only to vCPUs and memory, and not to storage, backups, IP addresses, network egress or licensing. Shared-core machine types are also excluded.
Why did my Cloud SQL bill double when I enabled high availability?
Because an HA instance runs a standby in a second zone, and Google documents that an HA-configured instance costs twice as much as a standalone one, including CPU, memory and storage. Read replicas add further cost because each is billed like a stand-alone instance.
Sources
- Cloud SQL pricing
- Cloud SQL docs: Editions overview
- Cloud SQL docs: Committed use discounts
- Cloud SQL docs: About high availability
- Cloud SQL docs: Instance settings (PostgreSQL)
- Cloud SQL docs: Database versions and version policies (PostgreSQL)
- Cloud SQL docs: About replication
- Google Cloud Free Trial and Free Tier
Checked 8 October 2026.
How we research cloud database guides: our editorial method. CodeWithSQL earns nothing from the providers mentioned.