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Google Cloud Run vs Heroku

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Google Cloud Run and Heroku built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 35 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Google Cloud Run if…

A container you already build, that should cost nothing when nobody is using it. Scales to zero by default and back up on request volume, with a 60-minute ceiling per request that most request-driven platforms do not offer.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Heroku if…

Teams that want to deploy by pushing to Git and let the platform handle the runtime, with Postgres, a scheduler and Docker deploys available on the same platform.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Google Cloud Run: You need a process that stays running between requests, or a disk that survives a deploy.
  • Heroku: The dyno filesystem is ephemeral, and a web process must respond within 30 seconds of receiving a request.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Google Cloud Run alternatives · Heroku alternatives

8 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Google Cloud Run documentationVisit Heroku documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionGoogle Cloud RunHeroku
Pricing
Entry paid planNo plan fee and no minimum commitment. Cloud Run bills per vCPU-second, GiB-second and request once the monthly free allowance is used, so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude for that reason.$5 per month (Eco dynos plan, 1000 dyno hours shared across the account)
Pricing modelMetered by resource, billed in 100 ms increments, with no monthly minimum. Two billing settings change what is counted: request-based charges CPU only while a request is being processed, instance-based charges for the whole instance lifecycle. Prices vary by region — the location list is split into Tier 1 and Tier 2 pricing — and the free tier is applied as a spending-based discount at Tier 1 rates.Usage-based on wall-clock time, prorated to the second
Limits
Max request duration
5 minutes by default, extendable to 60 minutes per request.
30 seconds (initial window for the web process to return response data)
Deployment
Git deploymentSupportedSupported
Docker deploymentSupportedSupported
ContainersSupportedSupported
Infrastructure
Persistent processes
Limited — instance-based billing keeps CPU allocated
Supported
Scales to zero
Supported
Limited
Autoscaling
Supported
Limited
Regions
43 regions, counted from Cloud Run's own locations list — Google publishes the list rather than a total. 20 are Tier 1 and 23 Tier 2, so the region chosen changes the bill as well as the latency.
2 regions on the Common Runtime, which is what a standard dyno runs in: eu (Europe) and us (United States). A further 10 — Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Montreal, Mumbai, Oregon, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Virginia — exist only in Private Spaces, an Enterprise product.
Compliance
SOC 2Covered under Google Cloud's core SOC 2 Type II reports, issued quarterly for Google Cloud and Google Workspace products generally.SOC 1 and SOC 2/SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 (Previously SAS 70 Type II)

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Entry paid plan

Google Cloud Run
No plan fee and no minimum commitment. Cloud Run bills per vCPU-second, GiB-second and request once the monthly free allowance is used, so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude for that reason.
Heroku
$5 per month (Eco dynos plan, 1000 dyno hours shared across the account)
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Google Cloud Run
Metered by resource, billed in 100 ms increments, with no monthly minimum. Two billing settings change what is counted: request-based charges CPU only while a request is being processed, instance-based charges for the whole instance lifecycle. Prices vary by region — the location list is split into Tier 1 and Tier 2 pricing — and the free tier is applied as a spending-based discount at Tier 1 rates.
Heroku
Usage-based on wall-clock time, prorated to the second
Sources (2) →
  • Cloud Run pricing — Google Cloud ↗

    “Cloud Run charges you only for the resources you use, rounded up to the nearest 100 millisecond. Your total Cloud Run bill will be the sum of the resource usage in the pricing table after the free tier is applied. [...] Cloud Run pricing depends on the selected region. Pricing for Cloud Run services also depends on the billing configuration. [...] The free tier is applied as a spending based discount using Tier 1 pricing.”

    Read 2026-09-09 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Usage & Billing | Heroku Dev Center ↗

    “Heroku computes usage from wall-clock time, not CPU time. Any dynos scaled above 0 accrue usage, regardless of traffic or activity. Heroku prorates all costs to the second.”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

Max request duration

Google Cloud Run

5 minutes by default, extendable to 60 minutes per request.

Heroku

30 seconds (initial window for the web process to return response data)

Sources (2) →

Persistent processes

Google Cloud Run
Limited — instance-based billing keeps CPU allocated
Heroku
Supported
Sources (2) →

Scales to zero

Google Cloud Run
Supported
Heroku
Limited
Sources (2) →

Autoscaling

Google Cloud Run
Supported
Heroku
Limited
Sources (2) →

Regions

Google Cloud Run

43 regions, counted from Cloud Run's own locations list — Google publishes the list rather than a total. 20 are Tier 1 and 23 Tier 2, so the region chosen changes the bill as well as the latency.

Heroku

2 regions on the Common Runtime, which is what a standard dyno runs in: eu (Europe) and us (United States). A further 10 — Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Montreal, Mumbai, Oregon, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Virginia — exist only in Private Spaces, an Enterprise product.

Sources (2) →
  • Cloud Run locations ↗

    “Each Cloud Run resource resides in a region. [...] Customer data associated with the Cloud Run resource is stored in the selected region. [...] Subject to Tier 1 pricing [...] Subject to Tier 2 pricing”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Regions | Heroku Dev Center ↗

    “eu Europe Common Runtime us United States Common Runtime dublin Dublin, Ireland Private Spaces frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany Private Spaces london London, United Kingdom Private Spaces montreal Montreal, Canada Private Spaces mumbai Mumbai, India Private Spaces oregon Oregon, United States Private Spaces singapore Singapore Private Spaces sydney Sydney, Australia Private Spaces tokyo Tokyo, Japan Private Spaces virginia Virginia, United States Private Spaces”

    Read 2026-09-05 · official docs · Report a correction

SOC 2

Google Cloud Run
Covered under Google Cloud's core SOC 2 Type II reports, issued quarterly for Google Cloud and Google Workspace products generally.
Heroku
SOC 1 and SOC 2/SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 (Previously SAS 70 Type II)
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Free tierGoogle Cloud Run: Yes
Kind of free offerGoogle Cloud Run: Free tier
What the free plan includesGoogle Cloud Run: Per month, for services on the default request-based billing, in us-central1: 180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds of memory and 2 million requests. Instance-based billing, jobs and worker pools each publish a different allowance on the same page.
Egress over allowanceGoogle Cloud Run: 1 GiB of data transfer within North America free per month, after which Google Cloud networking rates apply. Transfer into a VPC network is billed at Virtual Private Cloud rates instead.
When you exceed a capHeroku: Service sleeps: on the Eco plan ($5/month for a 1000 dyno-hour pool, the cheapest paid tier) exhausting the pool forces every Eco dyno on the account to sleep for the rest of the month, and extra hours cannot be bought
Memory (entry plan)Heroku: 0.5 GB RAM on the Eco dyno ($5 flat/month, the cheapest paid dyno) and 0.5 GB on Basic.
Sites or apps includedHeroku: 100 apps per account, platform-wide on all plans (Heroku Team 100, Enterprise Team 200)
File, inode or volume limitHeroku: 1000 MB maximum compressed slug size, platform-wide on all plans; raisable via support ticket
Concurrent buildsHeroku: 10 concurrent builds for verified users without an established payment history; 300 for verified users with one (platform-wide, all plans)
Streaming response limitHeroku: Platform-wide (router): 30 seconds to send the first byte, then a rolling 55-second idle window — if no data is sent for 55 seconds the connection is terminated
Managed connection poolingHeroku: Limited
Scheduled jobsHeroku: Supported
Persistent storageHeroku: Not supported
Managed databasesHeroku: Supported
Edge networkGoogle Cloud Run: Limited — deploy per region, add a load balancer
Uptime SLAGoogle Cloud Run: 99.95% for a non-GPU service and for GPU services with zonal redundancy; 99.5% for GPU services without it. Published as an SLO, outside Mexico and Stockholm.
CPU, per vCPU-secondGoogle Cloud Run: $0.000024 per vCPU-second of ACTIVE time under request-based billing, in the us-central1 pricing tier. Idle time on a warm minimum instance is $0.0000025. Instance-based billing is a separate table on the same page at $0.000018, and committed-use discounts take the active rate to $0.00001992.
Memory, per GiB-secondGoogle Cloud Run: $0.0000025 per GiB-second of active time under request-based billing, in the us-central1 pricing tier — the same rate Cloud Run charges for idle time on a warm instance. Committed-use discounts take it to $0.000002075.
Requests, per millionGoogle Cloud Run: $0.40 per million requests under request-based billing. Committed-use discounts take it to $0.332. Instance-based billing does not meter requests at all, which is the trade for paying by the instance-second instead.
Support on entry paid planHeroku: Ticket-based support to technical or billing staff for all customers. Heroku Enterprise adds Salesforce Success Plans — Standard, Premier and Signature — which are what buy a named contact and a committed response.
Response time commitmentHeroku: Best effort for a business-stopping issue on the plans any customer can buy. Heroku Enterprise Success Plans commit to 2 days in business hours, 1 hour, or 15 and 30 minute updates. Business hours are Monday to Friday, 9am-9pm Eastern.
ISO 27001Google Cloud Run: The Google Cloud Services ISMS holds an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certification, audited by an independent third party.Heroku: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Heroku.
HIPAAGoogle Cloud Run: Cloud Run is listed as a Covered Product under Google Cloud's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement.Heroku: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Heroku.
PCI DSSGoogle Cloud Run: Cloud Run is listed among the individual Google Cloud products certified against PCI DSS via annual third-party audit.Heroku: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Heroku.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Google Cloud Run or Heroku?

Google Cloud Run: No plan fee and no minimum commitment. Cloud Run bills per vCPU-second, GiB-second and request once the monthly free allowance is used, so there is no entry price to compare, only a rate card. Recorded without a magnitude for that reason.

Heroku: $5 per month (Eco dynos plan, 1000 dyno hours shared across the account)

Should I choose Google Cloud Run or Heroku?

Pick Google Cloud Run if A container you already build, that should cost nothing when nobody is using it. Scales to zero by default and back up on request volume, with a 60-minute ceiling per request that most request-driven platforms do not offer.

Pick Heroku if Teams that want to deploy by pushing to Git and let the platform handle the runtime, with Postgres, a scheduler and Docker deploys available on the same platform.

Provider pages

Google Cloud RunGoogle Cloud service that runs container images as request-driven services, scaling instances automatically and down to zero between requests.HerokuManaged application platform that runs apps in containers called dynos, deployed from Git or Docker images, with add-on services such as Heroku Postgres.

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Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.