GCP云存储定价咨询：免费额度区域限制与短时存储计费疑问

1. Free Tier Storage Region Restrictions #

Yes, after the free trial concludes, the 5GB monthly free standard storage allowance only applies to the US Multi-Regional location and three specific US single regions: us-central1, us-east1, and us-west1. Any storage in other US regions (like us-east2, us-west2, or us-south1) won’t count against this free tier—you’ll be charged at standard regional storage rates for those locations.

2. Billing for Temporary + Persistent Storage #

GCP Cloud Storage doesn’t bill based on cumulative uploaded data or just your end-of-month remaining storage. Instead, it calculates charges based on how long each piece of data is stored, measured in GB-seconds (converted to GB-months for billing simplicity).

Let’s break down your scenario:

• For the daily 3GB data deleted after 1 hour: Each day, this data is stored for 1/24 of a day. Over 30 days, that adds up to 3GB × (1/24) × 30 = 3.75 GB-days, or roughly 0.125 GB-months.
• For the 3GB data remaining at month-end: If this data was stored for the full 30 days, that’s 3GB × 30 = 90 GB-days, which equals 3 GB-months.

Your total billed storage would be the sum of these two amounts (~3.125 GB-months), minus any applicable free tier allowance if your storage falls within the eligible regions.

In short: You’re charged for every second your data exists in Cloud Storage—not just the total you uploaded or what’s left at month’s end.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Sameer Keluskar