Missed Use of Committed Use Discounts for Compute Engine

Jay Kahlon

CER:

GCP-Compute-6916

Service Category

Compute

Cloud Provider

GCP

Service Name

GCP Compute Engine

Inefficiency Type

Suboptimal pricing model selection

Explanation

This inefficiency occurs when workloads with predictable, long-running compute usage continue to run entirely on on-demand pricing instead of leveraging Committed Use Discounts. For stable environments, such as production services or continuously running batch workloads, failing to apply CUDs results in materially higher compute spend without any operational benefit. The inefficiency is driven by pricing choice, not resource overuse.

Relevant Billing Model

Compute Engine instances are billed at on-demand rates by default. Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) provide discounted pricing in exchange for a 1- or 3-year commitment to a consistent level of compute usage. Without CUDs, steady workloads incur higher on-demand costs.

Detection

Review whether compute workloads run continuously or have stable baseline usage
Assess whether current usage patterns indicate long-term commitment suitability
Identify environments where compute demand is predictable across months

Remediation

Purchase appropriate Committed Use Discounts for workloads with steady usage
Align commitment size and term length with expected baseline demand
Periodically reassess commitments to ensure they still match workload patterns

Relevant Documentation

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/committed-use-discounts-overview https://cloud.google.com/compute/pricing

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