# Google Kubernetes Engine

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/kubernetes/google-gke/

Google's managed Kubernetes, in Autopilot or Standard mode, with a flat per-cluster fee and a monthly credit that covers one small cluster.

## Who it suits

One cluster, free. The $74.40 monthly credit is exactly the cluster fee for one Autopilot or zonal Standard cluster refunded, and Autopilot bills the Pods you ask for rather than the nodes you guessed at.

Consider something else if You need the SLA the free cluster does not get. Zonal Standard clusters — the shape the credit covers — carry 99.5% against 99.95% for regional and Autopilot, and the credits apply to no other SKU and do not roll over.

## iScore

81 / 100 (80% interval 73–89), rank 3 of 4 in kubernetes — interval overlaps the next rank, so this is an ordering, not a finding.

inetGeek's own reading, computed from sourced facts against category peers by disclosed rules. Not a provider claim. Intervals are 80%; a provider with few documented facts is pulled toward the category middle rather than scored on what little is known.
Method: https://inetgeek.com/iscore/. Full output with every criterion's basis: https://inetgeek.com/scores.json. Every kubernetes peer ranked: https://inetgeek.com/kubernetes/google-gke/alternatives/

- Price: 79 (57–100), weight 36%, 2 of 2 criteria scored
- Capabilities: 100 (94–100), weight 29%, 1 of 2 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: containers
- Trust and compliance: 50 (44–56), weight 21%, 1 of 1 criteria scored
- Evidence: 94 (94–94), weight 14%, 4 of 4 criteria scored

## What the documentation says

### Pricing

- Free tier: Yes ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- What the free plan includes: $74.40 a month in credits per billing account — the cluster fee for one Autopilot or zonal Standard cluster, refunded. The credits apply to no other SKU and do not roll over. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- Entry paid plan: $0.10 per cluster per hour, flat across both Autopilot and Standard modes and charged in one-second increments. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- Pricing model: A flat per-cluster fee regardless of mode, plus compute — which is where Autopilot and Standard actually differ, Autopilot billing the Pods you request and Standard the nodes you run. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)

### Infrastructure

- Autoscaling: Supported — Autopilot bills the Pods you request rather than the nodes you run ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- Uptime SLA: 99.95% for the control plane of Autopilot and regional Standard clusters; 99.5% for zonal Standard clusters. Autopilot Pods spread across multiple zones carry 99.9%. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/pricing), read 2026-09-15)

## Compared with

- [Google Kubernetes Engine vs Amazon EKS](https://inetgeek.com/compare/amazon-eks-vs-google-gke/)
- [Google Kubernetes Engine vs Azure Kubernetes Service](https://inetgeek.com/compare/google-gke-vs-azure-aks/)
- [Google Kubernetes Engine vs DigitalOcean Kubernetes](https://inetgeek.com/compare/google-gke-vs-digitalocean-kubernetes/)